No kids at playoff games unfortunately

I see that I am the lucky recipient of a generous gift of tickets for tonight's Red Wing's playoff game. This really is an unfortunate byproduct of the horrible Michigan economy at the moment. Among other things, the Red Wings have sent emails to targeted customers (I received one) offering tickets at a rather large discount. In the previous series, they offered deals to the opponent's (Columbus) fans as an enticement to come up and catch the game in Detroit. I know the circumstances of these tickets and I do know that these tickets would not have been offered to me free of charge in past years.

Oh well, 7 year old (as of Wednesday) Skate Kid and I are going to the game and this leads me to a baseball/hockey observation.

In 2006, I was lucky enough to attend Game 4 of the Tigers/Yankees playoff series and I went with then 10 year old Computer Boy. While walking around the park before the game, I had this eerie strange feeling. Something was wrong and I just could not put my finger on it. After walking around for about 15 minutes, it dawned on me what it was. There were no (well very few) kids at the game. I think in the playoffs, tickets get so expensive that people (adults) get together with sometimes life-long friends for this once-in-a lifetime (for Tiger fans anyway) experience and the kids just get left out of the picture. I can understand why this happens and frankly kids under the age of 10 or 11 may not appreciate the significance of a playoff game (Computer Boy sure did though) so sometimes it is hard to justify a large dollar expenditure for a ticket for a child who may not appreciate it any more than a regular game and may end up begging to go home early anyway. I get all that but I still like to see kids at the game.

Our family are supporters of the local OHL (Ontario Hockey League) team the Plymouth Whalers. It is a good product at a fair price with the rink just up the road and it is nice to see the NHL stars of tomorrow playing right in front of you in a 4000 seat rink. It also does not hurt that the Whalers have a long history of winning. We catch 12-15 games a year and they are worth every penny.

One thing about the Whalers, do you know who usually starts the "Let's Go Whalers" chants at the games? Yep, the kids.

Skate Kid will need to transition his "Let's go Whalers" chant to a "Let's go Red Wings" chant but I think he can handle that.

Go Wings!