Lacrosse game recasts a staid sports mosaic

The most entertaining, dramatic sports moments of the long Memorial Day weekend took place near the end of a college lacrosse game.

What was I doing watching lacrosse? Witnessing an instant classic, that's what.

In the NCAA men's championship game Monday afternoon, Syracuse made up a three-goal deficit against Cornell in the last four minutes, tying the score after a wild, improbable scramble resulted in a shot that creased the net with only 4.5 seconds on the clock.

Then, before anyone could catch their breath, Syracuse scored again in sudden-death overtime.

The animated scene of spirited, desperate lacrosse players running, diving and hitting one another created a stark contrast to the way NASCAR's big Memorial Day event concluded, with drivers sitting around watching it rain before a winner was declared with almost half the laps yet to be run.

That's racin', but it isn't sporting. It's like declaring a tennis player the winner after a set and two-games all.

There was nothing halfway or unresolved about the lacrosse final. Those of us who saw the ending on TV know we witnessed something very special. If a Final Four basketball game, BCS title game or Super Bowl were won that way, it would be burned into America's psyche for years to come.

But because it was lacrosse - a niche sport - it will have to settle for being a YouTube favorite cherished by a small group of devoted fans.

We accept that there is a caste system among our sports, a pecking order that has nothing to do with pedigree, level of difficulty or the athletic prowess of the participants.

It's a system that makes it impossible for a lacrosse player to be remembered for "the shot heard 'round the world," or any lacrosse championship, no matter how thrilling, to be called "the greatest game ever played."

Admiration was earned by the athletes responsible for the Syracuse-Cornell fireworks, but even major talents in one of our so-called minor team sports aren't often eligible for the cultural hype and myth-making that embroiders our designated major sports. Fair? No. But it's the way it is.

Many spring sports - and the athletes who play them - are crocuses in the gardens of our collective consciousness, here and gone almost before we notice their brilliant display.

ESPN's need to fill broadcast hours creates programming most of us probably don't go out of our way to watch: lacrosse, more softball than the Geneva Convention allows, and postseason college baseball.

Some relatively underexposed pro sports are allowed their moments in the sun, too, as the French Open and the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing vie for our divided attention - spring flings compared to our long-term relationships with big league baseball, the NBA playoffs and the NFL.

ESPN's upcoming coverage of the College World Series aside, we take for granted that college baseball is a relatively undiscovered sport, even though - like its better-connected cousins, basketball and football - it also produces the pros and household names of tomorrow.

It's probably not worth asking how it came to pass that one sport - America's pastime, no less - gets short shrift compared with other college pursuits. We're so accustomed to the pecking order that nobody really wonders.

I suppose it has to do with history - the way each sport developed from the larval stages. Baseball began as a sandlot game and quickly entrenched itself as a crass professional operation, whereas the growth of football and basketball is traditionally linked to campus life.

Lacrosse occupies its own rarefied world, but where it fits into the sports mosaic is open for review while the memory of Syracuse's exhilarating comeback remains fresh.

Some crocuses prove to be more resilient than others.

Bob Molinaro, (757) 446-2373, bob.molinaro@pilotonline.com