CAMP WRAP PART V - CAMP WRAP!

Yes there was football. But camp offers so much more …

What do you do when the hot Florida sun beats down and you don't have the protection given by one of Ray Willey's many colourful beanie hats? (seen here comparing notes with Jack Bicknell)

You go the Ice Palace for starters! This beautiful arena in downtown Tampa is home to the NHL's Lightning and Arena Football's Storm.

The wonderful game of hockey where you watch grown toothless men fight and slug each other on ice without the threat of police intervention. It's a beautiful sport. But alas the Lightning are not beautiful and became the 1^st team in NHL history to lose 50 games for 4 straight seasons. We saw the Buffalo Sabres take them 4-2, and then a few days later saw the hated New York Rangers beat them 4-3 in overtime.

Play Ball! Major league baseball opened during the last week of camp and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (based in St. Pete) are another inspired bunch of losers having never had a winning season! (They are only 4 years old however). They started the season pretty well beating the Toronto Blue Jays 8-1, but then the Jays came back the next two nights beating them 11-8 and then a resounding 11-0! The 11-0 debacle was a comedy of errors literally as the Rays committed 5 fielding errors which is just plain horrible!

Back at the Ice Palace it was time for some pre-season Arena Football and it was a grudge match between the Storm and their arch rivals the Orlando Predators. When the smoke cleared the Storm had prevailed 55-50 with a TD in the closing seconds. This is a fun game if you love offense because that's all there is! Orlando had some familiar faces in Kenny McEntyre and David Barnard. Barnard was the famous ex-Claymore DL who managed to play a whole season in Europe without the aid of a passport! Apparently Arenaball doesn't pose these problems.

And after all the ball games and fist fights there really is only one place to go in Florida if you need a cold beer and hot wings!