Soldier Field's Newest Sport? Lacrosse

Now you have an excuse to watch lacrosse

By EAMONN BRENNAN

Updated 12:10 PM CST, Wed, Mar 18, 2009

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Lacrosse isn't exactly a Midwestern thing. Every once in a while we see it on ESPN2, or something, and we might pause on a lazy Saturday afternoon to catch a game, but more often than not lacrosse's outposts are confined to the coasts. It's especially true in the East, which somehow seems to produce every good collegiate lacrosse team, year after year.

But that doesn't mean we're immune to lacrosse gimmicks here. We happen to love all sports gimmicks. (In many ways, everything about sports is a gimmick, but that's a philosophical conversation for another time.) Anyway, when we hear about lacrosse being played in Soldier Field, our ears perk up. And we didn't even know pro lacrosse existed:

The Chicago Machine and the Chicago Park District announced Tuesday that the professional lacrosse team will play two home games at Soldier Field, including its home opener on May 30. [...] "Many of us are used to playing in large stadiums with thousands of fans from our college careers. To bring the pro game to Soldier Field with a chance to shine before a huge home crowd is a great opportunity for our team and our sport," said Machine co-captain and all-star Kevin Leveille.

This knowledge raises so many questions. Like: What do Major League Lacrosse players make? (If it's anything like Major League Soccer, not much.) How many teams are there? (Five in the U.S. and one in Canada.) When was someone going to tell us about this? (You write about sports in Chicago for a living. You should have known already.) Quiet down, parenthetical us.

Anyway, now all we have to do is learn the rules of lacrosse and feign an interest, and we can spend a few cheap hours in May in Soldier Field. Sounds pretty great, right?

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger who likes it when they use the little net to throw the ball into the bigger net. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, FanHouse, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.