commadore183

I'm a member on a motorsports forum, and some of the members there have been posting updates on the track construction. Seems like the track is about ready for paving and they are putting up grandstands on the main straight. It's going to be North America's first purpose built F1 circuit. Should be exciting when/if they turn off the start lights come November (there seems to be a bit of a dispute between the race promoters and Formula One Management over the contract of the event, but it seems to be resolved or about to be resolved).

Of the North American sports, its obviously a toss-up between the NFL and NHL. Don't forget the inclement weather that some of those playoff games are played in.....brrrrr!

Overall though, I think it would be hard to top the Tour De France. 21 stages in 23 days, 150km+ in the saddle everyday, in baking heat and freezing rain, up the sides of enormous mountains, then down the other side at 50, 60, 70mph with no protection, occasional motorists. Broken collarbones are to professional cyclists what missing teeth are to hockey players.

FTFY

Hardest? Depends on how you define "hard".

If by quantity of games, then baseball is the hardest: 162 games plus the best of 5 round and the two best of 7 rounds, totaling a maximum of 181 games; it's pretty hard to stay on it for that many games. The large number of regular season games makes it a bit easier to get in as you have a margin of error the width of the Grand Canyon. It's a bit more of a grind than most here think it is.

If by quality of games, then football has it: 16 regular season games, plus a maximum of 4 playoff games, totaling 20; in the regular season, two or three bad games can see you on the outside looking in, and if you do get in the playoffs, it just takes 1 bad half to kick you out of it.

If by physically, then both the NHL and NFL are at the top, but with less games to play in the NFL, there's a smaller margin of error than in the NHL.

I'm not going to get into motorsports (mainly because there's so damn many kinds, plus everyone will just skip past this section so Awesome Makey Whoopsie Brown Trousers).

Objectively, it's probably the NFL's Vince Lombardi Trophy is the hardest to get: short regular season (small margin of error to make the playoffs), a win-and-advance playoff season (an even smaller margin of error), and the physicality of the sport makes it the hardest of the North American sports.

Lidstrom's name will be said in the same tone as other names like Gretsky, Orr, Sawchuk, Brodeur, Yzerman, Messier, among others: respect. The have all brought something to the league that raised it up to the level that it is at.

Lidstrom was a defenseman that just had the intimate knowledge of hockey and a sort of omniscience of where everyone is and what will happen next and counter any moves. He is like Bobby Fischer, he can out-think his opponents, and used minimal amounts of effort to counter, thus his long playing career.

His impact on hockey will be felt long, long after he's left it, and that is probably the best tribute to him than any statue, award, or speech given about him.

I love Minecraft. It is pretty addicting and you can lose yourself in it for hours. Here's a pretty good review on Minecraft:

http://www.escapistm.../2680-Minecraft

I prefer Survival mode as I like to work to get the materials I need for a project, whether a castle, a town, or a floating fortress.