The sporting news The Ocean State offers its own distinctive complement of athletics BY ALEXANDER PROVAN AND WILLIAM ST. JAMES SMITH
	ROOKIES GUIDE 2004 Fresh flavor A newcomer's reflections on Providence's idiosyncratic appeal BY BEN YASTER Land of chow Small in size, Rhode Island is rich in appealing cheap eats BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ The sporting news The Ocean State offers its own distinctive complement of athletics BY ALEXANDER PROVAN AND WILLIAM ST. JAMES SMITH Getting religion With several less familiar faiths, Rhode Island remains a bastion of spiritual freedom BY JESSICA GROSE

Regardless of whether you’ve turned on a television or looked at a newspaper recently, it would be hard to deny that we live in an age of sport. Although it’s not the same as in Ancient Greece, sports still provide distraction from everyday life and an outlet, perhaps, for the primal urges that must be repressed to maintain a civilized society. And it remains an arena in which physical prowess and success in competition can still elevate a man or woman from poverty and obscurity, nowadays to the front of thousands of billboards, magazines, cereal boxes, and beer-stained XL T-shirts.

Sports today, like every product, span the spectrum of the consumer market, from polo and cricket for the leisure class and Burberry-clad Cape Cod Anglophiles to cock fighting and bowling for the less well-heeled. This said, Rhode Island has a few sports of its own, or at least a few varieties as emblematic of the city as donuts and shouts of "Free Buddy." If you’re just moving here, skip the centers of commerce in favor of a Providence Bruins game. Take a walk along the river, but not if the Friars are playing. When the Olympic hopefuls come home with their heads hung low, respectively embarrassed on the ping-pong table and shooting range by the Chinese and Russians, we can all find solace in the sweet smells, colorful language, and financial dreams of greyhound racing at Lincoln Park — one American industry that will never be outsourced.

GREYHOUND RACING

Betting on greyhound racing is like watching fairly good pornography. It’s exciting for the first couple of minutes, but then the spectacle becomes repetitive and the boredom sets in, followed shortly by the mild sense of shame. Unlike most porno — where you know you’re going to see what you’ve paid for — there’s also the added anger and frustration when a greyhound race is over of knowing that you’ve blown your paycheck by misjudging the ability of a dog called "Naughty Skyler."

There’s nothing like a shot of money to inject unbridled emotion into an otherwise inane evening of watching dogs running around in circles. Indeed, the greyhound track is the only sporting venue where it is quasi-acceptable to loudly curse out a pooch for running like a pussy. Despite the monotony of the racing, the complaints of animal-rights activists, and the omnipresent sense of downtrodden ennui that hovers around the racetrack, the lure of a big win still attracts a lively crowd of heavy smokers, mostly from the 45-and-up set. Lincoln Park, the only venue for greyhound racing in Rhode Island, is not a great place to take kids, but it does have its own Dunkin’ Donuts and allows smoking in the betting concourse.

The greyhound action takes place every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at Lincoln Park. 1600 Louisquisset Pike, Lincoln. Call (800) 720-PARK for race times. To adopt a greyhound, contact the Greyhound Protection League at (800) G-HOUNDS.

PROVIDENCE BRUINS HOCKEY

Hockey may be as close as North Americans get to combining British high culture with Ancient Greek barbarism. The thirst for blood and sportsmanship, the duel heritage of tea-sipping imperialists and vicious gladiators, a night with the family yelling insults at anonymous padded men in a freezing arena — all have been readily accessible to Providence hockey fans since the Bruins, an American Hockey League affiliate of the Boston Bruins, hit Rhode Island ice in 1992. Last year, a young Black and Gold roster fell in its first qualifying round series. Bruins management nonetheless assures that this year’s team will surely be the best yet, and despite the loss of center Matt Herr to the Dusseldorf Metro Stars, fans whose eyes are good enough and blood-alcohol level low enough will still follow the puck.

Hockey is perhaps the sport most closely connected with winter in New England, and the spirit of our ancestors — gruff, bellicose, fiercely independent, but ultimately reliant on the core principles of solidarity and aversion to puck-hogging. E-mail pbruin@earthlink.net to join the Bruins’ booster club — a modern day microcosm of Roger Williams’s Providence Plantations — which, according to the group, offers the chance to participate in meet-and-greet sessions, miniature golf tournaments, discount travel to Bruins away games, and to receive birthday cards from the players.

The Bruins 2004-05 season begins October 15 and ends April 17. Home games are played at Dunkin’ Donuts Center, and tickets are available at the box office, (401) 273-5000.

JAI ALAI

All true Rhode Island sportsmen shed a tear on July 16, 2003, when the last sanctioned jai alai (pronounced, "High-Lie") match in Rhode Island took place at the fronton inside Newport Grand.

It is still too early to understand the surreal chain of events that transformed a traditional Basque sport from the rural Pyrenees into a New England gambling phenomenon during the 1970s. What we do know, however, is that this sport — similar to squash, but played with strange banana-shaped baskets instead of rackets, and handmade goat skin balls — enchanted Rhode Islanders for 28 years with its intoxicating blend of exotic accouterments and dizzying ball speeds. It helped, of course, that for a long time, the fronton was one of the only legal ways in which to gamble.

Jai alai was unique in the world of sport because of its unequivocally encouraging stance toward gambling. Most sports try to restrict gambling for fear of corrupting the players, relegating the bookies to heavily regulated off-track betting parlors or Nevada. It must have been hard on the jai alai players’ sense of idealism to know that their sport was subsidized entirely by betting. But to anyone who ever saw a jai alai match, particularly the youth of Newport, the athletes proved themselves every time they entered the fronton, shunning suggestions of suspect behavior to bring a beautiful Basque tradition to life right here in southern New England.

Rhode Island jai alai is dead. Long live Connecticut jai alai.

SURFING

If sport is a search for fraternity and access to the rewards promised by the more primal elements of humanity, surfing is hardly a sport. It promises, alternatively, communion with nature — physicality without much sweat or blood. Stoners don’t fight, they float. Since the Newport City Council voted in 2001 to allow surfers access byremoving "surfing prohibited in certain areas" from the city’s statutes, Rhode Island’s surf spots — the local chapter of the National Surfrider Foundation identifies 33 — have increasingly accommodated those who dream of the West Coast. The best spots are rocky bottom reef breaks away from popular beaches, though beginners should try the easy waves at Newport’s sandy beaches.

Unfortunately, surfing in Rhode Island can be a little like downing mouthwash to get drunk. One local rider, Dan Schliefer, points out how there is no consistent swell —pulses of water send inland by offshore weather systems — in Rhode Island. Unlike in California, the spots west of the Narragansett Bay can be "totally flat one day and then ‘go off’ the next day and then be flat again" the day after, making constant trips to various online weather reports necessary.

Schliefer says his favorite beach is Matunuck — "It’s mostly older dudes on long boards . . . Plus, there’s a great bar called the Ocean Mist." But beginners beware: Rhode Island surfers will not be happy if, after spending the last month treading baby waves, they catch you in their path on the rare day when the waves are prime.

The Beach Boys never learned to surf. Show them up: take lessons, and talk to the locals at Gansett Juice Surf Shop in Narragansett (401) 789-7890.

PAWSOX BASEBALL

With the regional heartbreak resulting from the 2003 playoff loss of the Red Sox to the Yankees, and the more recent back-and-forth from Nomar’s departure — not to mention the salary excesses of major league baseball — watching the Pawtucket Red Sox, the top minor league team of the big club, can be a welcome change. There’s something comforting and old-fashioned about minor league baseball: admission prices are low, Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium is well within easy reach, and PawSox fans don’t have to worry about the stuck up Yankees ruining everything. Arguably, minor league baseball is more fun to watch, too. Everyone on the field is dying to make it to the majors (indeed, Kevin Youkilis has impressed during his time in Boston this summer), so you won’t see the lazy stroll of a left fielder with an eight-figure salary. Instead, every player has a wicked hustle and — lest this turn into a Kevin Costner movie — harbors visions of getting some time in at Fenway.

These are heady days for the PawSox (www.pawsox.com), who are fighting it out with the Buffalo Bisons and Scranton Red Barons. With a shot at the post-season still within reach, the PawSox face a riveting end to a summer of fine baseball.

PROVIDENCE COLLEGE BASKETBALL

The PC basketball tradition is long and strong — you’ll hear older alumni and Providence residents wax nostalgic about the glory days of the 1960s and 70s, and the thrilling 1987 season, Rick Pitino’s last as head coach. But the Friars hit their stride again last season, going 20-9. The team appeared in the NCAA tournament as a No. 5 seed, as well as ranking for nine weeks and ascending to No. 12 in the AP Poll. And after testing the waters of the NBA draft, the Friars’ star player, Ryan Gomes, withdrew his name and decided to return to Providence for his last year of study and, incidentally, basketball.

Though PC fans were shocked when Marcus Douthit, a second-round draft pick of the Lakers last year, was recently charged in an embezzlement, identity theft and fraud rap, the Friars are looking forward to a season free of such off-court drama. Meanwhile, fans are hoping for a return appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Play begins on November 16 with the 2004 Preseason National Invitation Tournament. Tickets and information are available at www.friars.collegesports.com.

In an age of sport, Rhode Island is surely the state of the sportsman, or, at least, the spectator. Without the pretension that surrounds a "winning team" in a "major" league, the Ocean State athlete — not his or her marketability — remains the focal point of the sport. Surfers bobbing all day in the ocean in hopes of a wave have nothing to prove or sell, while PawSox players, whose names are not yet brands, can depend only on their skills. Although not every sport may be as salutary, Roger Williams arrived here in search of something called cheer, as the city seal reminds us, even if the local winters can make that quest seem misguided. In a world with no small amount of upset and trauma, Rhode Island’s athletes give us all something to drink to, something to bet on, and something to curse and cheer.