Folinazzo

I love hockey. I have since I was about four years old. I wish I could explain what first drew me to the sport at such a young age. All I can remember is shooting a tennis ball against the hallway door with a hockey stick that was given to me by my mother’s cousin. It was a right-handed stick; I was shooting lefty with it. By the time I hit adolescence, I was consumed by the sport. I knew trivia. I could name players and spew their stats; I could list all professional teams in alphabetical order; I was outside playing street hockey with the neighborhood boys every chance I got. Some of the best memories I have are of going to the Blackhawks games with my father at the old Chicago Stadium. We became season ticket holders when I was in sixth grade; I thought I’d died, gone to heaven, fell back to Earth, and all of my dreams had come true. Then something funny happened when I was about 13 years old. I realized that not only was hockey the most exciting sport in the world, but that the hockey players were pretty darn cute, too. My affinity for hockey soon soared to levels of obsession. There was one player in particular that just made me go ga-ga: Trevor Linden of the Vancouver Canucks. I sent him letters. I got a Canucks jersey with his name and number on the back. I would go insane every time the Canucks played here in Chicago, thinking that “my” Trevor was somewhere in “my” city and I had no idea where! I even waited outside of the old Stadium one very cold March night after a Hawks/Canucks game to get Trevor’s autograph on my jersey. I was so nervous; he looked terrified. Trevor eventually was traded away from the Canucks; I went away to college and became more interested in the hockey players on campus; the old Stadium was razed; and NHL players decided to strike a couple of times. I still loved hockey but the interest just wasn’t there. Until this season. My Blackhawks are playing so well, coached by none other than my all-time favorite Hawk, Denis Savard. I was inspired to write this tonight because the Hawks are playing the Canucks, and Trevor Linden is back with his original team. I’m listening to the game and laughing, thinking about how out of my mind I used to be over him. I’m not nearly as insane as I used to be, although he still is pretty good-looking….

Posted by Francesca

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Ramblings, Wide World of Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.