LAX ...

On a cool Sunday afternoon in New England, I went outside in the yard to have a catch with my daughter. We did not bring baseball mitts and a ball.

We brought Lacrossse Sticks.

Make that STX.

It was great. We talked and we played. We tossed a lacrosse ball back and forth for about 30 minutes. A few passes went astray and bounced into the street in the front yard.

I thought about the sport of lacrosse and that 'having a catch' or 'playing catch' in the year 2007 was a bit different from the definition of the phrase in say, 1967.

Lacrosse has always been a sport for the East coast. Long Island is certainly a hotbed for the game. In fact, I truly believe that the recent downfall of Long Island basketball is due to the fact that the better athletes are picking up lacrosse sticks. Baseball is even worse off. I read over the weekend that Little League baseball has 400,000 fewer participants this year than in 1999.

Some of the kids are playing Ripken baseball, but many are playing other sports, like basketball and lacrosse.

Girls lacrosse is a ticket to a college scholarship, as so many of the major universities are gearing up, funding and fielding bigtime lacrosse programs. I know first hand, as I have a niece who played on the NCAA Div II champions this spring and a daughter who has a brand new lacrosse stick. She enjoyed teaching her Dad the nuances of the game on a summer Sunday afternoon in New England.