#22 of 351

According to Stadium Journeys, the train station was quite a distance from the arena. I decided to drive into the bowels of Queens instead. A 2 hour ride turned into a 3 hour ride as I was wall-to-wall with cars from the Whitestone Bridge to the arena. I gained a much better appreciation of taking the train into the New York when I can. Fortunately, the ride home was uneventful.

I stopped at the Roosevelt Field Mall for a bite to eat before the game.  This mall is the second largest mall in the state of New York. Much to my surprise, a Johnny Rockets restaurant awaited me. Nothing beats a Johnny Rockets milk shake.  Listening to the news on the way home, I was shocked to hear that there was a stabbing, attempted robbery and gunshots taking place earlier that afternoon in the mall. Folks ran for the exits not quite sure what was happening. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when I was downing my hamburger a couple of hours later.

This was my first time driving through this part of Queens. I noted the names of the cities remembering their names from the NY traffic reports on the Fan (660 AM). Bayside was interesting in the fact that I felt as I was driving through Korea. Seriously, the store signs were predominately in Korean with very little English. Well, I should say Korean, Japanese or Chinese since I can’t tell the difference.

I arrived at the Mack Sports Center about 15 minutes before the game. As I took my first row seat, I look at the scorer’s table and see Jeff Hatheway who doomed UCONN football for many years when he hired Paul Pasqualoni as coach. I googled his name with Hofstra just to be sure it was him. Sure enough, he is the Vice President and Director of Athletics at Hofstra. He moved away before I could thank him for the Coach Paul hiring.

It was a quiet night since the students were away. The arena was bigger than what I was accustomed to for a program Hofstra’s size. I was intrigued by the PA announcer’s voice who was directly in front of me. He has one of those deep sing-song deep voices announcing the players and fouls during the game yet he looked like a small guy. I was almost going to ask him if the microphone was enhanced to make him sound like that.

As has been the case this year with my games this year, the game was not close with Hofstra pulling away early in the second half. In a way, I was kind of grateful for a non overtime game considering the ride I had home. Amazingly, there were a handful of fans from Florida Atlantic in the stands. Looking at the roster, I am guessing they were parents from the NYC schools seeing their kids play.

Hofstra was simply more athletic and wore down Florida Atlantic as the game went on.  I was very impressed with the leaping ability of Hofstra stars Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley.
Stadium Journey : http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/mack-sports-complex-s563