A Scribe's Diatribe or 'The Straw (re: Mitchell report) that broke the camel's back'

When was the last time you heard an Ultimate player’s name in the news for steroid use, perjury, dog fighting, spousal abuse, DUI, drug abuse, sexual harassment, etc? Oh, you haven’t? Do you wonder why? Well, it would be nice to think that it’s because those of us in the sport of Ultimate sit on a morally higher ground and conduct ourselves in a more ethical manner. And there could be some argument, with our “Spirit of the Game” self-governance, offered as evidence, that this is true on some level. But the real reason is that we don’t make bazillions of dollars a year playing a child’s game. All those things occur throughout society but they don’t make the front page headlines because our collective earning power doesn’t make a ripple in the pond of multi-billionaire, ego-maniacal, far-removed from “the common man” professional sports figures.

For those of us decrying the state of professional, and in many instances even collegiate level, sports as having eroded to the level of social cesspool, I offer this New Year’s resolution challenge…STOP WATCHING! Heck, get a head start at your holiday celebrations over the next few weeks. Instead of falling into the cosmic forces that seem to separate family gatherings into the 3 spheres of kid’s table, kitchen help, or TV sports watchers dare to pull your cousins, nieces, nephews and even Grandmom Mildred into the back yard and throw the disc around. Or pull out somebody’s game of Cranium, Would You Rather, UNO, or even Twister, a nice bottle (or eight depending on your family size) of a local Virginia wine…the 2003 Keswick Vineyards Chardonnay or 2001 Barbousville Winery Octagon, that’s white & red respectively for you “Frisbee” players, and stop watching! Do something more constructive with your time, reclaim your search for fun, sportsmanship, fair competition & general well-being. Stop making the rich richer while complaining that the "out of work veteran" panhandler should find a job and stop holding a sign in the same parking lot each day...the one of the Starbucks we're pulling into to plunk down $3.50 on a gingerbread latte...okay, I'm rambling. ESPN has sent me over the edge today.

I’m in the planning stages of my “year-in-review” entry for this forum. Please forgive me if it doesn’t completely have something to do with the sport of Ultimate but the company of players I keep is so “Renaissance” in its collective spectrum of interests and stories that it’s likely I’ll ramble off on many tangents and you’ll wonder what in the world you’ve clicked to.

If any of you have any submissions, feel free to send those along for my consideration.

In the meantime, looks like we’ll have a decent day for a game today for those of you who have come to work. Thanks for keeping the games going this week in my departure. Just want to give a hearty (or squawky) Buzzard shout out to Rob. This was his last week of internship at CGHQ and he has been a faithful participant since his introduction to the BPUC. You’ll notice he was both, a wind & snow ribbon recipient. Good luck Rob.

So, what’s happened this week Buzzards? No interesting stories? I find that hard to believe. Chime in and find yourself published.

See you on the field today.

White Out!

High winds, snow…what’s next? Well, according to those who get paid to prognosticate weather, it’s supposed to be back in the 50’s by this weekend. So my league game this Sunday will be back in shorts. But the last two days have been tights weather. Unless of course you're from upstate NY or Minnesota and like to play in shorts in this weather.

Our first snow game of the year came earlier than most people probably expected and it didn’t look like we were going to get enough to play until Bryan made his whole office come by providing clothes for everyone. Nice work B. Jason & Jas, great to have you all out there, please come back.

So, I’ve broken out my Barenaked Holidays CD this morning and I’m feeling very festive. Bob, I even brought the camera so you can take pictures today if you can come back out. By the way KUDOS to Bob. Sidelined with the pulled hamstring, he has been out in street clothes twice this week watching the game and lending moral support. With his long dress coat, he looks like Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry manning the sidelines and watching his team. How we doing coach?

Yesterday actually was not as hard to play in as the high winds of the past couple weeks. At least the disc flew the direction you generally threw it. There were some visibility issues (we switched to the bright yellow disc which helped) and some stopping challenges. For those of you who missed the fun, come out today. You won’t get to play in the snow falling but there should still be plenty on the ground.

I’m seeing there is “Unscheduled Leave” for Federal employees today…don’t get me started on my thoughts about this. There is maybe 2 inches of snow out there and the streets are very driveable but I’m sure people will be calling in en masse. The policy actually states “for those who cannot report for work”. “Cannot” and “don’t want to” are defined a little bit differently in this Scribe’s book.