My friend, Patrick of Ireland,
is as crazy about hurling
as I am about baseball.
He follows his home town team,
Limerick with a passion
I rise to if my Mets
make it the playoffs.
For the uninitiated,
Hurling is not a reaction to one too many beers,
but a fast-paced 2,000 year old game
which combines the skills of
baseball, field hockey and lacrosse.
There are 15 men on each side
two 30 minute halves of non-stop action.
The ball is carried on a stick (the hurley),
by players running full sped and
then swatted towards the goal,
three points if it lands in the net
and one point if it goes
through the uprights.
Patrick tried to explain to me
the intricacies of the sport.
Could I tell him about the
subtleties of baseball?
We left our discussion
over morning coffee with each telling the other,
“Go home and look at some YouTube videos.”
I did so and was amazed at the action.
Baseball seems played in slow-motion,
left in the dust by comparison.