Even though it was advertised as being on Catherine and Cherry St [it wasn’t], I still managed to stumble upon the East Side Polo Invite earlier today. (It’s really in Sara D Roosevelt Park on Christie between Delancy and Broome).

Think upper- crust- Ralph- Lauren- wearing- tea- drinking jockeys riding properly upon horses. But replace the jockeys with punk-rock bike messengers, and replace the horses with banged up bikes, and replace the tea with Red Bull (plus. . . ).

In the time I was there I saw six guys fall off their bikes, one guy who loved throwing elbows, three guys dressed up like Mexican Wrestlers, one guy flip completely over his bike, one mallet get smashed to pieces, two instances of ironic facial hair, a token black guy, a token asian guy and a partridge in a pear tree.

Are they great athletes? No.

Is it completely exciting the whole time? No.

Did anybody get into a fight? No.

If you live in the neighborhood, should you swing by and check it out?

Definitely.

Sitting in the park is always a good idea, and it’s only enhanced by watching the players riding back and forth. Even I (usually anti-sports) got into it, and picked my favorite teams to root for, based on their awesome striped shirts.

Plus it’s one of those sports where something dangerous could happen, and those are the best ones to watch (the adult in me kept wanting to yell out that they should be wearing helmets).

Maybe if you go, you’ll get to see one instance of flying over handelbars, two punches thrown and one bike messenger brawl.

The East Side Polo Invite continues thru tomorrow (10am-Dusk) and regular games are played every Sunday at Noon.

UNCOOLKIDS Slideshow of Saturday’s game