Rodney Reunion Tour

“So with Rodney playing today, do we have to let him win?” was the question I got asked yesterday morning in preparation for the BPUC reunion game we had planned for him as he was going to be back in the building and hoped to play.

“No way” I said “Let’s just treat him like we always do…like our little sister”. I mean we didn’t want to make him feel unwelcome. I did notice though that JQ was making Rodney look deceptively fast early in the game zipping two passes into end zone corners where the defense wasn’t actually that badly beaten. Ah, handlers…sometimes they make you look good.

There seemed to be a variety of defenses being played yesterday. My team, overwhelmingly outvoted me and wanted to play zone to begin with. So Brad and Brian headed forward to play the cup with mid-play tutoring going on (which, oddly enough, seems to impact the effectiveness of the defense actually being played…not in a good way). Phil, Dennis & I roamed the middle and Bob played deep safety (he likes that position too much and jumps at the chance he gets to play it).

The green team seemed to be playing some bastardized version of pentagon and 1 or what I like to call 5 guys playing man and the 6th letting Brian run loose. After we found Brian for the 3rd or 4th open pass early in the game, I heard Todd shouting “Who in the world has Brian?” I’m not completely sure but when I saw JQ racing back and forth across the field as safety a la Bob, I figured he was the one who’d been cheating on the man defense.

I had a particularly tough time throwing yesterday due to the new defense being played on me. Scott was marking me with the “bump pivot” D. That’s when I’m trying to get him out of my shirt and I pivot around and he keeps bumping me. It’s legality clearly in question…I could picture Phil if he’d had to endure it, constantly rotating the disc around in front of his stomach to try and cry for more room…but the effectiveness of it could not be disputed. My handling sucked yesterday. Aside from a couple that I decided to just throw out of bounds and let come back in (and one of those got caught up in the tree), I was pretty much useless.

Several players deferred playing yesterday and said they’d be playing today. If that was your idea of fair weather Ultimate playing I might point out that you didn’t check your weather forecasts very well. Yesterday was almost perfect playing conditions with temperatures in the 50’s and almost no wind. Today will barely reach into the 50’s and there is 100% chance of rain. Oh, we’ll still play but for Alec & Jeana…I’ll be looking for you two.

And while I’m throwing people under the bus…er…uh…I mean…missing players who haven’t been out this week…that we usually see out there is…Jason, Paul, Brook? Are you guys here this week? We got George back out yesterday so I’ve taken him off the MIA list. Rachel, are you coming back out? How ‘bout some other former players who have really gone into the Witness Protection Program…MattD, Jorge, Bo, Eric B, Denise, Roz? Hey, don’t think I don’t know who’s on this list. Come on back out folks!

You know I sometimes mention the conversation on the way out or back from the pitch or in the locker room…they’re generally my most interesting of the day. Last week there was talk of loofahs, waxing, and quality whites (wine, not linens) that would have made you think you were at the spa and not the guy’s locker room. Yesterday, Kevin and I were comparing our driving lives that shared commonalities like 3-generation pickups, routes (29 & 95 respectively), some Va. State Trooper observations, and High School Musical 3 (okay we don’t share that but we talked about it). You don’t get this kind of renaissance intellectual and emotional stimulus in many other circles.

So, I’m thinking…what this White House transition team really needs is a lunchtime Ultimate game coordinator to keep everybody motivated and physically fit and…you know…informed.

First of July!

posted by Bill

July is here! And really, even though it started to seem warmer than the weather.com announcement that it was about 76 degrees at game time, it was still pretty nice for the beginning of July. And we had a great turnout yesterday also! Welcome out for the first time to Denise, a co-worker of Kevin’s. It was great to have you, please come back and join us anytime. It was also nice to meet Kay…Eric, she knows your tall and bald right? : )

Welcome back out Bridgette…watch out, if you come out twice within a week, this sport has been known to become addictive. You see it even draws out those who are injured and have no business being on the field…one, was smart enough to just come take pictures, thanks Thunder, sorry the battery crapped out on you after only 7 shots, and Hollan, who actually thought he was well enough to play…and by all accounts looked fine through the whole game except for a couple of drops (heck some of us do that when we’re completely healthy and he did catch at least one score as well)….but then it came…

“Hey, 3 more points” yells somebody on gold and then they proceed to score a quick one. Then as green is coming back down the field to try and tie it up at 1, Hollan was going full speed toward the sideline to try and break up a pass headed for Tom. Okay, I want to be fair here…for those of you who’ve played with Tom for a while, you’re thinking you know how this winds up. Well, I just want to say, Tom did not really have anything to do with this and it was just a play of two guys going after the disc and one crumbling to the ground in agony. “Boom Boom” needs a new nickname because his game, I’ve noticed over the last few months, has been remarkably free of contact…well, at least when Frank hasn’t been marking him.

That wasn’t the only problem on gold yesterday as they had trouble clicking from the start. When I first separated the teams and then kind of threw Eric the last gold pinnie, not sure which team to stick him on I felt sure I had shifted the balance of power that way…with Eric and Kevin handling and Hollan, Phil, and Dennis running…and they had substitutes as Denise used Bridgette’s late arrival as a good excuse to take a breather. But for some reason that combination didn’t work for them.

Again, as I am apt to do, I stuck Todd with 3 old slow guys (myself, Tom & Rodney, another guy with two bum heels (MattP) and then Leroy who has been running like crazy but let’s just say has had some communication breakdown between the legs, eyes, & hands prior to today. Well, who knew, I found a couple runs in me today, two layouts that actually did not pan out into anything except a mouth full of clover and a heaving chest, Tom finding his mid to long range throwing skills, Rodney and Matt always showing bursts of speed when you least expect it and Leroy mastering the “tip drill” score…two in a row, in fact from Todd and over Eric. Matt followed those up by catching a “machete” headed for the ground and green actually looked like we knew what we were doing despite our lock down D on a long stall count.

All in all, a great day of disc. It’s a pleasure playing with all of you…always the highlight of my day at work.

It’s not too late to get me your votes for June’s “Most Outstanding Buzzard” (MOB) and “Spirit of the Game” (SOTG) award winner. I need to get the SOTG disc that Bryan won last month out of my cube where he left it when he departed…by the way, we didn’t really give him a proper farewell which seems to happen a lot around here…sorry. Bryan, you’ll be sorely missed my friend. Fair winds!

By the way...in regards to the following pictures...the camera battery died after only 7 shots but why do 4 of them have Todd in them? Can you say "man crush" Thunder?

Todd looking for the next throw as he catches it with Tom cutting.

Rodney getting ready to pull.

Todd elevating...of course everybody looks like they're going high with Rodney in the picture.

Eric...nice patriotic bacground there.

Phil looks to pass as Todd comes up to mark.

Watch it all the way in Phil.

Todd releasing from the clover.