Mystery solved. The Olympic But NO, the Olympic variety is a horse of a different The object is to throw a ball about the size of a large Ryan predicts an American medal in 2 or 3 Olympic cycles from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vs. Mystery solved. The Olympic sport we chanced across the other day and couldn’t identify was none other than the ever-popular HANDBALL!! Obviously, the reason we had never seen it before is that when, in the past, we heard about … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/handball.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n
\n sport <\/a>we chanced across
\n the other day and couldn’t identify was none other than the ever-popular
\n HANDBALL!! Obviously, the reason we had never seen it before is that
\n when, in the past, we heard about handball, we thought of the American
\n sport of the same name, which we always associate with New York City
\n but which we understand is also popular in California as well as other
\n urbs
\n across the country. Handball brings to our mind sweaty swarthy
\n hard-edged city-dwellers whose hands are constantly calloused and wrapped
\n in fraying
\n once-white athletic tape. It was played on cramped courts carved from
\n the urban landscape; cement, brick, occasionally wood, a poorer relative
\n to swanky squash.<\/p>\n
\n color. Played by teams of 7, it is a crazy combination of basketball,
\n Fulbito and water polo without the water. Bob Ryan, in today’s
\n Boston
\n Globe<\/a>, set us straight and explains the basic rules better than
\n we can. This is undoubtably because he, a true professional, sat through an entire match, which
\n apparently last 90 minutes.<\/p>\n
\n grapefruit with the texture of a volleyball into a goal that is 2 meters
\n high and 3 meters wide. Each team has a goalkeeper and six other players.
\n The goalie, as is the case in other sports, has to be borderline crazy
\n because he has zero protection and must try to stop shots that are thrown
\n very hard from very close. The court is 40 meters by 20 meters, and there
\n is a semicircular line with a diameter of 15 meters that forms a goal
\n area. Only the goalie can be inside that area.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n (we didn’t qualify this time), as soon as we get enough "renegade" basketball
\n and hockey players to sign on, in hopes of Olympic fame and fortune. Good
\n luck.<\/p>\n