Hola To All!
 
I assume the weekend of rest coming up is for the NCAA to avoid headon
TV with the basketball final four? I wonder why they just dont adjust
the seasons so this can never happen, or am I mssing something? Perhaps
I was out in the Mexican sun too much last week. ( I was carefully
studying the interaction of solar photons with italian skin cells :-)
 
Just as an interesting sidelight to some of you in college hockey
wastelands, as you know, I believe my town of San Luis Obispo is a prime
example, maybe the best one .... as not a single bar or person I know
has ever dialed in to a game in this town.
 
... now my wife and I took spring break (yes, bad timing, I know, dont
ask) during the week and weekends spanning league tourney finals and the
NCAA regionals.... and I fully expected to be in a worst wasteland in
Puerto Vallarta, MX. Well, not so. The CNN ticker was certainly there,
telling me RPI lost :-(
 
... but one night while strolling along the malecon in luscious 75 F sea
breezes, what did I spy, but a bar on the other side of the street with
hockey on the TV. Well, I figure, NHL for sure.... so I dragged my wife
over (we were thirsty anyway from a long day of doing nothing :-) ....
and had a cold Pacifico, while watching a replay of the MAAC
Iona-Connecticut game, if I recall correctly. Wow!! I couldnt believe it.
 
So I struck up a conversation with the bartender/owner (I speak a little
spanish) ... and he said with all the Canadian snowbird/emigres, he
regularly tunes into hockey.... except when futbol is on. So I asked him
when that is (becasue I mostly saw futbol on all the TVs around town)
and he said, well, during siestas when the local Mexicans are not here
:-) ... he didnt know he had a college game on, but he was interested in
the fact that it was a college sport in the US.... and said he would try
to get the local emigres to watch the NCAA tourney (I told him to watch
the semis and finals on ESPN and the deuce)... so perhaps the seeds of
college hockey have been planted in PV, Mx!!!!
 
One other thing, if any of you are ever driving the highway north of PV
towards Bucerias, look for my white "Rensselaer (no, not RPI) Hockey"
cap .... probably on some little ninos head as it blew off mine during
the return from a truck trek through the jungle :-(
 
Anyway, good to be back in the US of A, and looking forward to the ECAC
moving on in the tourney in the form of St. Lawrence.
 
Tony Buffa
RPI '64
 
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