Jimmy Ludwig and the Game with Sticks...

Out here on the 101D trail, I have the privilege of sharing the stage with a great many tremendous performers and it is truly a joy everyday.  One of said performers is none other than the Incomparable Jimmy Ludwig (Pictured left, with me and Cruella... aka the also Incomparable, Rachel York.) And as I’ve mentioned earlier in this blog, Jimmy is a Michigan guy, who grew up in the Upper Peninsula (or the U.P. if ya hip… or, some would say, Wisconsin :) but he also did his Undergrad (as did many generations of Ludwigs) right down the street from here in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan.  Consequently, of course, Jimmy is a die hard Wolverine and Big 10 guy and, sadly… he seems to be one of a few remaining unfortunate souls who appear to be in denial about the obvious superiority of the SEC over the Big 10, whenever it comes up in conversation.  Now for the first part of that last sentence he can’t really be faulted… he’s pretty much bled Michigan Blue since birth… but the second part is another matter all together… a real head-scratcher.  It is just sad, really.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, Jimmy is a great guy and an amazing performer… but… c’mon!... Jimmy!  It’s the new millennium!!!  Getcha head out the sand, already… geeZe!!!  (This part of the blog could go on forever so I’d better move it along :) Luv ya JLudz!)

Regardless of other ignorances, Jimmy knows Ann Arbor (among other things... mostly about beer and its history… and drinking it :) and he can recommend lots of great restaurants, bars, or just some random cool places to hang out.  He can also recount that most memorable of the good old days in town, when Glen Rice and Big Blue won the NCAA National Title a few years back, and the jubilation that followed in the streets. (Or should I say, the Riots that followed… weeeeell, Jimmy has maintained that he wasn’t involved, that much.)  Anyway, so when Jimmy said that the Lady Underdog and I HAD to get out to Yost Ice Arena on the UM campus to see a Wolverines Hockey Game, I said, “Yea Dogg!  Sounds CooooooL.”

Yost is a throwback.  Completed in November of 1923, it is considered the nation’s first University field house.  It housed UM track teams and basketball teams over the years until it exclusively became a hockey venue in 1973.  Going to a game there is like going back in time a little bit.  Until you look up at the jumbotron of course.  On that beautifully picturesque, snowy campus night when the Lady UnderD and I made it to Yost it was UM against Bowling Green… yup, they have a hockey team!

 Now I love Hockey, and have always had the utmost respect for these guys and what they can do out there on the ice, but since I never really grew up in a place where playing hockey was a thing… it’s just not in my blood.  I’ve tried to follow the NHL but I can’t really ever get into it until the playoffs (IF at all) but LIVE hockey is another thing altogether… SO much fun!  (Although, I almost got killed at the Garden in NYC a few years back when I went with a bunch of my Buffalo homies (what up D???), to watch the Sabres knock the Rangers out of the playoffs in an elimination game.  Those New Yorkers are NUTS!!!... but it was still fun :) 

Anyway, when I hit up a few of my “northern” friends to let them know I was at a Hockey game, I got some props because they know it’s not my sports-viewing-strong-suit.  Well I got some props, but my boy Brian Marino, a Michigan native, simply replied, “Hey that’s great… but don’t you need someone there with you to tell you what’s going on???”  OUCH.

So watching Hockey at the college level is great.  The players are still amazingly skilled, but it’s almost easier to appreciate that skill when it isn’t so many miles above the mere mortal as it is in the NHL.  Also, I had a chance to continue my education as an aspiring sports photographer.  Ugh, I’ve got a long way to go.  But the Lady Underdog has quite the Knack! :)
Ahhhh... hockey.  Soon the US will play Canada for the Gold Medal in the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.  Whoooo will take it??? :)  UnderD's OUT!