Learn it. Love it. Lacrosse: hockey's older brother—rich in history, with an upstart pro league bent on delivering a game fans of all sports will embrace—is worth getting to know

Sporting News, The, June 2, 2003 by Mike Kilduff

Try this trick question on your friends: What's the original national sport of Canada? Hint: It helped make Wayne Gretzky "great."

The answer? Lacrosse, the national sport from 1859 until 1994. (It's now the national summer sport; hockey is the official winter sport.) The best hockey player of all time credits lacrosse for fostering the skills that made him The Great One. Many other NHL stars skate with skills they forged in box lacrosse, played in hockey rinks where the ice has melted in the summer.

North America's first-born sport, conceived in the 15th century by Native Americans, is entering a new heyday with the rise of Major League Lacrosse, a six-team professional outdoor league in the northeastern United States. MLL, with the best players in the world on its rosters, began its third season May 31 and, not wanting to rush its growth, is plotting a West Coast expansion for 2005.

"This is a game that has history. It has culture. And the fans are ravenous for it," says MLL founder Jake Steinfeld, best known as the CEO of Body by Jake Enterprises. "We have a product that's been around since before baseball, and here's an opportunity to really make this thing work."

According to U.S. Lacrosse, about 300,000 people participate nationally on an organized level, and that number is growing by 10 to 15 percent each year. MLL hopes to seize upon that grass-roots activity, and it has broken through with a corporate partnership with ESPN, which will broadcast the MLL Game of the Week for the next two seasons.

MLL has tweaked the ancient game to cater to a 21st-century audience. As if hard-rubber balls whizzing around at 90 to 100 mph while bodies crash into each other was not enough, MLL adds rocket fuel with a 45-second shot clock plus the high-scoring element of a 2-point shot.

"We captured everything that we wanted to capture--a fast pace, high speed, hitting, lots of scoring--and the fans got into it," Steinfeld says. "We found out very early that they loved the product."

Even if it took them a while to realize it was there to be loved.

MLL's top five stars

1 Greg Cattrano, goal, Baltimore Bayhawks. Like an ace pitcher in baseball, he's a game-changer. When he's on, he gives Baltimore a three- or four-goal advantage.

2 Casey Powell, midfield, Rochester Rattlers. He demands a double-team because he can't be stopped in a one-in-one situation.

3 Roy Colsey, midfield Bridgeport Barrage. An old-school player with a wicked competitive temper and energy.

4 Mark Millon, attack, Baltimore Bayhawks. Has blinding speed and a great finishing component. His game keeps evolving every year.

5 Christian Cook, defense, New Jersey Pride. As a one-one-one defender, he doesn't have a peer in the league.

--MLL broadcaster Quint Kessenich

ReLAX and enjoy the game

Joe Beninati, play-by-play man of the NHL Capitals and MLL games on ESPN, offers what to watch for when the game is on TV:

* Faceoffs are so important, but don't watch the two in the middle of the faceoff. Look at the big guys on the wing who are so good at picking up the ground balls.

* Long sticks, or close defenders as they're called, are big, brawny bruisers. If you want to see big and fierce collisions, watch these guys around the crease.

* Watch how the best MLL shooters always try to use defenders for screens, just like in hockey. At this level, the goalies are so good that if they see the shot, they will stop it.

Goalies: Aliens in their own worlds

Just like their wacky brethren on ice, lacrosse goalies are of a unique mind-set even within their sport. When and offense wants to fire a hard-rubber projectile from Point A to Point B, goalies willingly stand in harm's way.

Rick Dudley, general manager of the NHL Panthers and both a former pro hockey and former pro lacrosse player:

"As crazy as you needed to be to play goalie in hockey, you needed to be equally or more so in lacrosse because there was another element added to it--not only was that thing hard and fast coming at you, but now it could originate from a place other than off the ground. So it could take all kinds of hops.... I had a hard shot; I think they timed my throwing a lacrosse ball at over 100 mph. And that thing is heavy--very, very heavy--so got hit by it, it hurt. So, goaltenders have to be a different breed."

Dave Morrow, co-founder of MLL, former NCAA and Team USA lacrosse player and a former hockey player:

"What the goalie in lacrosse wears compared to the goalie in hockey is absurdly different. Even in indoor lacrosse they dress like hockey goalies, with a huge chest protector and huge gloves. The best field lacrosse goalie in the world is probably Greg Cattrano, and this guy wears a chest protector as thick as a daily newspaper, a pair of gloves, a cup and that's it. No knee protection, no leg protection, no arm protection and no extra shoulder protection. Mentally, there has to be something a little different for you to be willing to stand in front of a 100-mph shot with such minimal pads."

CROSSE EXAMINATION

Stick dimensions for Major League Lacrosse: