So I poked a little fun on Sunday at the somewhat obscure sports that are happening at the Olympics right now as you read this column.

    You know, events like ping pong and archery. I could have included shooting, water polo and field hockey as well when I made my list. I mentioned in that column that I was enjoying watching the sports that would fit alongside dodgeball on the fictitious channel “ESPN 8 The Ocho.”

    Well, apparently I forgot one such event because when I turned on my television Monday morning I had no idea what I was seeing.

    Let me set the stage: The arena looked kind of like a basketball court (it was indoors) except there were large nets anchored to the floor where hoops should have been. There were seven players on each team, including the goalie, and no one was allowed to enter the giant half circle (three-point line?) on each end except the goalie.

    I became fascinated at what was unfolding before me. A Korean team and a Danish team where beating each other up pretty badly as a ball, which looked to be roughly the same size as a mini basketball, was zinged around the court and eventually launched at the six-plus foot tall goal. I couldn’t seem to extract information on any sort of rules other than the fact that you can’t jump without getting the ball out of your hands before you land, and, as I mentioned, the semi-circles are off limits except on the follow through of a shot on goal.

    It turns out, as the commentators eventually told me on whatever NBC channel I was watching, the game was called team handball.

    Who knew?

    I was confused because that was not the handball that I grew up playing. I remember pounding a rubber ball against a brick wall of some sort with the endgame being a chance to chuck it at one of your friends for not catching it. That’s the playground sport that comes to mind when I hear “handball.”

    I guess I’ve been out of the loop because team handball has been around since the end of the 19th century. In fact, it was played as a men’s sport in the 1936 Olympics (held in Berlin) and resurfaced in 1972 at the Munich games. The women’s game began in 1976 at Montreal and team handball has been an Olympic sport ever since.

    It’s most popular among the Scandinavian countries, where the game was “invented” and developed. Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Ukraine are some of the power countries. Recently, Asian nations have become quite good at it as well.

    There’s even an International Handball Federation.

    Where have I been?

    Apparently the United States has a team as well, although it didn’t qualify for the Olympics. Actually, I don’t even know if it even attempted qualification.

    I guess you learn something new everyday. My fresh bit of knowledge for Monday was the knowledge of the existence of team handball as an Olympic sport.

    My only question: If that’s a sanctioned event in an international competition such as the Games of the XXX Olympiad, why aren’t softball and baseball?