Hurling comes to America
Tipperary and Kilkenny during a match in Dublin in August. Photo: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile/Getty Images
The 2,000-year-old Irish sport of hurling comes to Queens, N.Y. this weekend for the first-ever New York Hurling Classic at Citi Field (Saturday, 12:30pm ET).
Details: The three-game competition will pit 11-man squads from four Irish counties: Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny and Wexford. It's a friendly, so it's not official (regular games feature 15-man sides and longer periods).
How it works: Players use curved wooden sticks called "hurls" to hit a leather ball called a "sliotar." The object is to get the sliotar into the other team's goal or over the crossbar to score points.
- Players can carry the sliotar for three steps, then they have to hit it or bounce it on the hurl as they run around. Tackling is allowed.
Go deeper: Here are the last few minutes of the 2014 All-Ireland Final between Kilkenny and Tipperary. Non-stop action. Crowd going nuts. Hurling rules.