Sunday, February 18, 2007

You Suck

Went to the third Toronto Rock home game of the season tonight. They played pretty sloppy, and Watson was kind of shaky in the first half. They were down 8-3 at one point and went into halftime losing 8-4, but rookie coach Glenn Clark must have given them some kind of pep talk at halftime. They didn't exactly come out in the 3rd quarter guns-a-blazin', but they did score 4 goals in the third to tie it up. Whipper, and the defense in general, was much better in the second half, only allowing two goals, and the Rock won it 11-10. I love those Rock comeback wins — they had a couple of games last year, both against Philadelphia if I'm not mistaken, where they came back from 8-goal deficits to win the game.

One thing you see (well, hear) at lacrosse games that you don't hear anywhere else (at least, I never have) is the "Sucks" cheer. When the opposing goalie allows a goal, a bunch of people stand up, point to the goalie, chant his name three times, and then yell "YOU SUCK!". The Chicago goalie was Brandon Miller, so tonight's chant went "MILL-er, MILL-er, MILL-er, YOU SUCK!" I suppose it's a little juvenile, but it's all in good fun (otherwise you wouldn't yell it when a goalie allows his fourth goal while your own team's goalie has already allowed eight).

The fans in Philadelphia go one better — in Philly, everyone on the opposing team sucks. Before the game starts, they announce the starting line-ups for each team (don't know why they don't announce the starting lineup for the opponents in Toronto), and after every opposing player's name, the fans yell "SUCKS!" Some players, notably Portland goaltender Dallas Eliuk who played 15 seasons in Philadelphia, hear the "SUCKS!" cheer following their name, immediately followed by applause.

Note: I created all of the Wikipedia pages I linked to above.

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