Leta and I rolled up to Baltimore to the Johns Hopkins University to catch the last regular season game of the men's lacrosse team against crosstown rivals Loyola College. Hopkins is the national leader in the polls, and is unbeaten this season, so today's game was more in the way of keeping the team sharp for the post season. There was an alumni parade before the game, and the homecoming king and queen were announced (with very little ceremony) at halftime. What other university arranges homecoming around lacrosse?

Arriving early, we found seats in the second row, behind the home team Blue Jays bench and one row down from a line of knowledgeable parents who would shout things like, "Benson! You're in a line change! Get off the field!" These folks even commended the Loyola Greyhounds goalie who made a couple of good stops at our end. Of course, when the visitors played too slowly, these same moms and dads grumbled about putting a shot clock into the rules.

The game, at $10 per reserved section seat, was a great value. Lacrosse is fast-moving, like ice hockey on astroturf. With 15-minute quarters, even with this afternoon's TV timeouts (the game was carried by ESPN-U), the spectacle was (in the words of David Ives about another David, Mamet), "short, and to the fucking point." Something in the rules that surprised me is that if a player takes a shot on goal and misses cleanly, the ball thus going out of bounds, his team can retain possession. This means that play stays in one end of the field for two to four minutes at a time, and players are not exhausted by chasing up and down the field after every shot. I was puzzled by the strategic importance of long sticks in the hands of some of the midfielders, but a fine introduction to the game by Aaron Melaas put me wise. Melaas also distinguishes the men's and women's games, which helps me out since my alma mater only fields a women's team.

The Greyhounds stayed close in the first half, winning most of the faceoffs, playing cautiously on offense, and hence only trailing 4-3 at intermission. The Blue Jays machine mowed them down in the second half, however, with an unanswered scoring run that turned the contest into a rout. The final score was 12-6 Hopkins, and (as they say) it wasn't even that close.

posted: 10:03:05 PM