We drove into Denver not paying attention to the rocky background of the…well, of the Rockies, but rather fiddling with the radio dial.  It seems that, for some reason, none of the NBA Playoffs have been on radio this year, so after a fruitless search my wife called J.J. and had him direct us to Denver’s ESPN Radio, to listen for Lakers updates.  I do not know the name of the show on at that point, but oh—my—God was it bad.  It was a one man show, and the host proceeded to spend a half hour analyzing NBA jerseys before moving in to an agonizingly slow analysis of what it must be like to shoot a wide open jumper in the NBA.  “And he……… shoots the ball, but……….. it misses, and so all his teammates…………. are like, ‘But you were wide………….. open.'”  Et cetera.  Here’s a fun experiment: read that last passage out loud, but count five seconds of silence every time you see the ellipses, and try to imagine getting paid for what you’re doing.  Happy to hear that the Lakers were up (when the guy finally got to the score), we turned the radio off in disgust, feeling much better about SportsNight.

Lakers victory secured, we hit the most famous sports attraction in the Mile High City: namely, Mile High field (or Invesco Field at Mile High, which I never understood…what does at Mile High mean?).  Of all the stadiums I’ve seen in person, Mile High is by far the nicest (though I have admittedly not seen Lambeau, so I’m probably not qualified to talk).  The colors of the stadium match the team’s uniforms, its design somehow blends in with the mountains behind it, and the sculptures of the leaping Broncos jumping up a river outside is pretty sweet.  We also learned a surprising fact about the stadium from a nearby billboard: apparently, Mile High isn’t just host to the Broncos, as it also serves as the home field for a professional lacrosse team, the Denver Outlaws.  Much to my greater, Google-happy surprise, the Outlaws aren’t even Denver’s only pro lacrosse team, as the Colorado Mammoth also make their home in the Mile High City (they play in the Pepsi Center, home to the Nuggets).

Denver, which is one of my favorite cities, seems to have one of the more complete sports packages to offer incoming citizens, with MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA teams along with MLS, AFL, and the aforementioned lacrosse teams.  Two of them.  Two!  

New factoids, aside, I found that new knowledge was distracting me less and less from a nagging sense of homesickness that was taking root in my car.  Denver was so close (we’d driven more than 10,000 miles at that point), but it still felt so far away from Southern California, from my home and my friends, none of whom have ever had to resort to watching professional lacrosse.  That I know of.