In Praise Of The Pre-Game Warmup

As a high schooler in 2015, Alex Kirilloff once swatted 8 consecutive home runs in a pre-game batting exhibition at Petco Park in San Diego.

 By Harry Cummins

     If you rarely pay attention to those often ignored pre-game rituals next time you attend your favorite sporting event, you just might be doing your self a major disservice.

     When the Seattle Kracken took to the ice last week for their first ever game as an expansion member of the National Hockey League, I proceeded to watch Morgan Geekie score a pair of nifty goals in the Kraken's inaugural win.

     For me, my mind immediately reverted to a pre-game warmup 5 years earlier in Portland, Oregon, when the now 23 year-old Geekie was then a member of the Western Hockey League's Tri-City Americans. I have never forgotten the dazzling stick handling drill Geekie showed off in the pre-game shoot-around.  It mesmerized me and the other fortunate spectators who bypassed the obligatory trip to the concession stand or idle pre-game chatter.... in order to witness what we seldom watch..sports warmup drills.

    I was now able to better understand why the Kraken seem to always position the agile Geekie in front of the opponent's net most of the night.

    I also recall years earlier, watching a 6'5 shooting guard from Montana State, Tyler Hall, perform similar pre-game magic.   Hall was the Big Sky Conference all -time leading scorer and one of the top 3-point marksman in NCAA history with 431 made 3's.   This past summer, he was a member of the New York Knicks Summer League team. Back then, he was a key member of the Montana State basketball team.

     In the Bobcats pre-game team warmups that night, I noticed Hall began to shoot nothing but three's, one after the other. After he made several in a row, I began  to start counting.  When the game time buzzer sounded for teams to clear the floor, my count had reached 41.  I could count the missses on one hand.  I don't remember anything else about the actual game that night.

     Perhaps my most memorable pre-game activity occurred on a Sunday afternoon when a high school baseball player, Alex Kirilloff, used a batting practice exhibition before the annual Perfect Game All-American Classic, to deposit EIGHT consecutive balls into the distant right field seats at Petco Park in San Diego.  Kirilloff is now a member of the Minnesota Twins and a big part of their future plans.

     So the next time you plan to only pay attention at game time, know that you might miss moments you will never forget. That pre-game hot dog could cost you a lot more than advertised.

hcummins@aol.com