It's that time of Year!

There is a period of time in the fall, when sports nuts can go crazy, particularly this one. Today, in most places, tickets for the NHL season went on sale. I purchased tickets this morning to see the Washington Capitals take on the New York Rangers at the Verizon Center here in DC. Having grown up in New York, I am a diehard Rangers fan. Even growing up on Long Island, I refused to be a fan of that other New York team, even after their several Stanley Cup wins. Islander fans tend to be fairweather fans, anyway, having created their fan base when they won all those cups, while they now wonder if they even still play hockey on Long Island.

I have vivid memories of going to games in Madison Square Garden to watch the Rangers. I have sat in the "good seats" where you can almost feel the checks being made along the boards. I have sat in the self-proclaimed "family section," the "blue seats," up in the rafters of the Garden, where Rangers are praised and Denis Potvin will always suck, being offered whiskey and Italian pastries by the fans. I toiled along with the Rangers in the 80s, watching dreams of the Cup fade away, and rejoiced in the 90s, when the Cup finally returned to the ice of New York.

Even the Garden is an icon unto itself, playing host to the Rangers and the Knicks, and other sporting events. The circus always stops at the Garden (but that is a story for another day), the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and countless concerts, including Billy Joel, who played a record number of sold out shows there in early 2006. I find it interesting that the "World's most famous arena," as it is often labeled, has never taken on a corporate sponsorship and changed its name. For that matter, ditto for all the sports arenas in the NY area.

Recently, the NHL lost an entire season, when management and players could not compromise. In the sports world, hockey players are grossly underpaid, especially considering the punishment their bodies are put through in a season. I don't begrudge them anything, and feel they should be paid proportionately better than the prima donnas that play on the baseball field.

Which brings me to that time of year again. After purchasing my tickets, I was able to turn on the TV in the afternoon and catch the Yankees and the Red Sox face off in the house that Ruth built, Yankee Stadium. As is right and fitting the Yankees sit atop the AL East with the Red Sox appropriately out of it. The aberration of the Red Sox World Series victory is fading into the past. When I moved to the DC area, I found myself going to Orioles games, particularly when the Yankees would come to Baltimore. It is the only time that Camden Yards would sell out.

When the Nationals arrived in DC from Montreal, I found a new team to root for. I could console myself with a National League team to cheer for, having never been a Mets fan (see the Islanders, above). This season has not been kind to either the O's or the Nats, so it will have to be a chorus of "wait 'til next year" once again.

Of course, football season is also upon us. The Redskins are off to a stumbling start, having lost every pre-season game and the first game of the season. They face the Cowboys tomorrow in Dallas. I have also secured tickets for a Giants-Redskins game at FedEx Field in DC on December 30.

So for the next few months, the days will grow shorter, the weather will turn crisp with the advent of fall, and sports fanatics can enjoy the overlap of seasons as "the Boys of October" take the field for the World Series, the gangs of the gridiron will battle each week, and men with sticks will lace up the skates to face off against one another for another season of the NHL. Enjoy!