Sponge Game

Many years ago, way before Lance Armstrong starting winning Tours De France and bicycle makers began stripping off every extra piece of equipment that might drag on the wind, back when Jack Nicholson & Morgan Freeman were known for their roles in “One Flew Over a Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Electric Company”, respectively, back when you could get away wearing stripes with plaid together…

Well, back then, bicycles came with fenders. You know why? So, when you rode on wet pavement, you wouldn’t have this splatter streak up the back of your pants and shirt. Well, today was a bicycle fender kind of day on the Ultimate field. Particularly for people like Travis and Phil, who actually run hard. The field was very soggy and muddy. Actually, I suspect I may even have had the splatter marks since at one point when Kelly was marking me, she remarked “Wow, you’re muddy!”

I have a couple confessions both of which you could verify with my mom. One, I like to play in the mud, and two, I have worn stripes and plaid together before, probably with patches no less.

Today was a spongy game. green started off slow and the gold team of Phil, MattP, Brook, & Kelly got off to an early lead by navigating the mud holes more efficiently and making shorter throws and less cuts. The green team of Travis, Eric, Scott & Bill couldn’t seem to find their spacing very well, I threw 3-4 right in the mud where Scott informed me none of the rest of the team was running and we basically floundered around for a while before going on a small run in the 2nd half of the game and taking advantage of Travis’ speed, Eric’s reach, and Scott’s surprisingly quick defense.

“I’m getting to where my legs aren’t killing me every day after I play”, said Scott, spoken like a true Ultimate addict…er, uh…convert.

Well, BrianT, has come out this week, now Kelly. Geez, maybe Lindsay & Bob will show back up at some point. I haven’t read any news stories about a Chevy Impala being carjacked only to find it was being used as a bedroom or of any skullers in the Williamsburg area arrested in a bar fight with the William & Mary women’s hockey team so I’m guessing those two are alive, if not altogether well.

Great weather today…72 at game time, breezy but no where need the stiff winds that were being predicted. Heck, I even decided to have the egg salad. Don’t tell my van pool.

See you tomorrow.

By the way, Todd mentioned there may have been some “odious missteps” on the Ultimate Juke Box playlist. If you have some requests, I’ll see what I can do about including them.

Play nice everybody.

The Mud Bowl

~ first guest blog account...from Rodney.

Friday, January 11th, 2008

Once the solicitation email went out on a rainy Friday immediate responses were received to my surprise. We had Visor (which came in handy with the rain), Mallard, Phil, Kash, Rodney, Scott, Matt, and Travis.

The walk to the field was what I consider to be the longest walk yet. I figured by the time we got to the field the rain would stop and all would be well, but I think it only got harder.

The field was set and the teams were good to go. Play commenced and so did the mud! I must say that the field was worse than I thought it would be. 5 out of the 8 of us had cleats and the poor 3 that didn’t were all over the place. Travis and Mallard were slipping and sliding like they were trying out for the Olympic Figure Skating team.

Phil threw a short pass to Mallard about 6 inches behind his impressive reach and there went Mallard sliding on his shoes like a barefoot water skier would on a sunny day in FL. Then as impressive was his skiing so was the crash on to the muddy field.

Needless to say when the game was finished so was the field. The players had more mud than clean spots and not a dry piece of clothing existed.

All in all it was a great game. A rainy, muddy day on the Ultimate field is better than a dry good day in the cube!!!!

Today’s Forecast: Around 40 degrees, light breeze at 8 mph, steady rain and mud…. perfect. Game on!