by Bill Tanton - The Evening Sun - 3/27/1987
THEY ARE one of Baltimore’s four professional sports teams, and unlike the others — the Orioles, Blast and Skipjacks — these guys are champeens. These are the men and boys of the Baltimore Thunder, newly crowned champions of the Eagle Box Lacrosse League. So what if they had only a four-team league and a six-game regular season?
So what if the Thunder tied for last place in that? So what if their players are paid only $100 a game — and if that is $14,098 per game less than Eddie Murray will earn with the Orioles this summer? A hundred bucks a game is a hundred bucks more than anybody ever earned playing for Mount Washington or the Maryland Lacrosse Club.
“The guys who play club ball do so at a financial loss,” said the Thunder’s Glenn Norris, a CPA who also plays for the Maryland Lacrosse Club. “Club players have to buy their own sticks. In this league, they let us keep our sticks and uniforms.”
How does a bona fide club stalwart such as Norris feel about playing indoor box lacrosse, which is often demeaned by the purists of traditional lacrosse? “I like it a lot,” he said. “There’s no comparison between the intensity level in this game and the intensity in college lacrosse. This is much more intense.
“I went out to watch the North Carolina-Loyola College game last Sunday. It was so boring I left at halftime. Box lacrosse is much more fun.” These Thunder guys are pros, I tell you, and they are champeens.
If you don’t believe it, look at this week’s Sports Illustrated, the March 30 issue. Page 56. Story written by ex-Baltimorean Franz Lidz, who cut his journalistic teeth on the City Paper. The whole story is about Baltimore’s new champeens and their 11-10 win over Washington last Saturday in the title game at the Capital Centre.
Have you seen the Blast in Sports Illustrated lately? Or the Skipjacks? And if there hadn’t been three Ripkens on the Oriole club a month ago (two now), what would the Orioles have accomplished in the last three years to rate a spread in SI?
I’ve heard field lacrosse types — and, hey, I’m one of them — ask disparagingly if the city is going to throw a ticker-tape parade for the Thunder. Well, the city is going to recognize the Thunder and its championship at a rally next Wednesday, April 1, at noon at Harbor Place.
There was no way the city of Baltimore was going to overlook this. The city and the Thunder are partners.
“In each city,” said Charley Neustadt, director of the Baltimore Arena, “the arena is a partner with the league. In Baltimore, of course, the arena is owned by the city. We provide our support staff and we share in the Thunder’s profits.” Don’t sneer at that word profits. The league drew crowds ranging from 4,000 on a snowy day in the New Jersey Meadowlands to 14,000 in Philadelphia’s Spectrum. Across the board, the league averaged 6,500 per game.
And box lacrosse tickets are more expensive than I thought they would be. “The top ticket here is $14,” said Charley Jenkins, Neustadt’s assistant.
The league is owned by two Kansas City promoters, Chris Fritz and Russ Cline, who, before this winter, would not have known box lacrosse from field hockey. Normally Fritz and Cline promote things like tractor pulls and mud races. Dignified stuff. “Fritz and Cline are smart,” said Neustadt. “They refuse to be carried away by their success. So many new leagues immediately expand to a lot of new cities. The Eagle League will stay at four teams next year.
The only thing that will be expanded is the length of the season. And that will be increased only slightly.” That’s reasonable enough, since the Thunder, counting the playoffs, played only eight games.
Still, box lacrosse is not without its problems. With a wall around the playing surface, there are more injuries than in field lacrosse. Last Saturday Steve Mutscheller suffered a concussion and two Thunder players received shoulder separations.
One of those, Mark Darcangelo, was hurt when he fell into the lower part of the wall. He’s afraid now he’ll miss the entire Maryland Lacrosse Club spring season.
Some players are wondering if it’s worth that for $100. “A few players have told me they think they ought to get a little more money,” says Bob Griebe, the Thunder coach. “Maybe they should. That’s one of the things we have to work out for next season.”
Griebe was not that thrilled with the Sports Illustrated piece. He thought it concentrated too much on the Rambo aspect of the game, not enough on the skills involved. “Box lacrosse,” said Glenn Norris, “is not as rough as it looks. There are injuries in field lacrosse, too.”
Buzzy Sheain, the stocky Thunder goalie and general manager, didn’t care for every word of the SI story, either. “They called me ‘Fridge,'” said Sheain, a one-time hockey goalie who owns and operates the Betty Brite cleaner chain here.
“That’s all right, though. It’s great publicity for the sport.” At least one lacrosse philosopher, Darrell Russell, who has written on the subject, thinks the Eagle League is more than a winter diversion that enables lacrosse players to earn a few bucks.
“This new game is more exciting, faster, more easily followed on TV and more akin to the original Indian game,” said Russell, a 45-year-old lawyer who, as a lark, plays for the Thunder. “I am betting that the time will come in America when box lacrosse will become the real lacrosse, just like in Canada.”
