Chattering away while I worried if Patrick Ewing’s achilles heel would hold up for the entire NBA season and then wondering why I even cared because the Yankees were in the American League championship series for god’s sake . . .

 

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There are many times when a team can walk off a field with a tie and figure it has accomplished something. Last Wednesday could have been one of those times, when the Newtown High School field hockey team walked off the Bruce Jenner Stadium field with a 1-1 tie against Joel Barlow.

It was a great game, a thrilling game, and probably the best game the two dozen or so fans in the stands had ever seen.

And it was a tie.

Against Joel Barlow, long one of the powerhouses of the (former) Western Connecticut and (current) South-West Conferences. A game against the Lady Falcons had often meant a 3-0, 4-0, or even 5-0 loss for Newtown.

Not last week.

Last week, the Lady Nighthawks played as well as they could have imagined and – especially with the amazing amount of pressure put on the cage – there can be no earthly reason why Newtown didn’t come off the field with a 4-1 win.

No earthly reason.

At any rate, the Lady Nighthawks came off the field with a 1-1 tie and maybe that would have been good enough in the past. But when new coach Kathy Davey seemed a lit bit disappointed after the game last Wednesday, it was because she truly expected her girls to win that game.

How could they not with all the offensive pressure they put out?

But it was still a tie and while ties are okay at times, wins – as well as goals – are much, much better.

Field hockey has long been perceived – at least here in Newtown – as the sport that attracts the athlete who doesn’t want to swim, doesn’t want to play volleyball, and doesn’t want to play soccer. While that perception is most certainly wrong in many cases, it is also right in others.

Coach Davey expected more out of her team last Wednesday because she knows they are capable of more. And that may be the first step on the road to changing perceptions and changing success.

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It is easy to see how any game played at Bruce Jenner Stadium - not just football, but field hockey and soccer, too - is suddenly transformed into something special. A beautiful field, state of the art lights, and a comfortable, well-lit concession stand area.

It is one of the premier high school athletic spots in the state.

Has to be.

Now, if we can just get the building paid off.

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You can say that the National Football League – now 31 teams large and looking to add Houston in two years – has become boring with the paucity of good quarterbacks out there. You can say that many of the players generally don’t belong in football, that the games are boring, that there is just too much bad football out there to make the league as interesting and exciting as it used to be.

But anyone who was watching the Miami Dolphins and the Indianapolis Colts go at it on CBS Sunday afternoon (or the Green Bay Packers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers later that night, for that matter) will realize that there is hope in keeping the faith alive. The Dolphins-Colts game was one of the truly great NFL games with lots of action and (not unlike the Packers-Bucs) a last-minute comeback by one of the game’s greatest heroes.

And I’m not even a Dolphins fan.

Or a Colts fan.

The Giants were on the other channel, getting their brains beat in by the Arizona Cardinals, but at least I knew what game to be watching. And Sunday night I could have been watching the Boston Red Sox slaughter the Cleveland Indians, but that could be no comparison to the comeback by Brett Favre.

Yes, there is hope for the NFL.

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It can’t get better than this, the end of the major league baseball season. Not only are the Boston_Red Sox playing the New York Yankees for the American League championship for the first time since 1978 (I_wonder if Bucky_Dent will be in the building), but the New York Mets are lurking in the National_League shadows.

Don Imus brought it up on Tuesday and it’s a chilling scenario - imagine the Sox making it all the way to the seventh game of the World Series against the Mets and some player botching a routine play that costs Boston the World Series.

Man, what a crushing blow that would be, huh?

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A couple weeks ago I was watching Win Ben Stein’s Money, but don’t ask me why. The questions are impossible. Out of 20, I may be able to answer one and take a vague guess at two others.

But the show is amusing.

So I’m watching it and these three eggheads are answering questions about some unbelievably insignificant moments in history, when the topic gets to sports.

The question? What sport signifies its semi-finals as The Final Four?

Not one of the eggheads could answer the question.

Not one.

And they thought they were so darn smart.