Thursday, June 07, 2007

 

Anaheim: Center of the Sports Universe??


Ahem.

All right, we all know that Our Man in LA likes him some sports, and that he doesn't follow hockey as religiously as he follows some of the others. Maybe it's because it's the only major pro sport that didn't make it to Ohio during my childhood. Maybe it's because the hockey team in Chicago . . . well, suffice it to say that the Wolves minor league hockey franchise regularly outsold the NHL Blackhawks franchise.

And the LA Kings, well . . . do they play anymore?

More to the point, I've never known how to feel about pro hockey in places outside the major Canadian cities and the Northeast and Rustbelt towns of the US. Does Florida or Phoenix hockey really sound right? Discuss amongst yourselves.

But now there's a new Hockey Town in . . . town . . .

Doesn't sound right, either, does it?

Whatever. Here's the deal. Just two days after Our Woman in LA, her family, and I ventured to Anaheim to watch baseball's Angels put a 16-3 beatdown on the Minnesota Twins, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks (see above) won the Stanley Cup, defeating a team from Ottawa, which happens to be the capital of Canada, where hockey is the national pasttime.

Eat that, Mounties!

For the record, the Ducks don't use the above logo anymore. They use one that's about as manly as you can have for a team called the Ducks. They don't use Mighty in their team name anymore, either.

But tonight, hockey fans, as they raise the Stanley Cup and celebrate being the first West Coast team to win the cup since 1925*, they are mighty indeed.

So viva Anaheim, Center of the Sports Universe! No longer do your teams take a backseat to those in LA proper! Your baseball is better, and your hockey. One day, maybe you'll have football and basketball . . . but for now, you're just as good by having nothing at all.

Go Ducks!

* - the last West Coast team to win the cup, FYI, was the Victoria Cougars (logo not available), located in Victoria, British Columbia. It's north and west of Vancouver. That's Vancouver. In British Columbia. In Canada. North of the U.S. That's the United States. Sigh. Stupid education system!

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