Gary BUTTERWORTH Online

Novemeber 09-11, 2002

In 8th grade, minor league hockey was my life. I thought it was neat that for a few dollars, I could get a seat in a small arena in a small town and watch great hockey players before they became superstars. Then it occured to me that if minor league hockey was cool, major junior hockey would be even cooler. Instead of watching the second highest level of pro hockey in the world, I could watch the world’s best amateur hockey and see future superstars while they were still in high school. I decided that I wanted to go to a game. But I lived in NJ, and the closest team was in Erie, PA, a good 8 hours away. No one was willing to take me, so seeing a major junior hockey game would have to wait.

When I got to Syracuse, I was pretty excited because my school is only about a two hour drive from Kingston, Ontario, home of the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs (if, by any chance, you happen to know what a Frontenac is, please e-mail me). How hard could it be to get to a game?
Well, apparently, pretty hard. Not too many people here are into junior hockey. I guess that’s pretty understandable. Most college kids probably have better things to do than drive two hours to watch some 15 years olds play hockey. And unfortunately, although the Greyhound bus goes through Kingston, it goes via Toronto. By taking that route, a two hour car ride can take up to 15 hours by bus. Needless to say, as devoted to the hound as I am, Kingston wasn’t an option.

There are actually a few junior hockey teams closer to Syracuse than Toronto is, but to get to any of them by bus, you have to go through Toronto. So it became pretty obvious to me that to junior hockey game, I should focus on Toronto.

Fall break 2003 came around, and the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors were at home. This was my chance! I was off from work, so Thursday night I packed my bags, set my alarm, and got up to head off to the true north strong and free. But when I called to make reservations, every hostel in the city was booked. Foiled again!

A few weeks later was parents weekend. I showed up to work at Kimmel Food Court at 11pm just like I would on any Friday night, only to be sent home for no apparent reason. Maybe this was my chance!
I got home around midnight and 12 hours later I was on a bus to Toronto!

It was dark when I got off the bus in TO, and to be honest, stepping off the bus was one of the weirder experiences of my life. For the first time ever, I was completely alone, in the second largest city I had ever been to, in a province I had never been to before in a (not-so-)foreign country. That was pretty intimidating, but after a tense 45 seconds, I regained my wits and nothing could have removed the smile from my face. After wandering around somewhat aimlessly for a while, I finally found the hostel I had reservations for. I checked in, then headed back out for more aimless wanderings around the city.

Call me anti-social, but there are some things that are better to do by yourself. Aside from the honorable mentions, this is the only item on this list that I did by myself. And while I loved hanging out with and getting to know other people in the cases of the other items on this list, going to Toronto by myself made the trip. It gave me so much freedom to do whatever I wanted to do whenever I wanted to do it. I wandered around pretty aimlessly, taking in the sites, sounds, and tastes (I feel comfortable saying that Toronto has the best street vendors in the world) until it was too late and I went back to my room. I can’t imagine anyone else wanting to put up with me for my whirlwind tour, and I’m glad no one had to.

I got up early on Sunday morning, had breakfast at a Tim Horton’s (I like trying new regional chain restaurants), and took the subway to St. Michael’s College School Arena to see the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors take on the Kitchner Rangers. I was about to do something that I had wanted to do for six years, and I did it all by myself (considering that, I found it ironic but pleasantly surprising that I still qualified for a child’s ticket to the game). Even before the teams took the ice, I was proud of my accomplishment.
It should have been a good game, considering both teams were very high in the standings. But it wasn’t. The Mikes got shut out, something like 9-0. I was disappointed, but I still had a great time. It was exactly what I had always pictured junior hockey to be like: a small, old building designed solely for hockey, with a small but very loyal crowd. I sat next a 60 year old guy. Stereotype all you want, and imagine sitting next to a 60 year old guy at a junior hockey game in Canada. That’s exactly what it was like, and I loved it.
I wore my Hershey Bears jersey to the game. The Bears had a goalie, Peter Budaj, who had played in Toronto the season before, so a bunch of people came up to me and commented on my jersey. Most were pretty surprised that I came up all the way from “the States” just to so go to an OHL game. I guess that is pretty unusual.
When I visit a new place to see a game, I like it when I get to meet some of their local fans, and I got to meet quite a few that afternoon. I have to say, out of all of the places I’ve visited to see sporting events, the Majors fans were the friendliest.

After the game, I spent the remainder of the afternoon, evening, night, and early morning wondering around downtown Toronto seeing as much as I possibly could. Of course I had to take the trip up to the top of the CN Tower, and I also got to take a peek at Maple Leaf Gardens, Speakers Corner, Sam the Record Man, and some other Toronto landmarks. I grabbed a slice at Pizza Pizza. I kept on wandering, but when someone approached me and asked if I had any weed and then 10 minutes later somebody tried to sell me rolling papers, I decided that it was probably best to head back to the hostel and get ready for my bus back to Syracuse the next morning. I was skipping my Geography class, but I still had to be back by 5pm to direct the news.

Now admittedly I didn’t have much time in Toronto. Had I known in advance that I didn’t have work on Friday night, could have left for TO on Friday morning instead of Saturday morning, and I could have found someone to fill in for me at the TV station so that I could have spent all day Monday seeing the sites. I could have toured the CBC, like I REALLY wanted to do and I could have eaten at a Mr. Sub (remember what I said about regional chain restaurants?). But my manager didn’t give me that opportunity, and considering that, I think I had a pretty amazing time, and I’m proud of that. In fact, I had so good of a time that this qualifies as my third best memory from my time in Syracuse.