Published on Saturday, December 26, 2009
By JIM ALEXANDER
ONTARIO - Reign defenseman Chad Starling chuckled when it was suggested that he might be the Crash Davis of hockey.
But consider: This is a guy who is in his 10th year of chasing pucks professionally. The vast majority has been spent in the ECHL, two steps down from the league where everyone wants to be.
He spent time in Peoria, Utah and Cincinnati before signing with Ontario last year. He's played 556 professional regular-season games, 36 in the American Hockey League and 35 in the lower-tier Central Hockey League. He's had five cups of coffee -- apparently tall, rather than grande or venti -- in NHL training camps since being drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round in 1999.
Yet he keeps going even as other guys move up, just as the fictional catcher played by Kevin Costner in "Bull Durham" kept riding those Class A buses.
Why?
"I just enjoy playing and having fun with the guys," Starling said. "Most of the guys just love the game
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