South Jersey Bubble Hockey:
Young Says "I Beat Pete"

Wednesday, December 1, 1999

By Gregg Williams
SJSports Staff Writer

Bob Young, of Mt. Laurel, NJ, faced off against Comcast SportsNet's Pete Christy in a bubble hockey game for the "I Beat Pete" segment of the SportsNite cable news show. The event took place in Mt. Laurel, in Bob's basement. They played a best out of three tournament. For those who are unfamiliar, a little history on each player:

Bob Young is the National Bubble Hockey Champion. Before the "I Beat Pete" challenge, Bob's overall record was 4999-5. I provided 10 of the 4999 wins for Bob Young. His best friend and sparring partner, Mike Patterson, has 1 of the 5 wins against Bob, but also has a lot of the losses. Bob started playing the Bobby Hull hockey game (which I'm sure brings back some memories for you older readers) when he was 5 years old and progressed to Bubble Hockey back in 1980. Like Pete Christy said, "It's pretty tuff to beat a guy who has one in his own basement." Mike said, "You think that you can win and he isn't that good, but you end up taking a beating. He is very good at this game." Bob can also be seen in the new millenium in a new feature on the SJSports Ask the Experts page, answering questions about Sports Medicine. He is a licensed Physician Assistant and a certified/licensed Athletic Trainer.

Pete Christy is an Emmy nominated Anchor/Reporter for Comcast SportsNet. He has his own spot on the SportsNite show. He has people from the Delaware Valley write or call him to challenge him in sporting events. The challenges have included field goal kicking, shooting basketball and shooting from lying on your back, car racing, pushing a football sled, water polo, a soccer shoot-out, and many other events. If Pete takes your challenge, he will bring his camera crew and you will be filmed and shown on Comcast SportsNet. If you beat Pete, you receive a tee-shirt with "I Beat Pete" on it.

Now back to the event: Pete and Bob played some warm-up games to get started. In the first one, Bob beat Pete 4-1. This is a very good score against Bob, who usually defeats his opponents by 9 or 10 to zero. We thought Bob was in trouble. In the second warm-up, Bob put on a show and the score was 9-0. Pete proclaimed that he'd never been scored on in double digits. Right after he said it, Bob said, "Well, now you have", and scored to make it 10-0. Bob ended the game by scoring 4 more to make the score 14-0. Then, the best of three got under way. Bob Young won the first game 9-0. Bob had a total of 12 shots to Pete's 4. This gave Bob his 5000th win. In the second game, Pete started off by scoring the first goal on his first shot. He was thinking upset, but Bob came back and scored the next 7 to win 7-1. Pete played great with his goaltender as Bob put on 20 shots and Pete had a total of 4 again. This gave Bob his 5001st win and a tee-shirt that says, "I beat Pete".