Redemption Songs...

Submitted by Bill

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs,
Redemption songs.

And those of us who had such a brutally awful game on Wednesday, and who came out yesterday had a bit of redemption in a much better game.

As usual, the 15-player game had a much different dynamic than the 7-player game and short passing was the rewarded premium. Of course with 8-7 the short passing lanes are often clogged with hands, legs, and other assorted body parts. Rodney even spiked one pass into my forehead yesterday. To add to that crowd control challenge yesterday, the breeze had picked up pretty nicely by game time and even though we were playing north to south to try and mitigate its advantage going one way all the time, it was still a factor blowing across the field generally and making the long pass a scarce commodity yesterday.

I believe yesterday was Justin’s last day of BPUC and though he hasn’t been out much of late we managed a great turnout for his farewell game.

There were a few awesome catches yesterday. Devan had a classic sideways layout for a score that required a great last second grab. Phil & Swinny also had very nice grabs. Tired of chasing Bob & Hollan around the past couple weeks, I decided to put myself on their team yesterday. Hey! You guys can both throw too!

There was some pre-game discussion as to what SOTG does and does not involve and suffice it to say that any friendly touching of anatomical areas of another player, while not specifically outlawed should fall back to that “two consenting adults” rule. Thanks for that mental image Rodney & MattP.

Thanks also to Frank, Eli, Conrad, & Jorge for rounding out the big crowd.

Anybody think we can get permissive orders to travel to Texel Beach for a tournament in June. Ah, now the real question…does anybody, without using Google, actually know where Texel Beach is? You might be surprised…the hint…it’s in the land of my ancestors.

Hope everybody has a safe and happy holiday weekend. Hollan, let this substitute for the “safety speech” you’ll be missing today. In all seriousness folks, even if you are being safe, there is a good chance that if driving, long hours, or alcohol is going to be involved in your weekend that somebody may not practice the best safety practice. Please be careful, watch out for your family and friends, be the example of good judgment and come back to the field in one piece next week.

Thank you to all those who have paid the Ultimate price so that I can go out on a field during lunch break of my job to play a game.

Aisle 10...irregulars

Submitted by Bill

It was great to have a game of 5 on 5 Friday when many of the regulars were not here. Welcome out Pete & Dan. It was my first time playing with both of you and welcome back Tim & MattM who, though fairly new, have been coming out pretty frequently lately. Sometimes, when somebody new comes out they get discouraged that their “playing wind” is not quite what they want it to be. Me, being the compassionate and empathetic guy that I am, I had one of the new guys, Dan mark Swinny to start the game.

Hey, what do I know, he looked young, in shape… a few times down the field Dan, made a couple nice grabs and throws but was bent over trying to catch his breath. “Want to switch” I offered, knowing I couldn’t keep up with Bryan, but secure in my shortfalls.

“No, thanks. I’ll be okay when he starts to slow down” Dan said (breaking New Guy rule #4 ‘Never overestimate your ability to keep running’).

“Well, I’ve been playing with Bryan for a year now and I haven’t seen him slow down yet” I replied. I was marking Matt at the time and he was running a like a mad man also but I thought I’d give Dan the option.

Bryan had apparently already sufficiently briefed Pete about the pain and running as I checked in with him about midway through the game “Hey, don’t kill yourself out here, we’re not trying out for any Olympic team yet”.

“Yea, don’t worry” Pete responded “I’m trying to keep the running to a minimum”. Ah, Ultimate wisdom…it’s a keen quality. Know your strengths and play to them. Pete made some great throws for a first day out and not having to chase Swinny or Matt probably helped.

Hey Rodney! What the heck did you do with our old Warrant Officer? I could have sworn that was you sprinting behind the defense on several occasions for long huck scores. Sprinting and catching on the same play. Who knew? Tim & I just want to thank you for giving us somebody to actually throw to.

No sign of Travis, MattC, or Justin this week. Jason did come out Friday and was at least one soon departing player looking to squeeze in as much Ultimate as possible before transfer time.

Conrad was also getting in his last game before hanging out up north in Baltimore these next two weeks. Best wishes also to Brady who will be headed to the DL after surgery. Heal quickly but don’t try to come out too soon (check with Wings for the official disclaimer there).

Lon, did you say you were bringing another facet of your game out on Friday? Well, I heard somebody comment that you were running all over the place. I assured them that couldn’t have been you but they were pretty adamant. Did Rodney share his secret potion with you? You guys need to quit bogarting that brew and hand some over this way.

The cookout is on hold after some less than overwhelming response about attending. I guess I’ll try and follow my own advice and play to my strengths.

Force home!

Peering out the window...

I feel like the little kid who wants to go out and ride his bike but he’s looking out the living room window…you know with your nose mashed up against it so your mom will be cleaning who knows what off of it later…and it’s doing nothing but raining.

I considered calling for a game anyway this morning since it was supposed to be relatively warm. But I got in this morning, hung over from a night in the classroom listening to 4 hours of discussion on Education philosophers, I just put down a big country breakfast, and I’m still suffering the after affects of almost getting skunked yesterday…plus none of the other Buzzards were clamoring via email for a game to be called…so “the better part of valor is discretion” or some such Shakespearean nonsense has won out today. But I will…already do actually…miss playing.

So, the story of the “almost skunk” you ask? Well, pairing up yesterday I thought I had broken up the teams equitably…Todd on one…Phil on the other…separated Bryan and Travis so they could run each other into the ground and then through myself, Bob, Justin, & Frank into a hat and just tossed out green & gold pinnies, with Frank & Bob joining Visor & Swinny on the green and the other 4 of us pulling on the gold. Looked “fairly even”…or so I thought.

First of all, it took about 10 minutes for either team to score. That may not be an exaggeration at all. There were seriously at least 3 or 4 possessions each up and down the field with nobody even sniffing the end zone. Finally green busted through with the first score. I bone headed the next pull and gave them the disc on the goal line for the next score and then…4 more unanswered scores for green. By my count it was 6-0…it could have been more…and we were literally 20-25 minutes into the game. I muttered something about wondering what a skunk was as we got ready to receive the next pull and unbeknownst to me, Swinny was asking his teammates on the other end if we had even scored yet….that’s when DK set it. You know Disc Karma….yea, don’t mess with that.

On the very next pull, we got all 4 guys to touch the disc, made some very sharp crossing passes and give and go’s and got right in for green’s first score. That was about as good as it got for us the rest of the game. We held our own I suppose and the defense on both sides seemed to be…uh, generally speaking…a little tighter yesterday. We tried the “Force Flick” on D against Swinny most of the game and he beat us for a couple flick scores and even tried out his Hammer. All in all, though there was some debate about this as we came off the field, it beat being in the cube.

Enjoy the day of rest. Get ready for tomorrow, I’m not sitting inside again.