Pieces from the Autistic Sports Nerd

Last Tuesday Night, the Rangers played the Los Angeles Kings at 10:30 pm eastern time. Earlier that night, I hosted an Autism Awareness Club lecture on unusual talents, interests, and knowledge. Back in the mid 1990's when I was a young kid, my secondary team was the Los Angeles Kings. The reason why I liked the Kings was because I loved their old logo and I loved the colors of their home and way jerseys which were black and silver.

In fact, during the 1994-1995 season, the Kings hosted the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on ESPN. i remember that game so well, because that game was the first non-Rangers' game I have ever watched which I guess made me like the Kings even more. My dad even got me a Wayne Gretzky poster for my room of him in a white Kings' jersey over the city of Los Angeles. It was a great poster. That is the only time I went out of my way to showcase a poster of another team. I loved Gretzky when I was younger but not because he was great, but because he played for the Kings.

Here's a story: Back in the 1995-1996 season, the Rangers were scheduled to play the Kings at 10:30 pm because of the time zone in Los Angeles. I wanted to watch that game so bad, because it was my favorite team and secondary team going at it. The game was being played on a school night. I was in the second grade at the time. I begged my parents to let me stay up and watch the game. My parents refused.

I kept begging and begging. Finally, my parents agreed to let me stay up and watch the Ranger game that night. However, there was a sacrifice that had to be made. The Rangers' next game was scheduled to be at Anaheim against the Mighty Ducks. My dad said that game was going to be played on a Saturday night. My mom said that if I watched the Rangers play the Kings that night, I wouldn't be able to watch the Rangers play the Mighty Ducks (another 10:30 pm game) even though it wouldn't be played on a school night. I agreed and accepted the deal. I was happy.

Watching that Rangers-Kings game that night, I saw a commercial that the Rangers will be playing the Mighty Duck on Friday Night. My dad must have made a mistake. He thought the game was on Saturday night but the game was really being played on Friday. I didn't think it was necessary to tell my parents that so I kept it to myself. In the end, I watched the Rangers play the Kings AND watched the Rangers play the Mighty Ducks.

I explained all of that to the audience during the Autism Awareness Meeting because I figured that my fascination in the colors and logo of the Kings were traits of Autism. Later that night, I watched the Rangers play at the Kings, on a school night at 10:30 pm, approximately fourteen years after that whole begging scenario.