In a few weeks the spring semester will be come to a close and most of us will be traveling home for the summer, whether that means going five minutes to the airport or five minutes down Route 490 to the suburbs. For athletes the summer is a time of hard training and rededication to sport but for the rest of us sports fans it probably means a hard training of the eye to the instant-replay and a rededication to one’s favorite pin-striped nine, whoever they may be. However, just because we leave Rochester doesn’t mean we have to leave behind Rochester’s professional sports tradition.
It has been my experience that most of the students at UR could really care less about Rochester’s professional sports teams. Call me cynical, but it seems most of the students here could care less about the city of Rochester itself, not even getting to sports. And that is a crying shame, both for the city and for sports, but since this is a sports column I’ll try to stick to the point.
Rochester has some of the oldest and most well-established minor league teams in the country, including the Amerks, who have won the Calder Cup six times and the Red Wings, whose roster has been graced with the likes of Cal Ripken, Jr., Curt Schilling and Eddie Murray among others – yeah, well the operative word there is “minor.” Who cares?
Well, Rochester does have major league lacrosse, the Knighthawks, a team that plays in the same league and the same level of competition with world-class metropolises such as New York, Philadelphia, and Toronto – oooh, lacrosse. Big deal, my home town has a world-class shuffleboard team, you don’t see me bragging.
For some people you just can’t win. We can’t all live within viewing distance of Yankee Stadium or Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park. People like me, well let’s just say we have to get our professional thrills wherever we can and not be picky about it.
So support Rochester sports. Go out and catch a Red Wings game while still in town. Switching affiliation to the Minnesota Twins after 42 years with the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Wings are at the receiving end of a popularity boom thanks to fans hoping that the new parent team will revitalize the sagging roster
