April Showers, Part II: Rain of a different kind

Well, it is still raining outside. The sun did come out but it soon disappeared back behind another wall of clouds and the Good Lord has blessed us with rain to feed the Earth (and the grass) to help it provide its fruits. Currently I am monopolizing the technology in our home; the computer/internet and the TV.
While April showers can bring us May flowers (or tornados). There are showers of a different kind that bring a totally different prize that I am perusing on TV. These showers are ones of sweat, blood, and tears. They are showers of Gatorade mixed with spit, trying to quench the thirst that wells up in the pursuit of immortality. They are showers of ice shavings that fly up off the ice as players jockey for position against each other. They are showers of vulcanized rubber that rain down on unkind iron, painted crimson red. These are the showers that lead down the road to the toughest trophy to win in all sport. These are the showers that bring the Stanley Cup.
For those that might not be of the Hockey-savvy type, the Stanley Cup (hereafter referred to as “the Cup”) is the trophy awarded to the team that wins the National Hockey League (NHL) playoffs. It is unique amongst all professional sports trophies because there is only ONE Cup. It began as an ordinary silver chalice given to the winner of an old time hockey league in Canada in the late 1890’s, paid for by Lord Stanley, a wealthy Canadian mogul (and legend has it, a huge hockey fan). The cup was bought by the NHL in the mid 1900’s (Still the same original cup) to be its own trophy, awarded to its playoff champion. The cup traveled with each person on the wining team for one day after they won it then the teams would have to give it back to be passed on to the next team. This tradition continues today, as the bowl of the chalice has carried everything from holy water for baptisms to the best wine or beer a champion’s ransom can fetch.
You may have caught the word immortality in that second paragraph above. If you are wondering why I used that word it is because that each person on the team which wins the Cup, has his name inscribed on the Cup. Since the Cup is a “roaming” trophy, this person will have his name on the cup…well…forever. Today the Cup has many different bands (levels), with each player to win it still etched into sports lore. The cup weighs nearly fifty pounds.
It is considered the toughest trophy in sports to win because for three months (late March to early June) the players endure a “second season” of the most physically intense competition in sports. Check (an upright body slam or simply a hit) after check, shift (a time when you are on the ice) after shift, grinding away at your body. All of this on ice; cold, unbending, unforgiving; played with wooden sticks and a puck of vulcanized hard rubber. Players know what is at stake and they do just about anything to inch their team one step closer to the “Holy Grail” of sports.
So, as the rain continues to fail outside, I will continue to watch the rain fall on my TV, enjoying each and every drop.