October 03, 2007
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, The Associated Press
It may be more than 100 degrees outside, but inside this factory about 25 minutes south of the U.S. border, more than 500 workers are busy making equipment for a sport played on a large sheet of ice.
And they're pretty busy, churning out about 7,000 hockey sticks a week.
While Mexico is hardly the heart of hockey country, this is precisely where a large chunk of the NHL's sticks are designed, tested and mass produced.
For the most part, hockey is about as foreign as a sport can get in Mexico, but the Easton Hockey plant has its own roller hockey team -- and they're well equipped, of course.
NHL players frequent the plant, curious to see where the space-aged sticks they use to light the lamp are made. They also use the visit to make tweaks to their own sticks.
Mike McGrath, Easton's pro hockey manager, takes asap inside the factory to see just what it takes to make one of a hockey players most important pieces of equipment.
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Watch the slideshow here: http://asap.ap.org/data/interactives/_sports/hockeyplantfinal/
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asap contributor Michael Felberbaum is a reporter in the AP's Richmond, Va., bureau.
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