El Scorcho wrote:drdoctormd wrote:The 70-200 is super sharp, renders colors richly, and has great background bokeh. But it's almost too hard to use a lot as you will have to crop quite a bit unless you only use it when the action is close up.
I can crop a bit since the 70-200 is less than half the price of the 300. 
Our discussions always go back to the good stuff.....
I picked up that 300 f4.0 locally for around $850....but it is an f4--to get down to 2.8 you are talking serious dough. The local paper guys have 400 f2.8s and so on. I have to use my 70-200 f2.8 for high school (night games)...and push it to 1600 and 3200. Lots of grain, compounded by cropping. That's why I'm hoping the local team can make it to the state championship so we can have a day game. I don't mind cropping occasionally but when you're retouching 150 pics, it's a lot of work, even when you can automate photoshop processes, cause cropping is such a perfectionist thing.
To use that 18-55mm you're gonna need to find a way to get to the sidelines and then LOOK OUT cause it'll be hard to get close enough to the action unless you're willing to take a hit! I'd concentrate on the sideline shots--coaches, the bench, the fans, etc.
Check on FredMiranda.com for a 70-200 f2.8 and 300 f4.0; I've seen a number of them on there.