The Phoenix rises...

Okay, despite what the blog entries would indicate, the Buzzards did survive the Summer Corporate League Season and actually represented very well as we finished in the Final 4. We also survived the scorching weather for a couple weeks after that and have made it to this week, which for disc players, has been close to idyllic. Temperatures in the 70s and 80’s, slight breeze, and low humidity.

We had a great game of 7 on 7 yesterday. One of the few big games we’ve had here at work over the last month. And we had a good game on Monday as well. We aren’t going to miss out on this weather. I want to first of all welcome out some of the new players this summer that I have been remiss in mentioning in the blog perhaps. Want to give a big Buzzard welcome to Dan, Eve, Joe, MattM, Ron, & Pat. Great to have you all as additions to our roster. Dan comes to us as a referral from MattC who also came back to us on his return to HQ as a civilian. Matt your usual “finders fee” is in the mail. Eve comes to us from academia, she’s a local professor of International Studies (I think that’s what you told me) and a “neighbor” of Brad. We won’t hold that against you. Joe is a former player here at HQ back for a 2nd tour. He remembers the days of playing with the soccer goals, and uh, let’s say when this club used to play the “contact version” of Ultimate. He recognized the name of Lindsay and for those of you who remember the Mallard, that is really all you need to know about Joe. To his credit, be blended into this evolved state of disc here seamlessly and I didn’t seem him foul anybody. MattM is a disc player transferring in this summer and a welcome addition to the growing stable of handlers here. And finally Ron joins us admitting his experience has been in some bastardized version of Ultimate/Frisbee football probably resembling more what Joe remembers being played here. Pat is our newest addition, just joining us yesterday for the first time, dragged out by Paul. Let me just say that this is two summers running when we have perhaps added more talent than we have lost which of course is the essential key to this club’s survival.

That is not to say that we haven’t missed the players that have left us. And so as our way of saying so and saying thank you we just want to give a shout out to Phill, Scott, Hollan, Will, Mark, MattP, Swinny, Travis, Rodney, JasonK, JasonN, George, JQ, Alec, Leroy, Kashyap, and hell, even Lindsay. I’m sure I’m missing some folks. Please forgive me and if you’re actually reading this, drop me a line and we’ll get you special mention and maybe even dig up an old pic to post.

Back to yesterday’s game of 7’s. Great to have Eli back out with us. It had been a while since we played with this many people and the early part of the game looked like it as both teams struggled to find spacing. So when you’re having trouble finding horizontal space you sometimes look vertical and it was good to have Dan on the blue team yesterday as he made a couple nice grabs up above the heads of some defenders. Todd, for the orange also had the idea of getting vertical a couple times but then I wondered what Erick was whispering at him as he’d run toward Todd just as he was jumping and Todd didn’t seem convinced his legs weren’t going to be taken out from under him and short-armed both throws. But then he finally found some space on the edges and made a couple of really nice leading throws on cuts across the end zones to Kevin and Dennis where both times a defender was pretty close on the heels.

The rest of the crew yesterday was Bob, Steve, Matt, Paul, Pat, Bridgette, Ron, and yours truly. It was great weather and a great game. A couple of promotions to celebrate – Bridgette & Todd, congrats! Bridgette says hers may hamper her Ultimate playing availability so I’m not sure that’s a great thing for us but it’s good for her. Todd’s thankful the upcoming wedding to another adopted Summer Buzzard, Reagan now has another income source. Reagan, if you’re reading, I’d certainly try and get an extension on the honeymoon with this as consideration.

For the new folks playing and reading this via the blog, please check us out on Facebook. I can’t actually add the hyperlink from here at work since our LAN police have that site blocked. Use your iPhone though if you can’t wait until you get home.

Great to be back up here. Will try to be better about keeping you amused, bemused, confused or just used. I only want you for your flick.

Pull!

Dinner party planning

After Monday’s monster 2-game day I was surprised to get somewhat tepid response to yesterday’s invite and in fact had to send out a 2nd email asking for players to which Tom kindly replied “I hate to see you beg, I’m in” and allowed me to go ahead and call the game around 0930.

Like Monday though, the replies were not quite indicative of the number of players that came out. All I can say about this group is I’m glad I don’t plan dinner for them. “Hmmmm, let’s see I’ve got 8 coming out, this should be enough steaks…crap, there are 14 of us? Somebody go get another cow or get that guy that does the loaves and fishes party trick!”

Fortunately we didn’t need more food, just more pinnies as Brook came out on the field with two new players and then another wandered out about 20 minutes later. Together with Brad & Scott who were surprise attendees for the day’s disc event, Matt who passed up lunch at Cantina Maria, and MikeC, we quickly fleshed out to 8 on 8.

So, by the way, an official Buzzard welcome to Karl, Mark, & Matt who all joined us for the first time yesterday. Great to have all of you out there. And no matter what Brook tells you, it’s much easier for me to plan when I know who’s coming out but don’t ever let that stop you from coming if you haven’t told me.

The humidity is here. Temperatures aren’t in the 90’s yet but with all the thunderstorm warning this week, the humidity is high meaning heavy air, heavy shirts, and heavier gym bags on the way home in the afternoons. Please remember to hydrate early and often as we move into summer.

Some decent play at times yesterday. Leroy made a few nice defensive plays, MikeC had some really good cuts and grabs, Brad also made a really nice catch yesterday and since I give him good natured grief so often on the pitch I thought I’d note a good play for a change (especially since he caught it with me playing pretty tight D on him), and the trio of “newbies” all showed flashes of Ultimate prowess.

We had a short discussion on a rule clarification for those of you who were not there, or have already forgotten what we talked about. On any pull into the end zone, the thrower must play the disc from where it lands. We should not be walking pulls out to the front line of the end zone. You may still bring a turnover into the end zone to the front goal line but not a pull.

By the way, for those of you who haven’t been following one of our Buzzard alumni, Hollan, on Facebook, the poor guy has had to resort to playing “Cornhole” now that Ultimate isn’t in his daily regimen any more. And who knows what Swinny and Phil are up to. Swinny told me he’d just been on a run or a bike or something the last time I talked to him but from the sounds of Phil & Erica’s blog, it sounds like they’re just eating and drinking their way across country. Dude you’re going to need some Ultimate. You should stop back by through D.C. before you head to NY for good and get in a week of disc.

For the rest of you Buzzards…June has been a bonanza so far. Keep it up. And don’t forget, Thursday, we’re taking a little disc sabbatical to send Matt off with a game of Flag Football instead.

Punt!

Meteorologically speaking...

Door #1 Drizzle- Small, slowly falling water droplets, with diameters between .2 and .5 millimeters

Door # 2 Mist- Consists of microscopic water droplets suspended in the air which produce a thin grayish veil over the landscape. It reduces visibility to a lesser extent than fog.

Door #3 Light Rain - precipitation falling with an intensity of between a trace and 0.10 inches (0.25 cm) per hour

Those were the 3 possibilities we heard prior to heading out to the pitch yesterday for some disc. I even peeked at the radar right before I logged off to head to the locker room and saw that Buzzards Point was moving out of the “green” (re:Rain) zone at 1100.

As we walked out though, the drops certainly felt bigger than .2 to .5 millimeters and I know that while we were out there for our hour that more than .10 inch of rain must have come down… “Mist” was not even in the equation. I’m not sure what the meteorologists call it but I don’t think it was any of the answers behind doors number 1-3.

The just as credible explanation is the addition of a new player yesterday…Buzzards, everybody say hi to Karen…. “Hi Karen” who comes to us from the place where meteorologists discovered all the terms for wet precipitation…Seattle. That coupled with the Buzzards uncanny knack the last few months of welcoming new people out on the worst possible weather days (right John? Jeff?) and it was almost the “Perfect Storm”…the only thing we were missing were the Swinny and Hollan sliding and mudding show. We missed you guys yesterday, just wanted you to know we were thinking of you.

Speaking of missing…Phil, how can we miss you if you won’t go away? Phil’s Buzzard career is winding down as he gets ready to leave us. Not sure if he’s playing today I know he and Todd are talking about some “Beer Movie” premier later on. I don’t know if the “pre-gaming” for that affects our Ultimate today. Thunder and Paul, can you maybe see if we can keep him in the office long enough to play today?

Jeana was back out yesterday after her time on the disabled list… “I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I ride” A little welcome back gift of a set of training wheels awaited her courtesy of Kevin.

We didn’t actually get to see any of Jeana’s bicycle wounds but I’m betting they couldn’t have looked as bad as Shane’s face did yesterday after taking the disc to his eye. A nice bruise right below the eye socket and blood trickling down his face made you think this sport is more dangerous than it looks at first glance.

Brad got hit with the disc yesterday too but not from a hard throw but because he was invading personal space on the mark a bit too much. Remember everybody…if you hold out your hands, draw an imaginary line between your hands, the thrower should not intersect that line, if they do…you’re too close!

Thanks everybody for coming out yesterday in less than ideal conditions. You should reward yourself today with a game in the sun.

Trifecta - Weather prediction, Vegas omen, or the truck I ran into?

Yesterday was a day off for the Buzzards – We hit the weather trifecta of cold temps (feels like 28 according to weather.com), precipitation (mixture of rain/snow), and high winds (18 mph). Usually hoping that only one of those surfaces though we often play in two of the conditions, three just felt like too much to me yesterday morning as I was recovering from my near concussive state of the day before. So I didn’t even send an email out to see who might be interested.

Often times when I do this, in fact, most times I don’t, somebody else will pipe up and ask what’s going on and clamor for a game. There was no such clamoring yesterday. At about 9, Todd sent me a message “How are you feeling today?” I gave him the update, explained that I was trying to get some school work done, turned down his invitation for racquetball and just generally went back into hiding in my cube.

"Where's Swinny when I need him" was Todd's diappointed reply.

1030 – Kevin sends me a message wondering if he would be the 8th…that he might talk himself into playing. Kevin, by the way was who I dove into the day before sending my head into the hinterlands. He suggested I must have hit him in some more…uh…tissuey area…

“No” I assured him “Whatever I hit definitely was bone.”

And that’s almost all I remember from the game on Tuesday. It was one of Scott’s bi-monthly games which made for some good story telling. I don’t remember the whole thing but his wife’s friends, vodka, lap dances, and flatulence were involved. Oh yea, and Scott slapped Todd with the disc at one point on the field. Did we mention we miss you not being out there more often Thunder?

You know if you’re looking for a club that’s right for your needs you should really consider the Buzzards Point Ultimate Club. In a gesture of flexibility afforded to one of its most “seasoned” members, we moved the game to noon on Tuesday because Matt was driving into work (off leave?) for a medical appointment or some other such business and asked if we could delay the start time.

“Send me a text if we’re playing” said the voice mail.

“Game On ~ 1200” I sent to him after conferring with the other 7 confirmed players for the day. Oh, so we mentioned Matt was actually the 8th and I wouldn’t have been able to call the game without him? Still, we’re pretty darn lenient in this group. Don’t let it be a habit though because I really don’t like having to shuffle around all the soccer players and vie for shower space with them when we get back the same time they do in the locker room.

Anyway, hoping to get in a game today. Paul, who can’t seem to find our Facebook page is hoping to find a Vegas jackpot and won’t be with us. But let’s shake a bunch of feathers from the nest today. Hey Brian, I see you’re already in as I’m writing this morning, you’ve been ducking us the last couple weeks. Grab John and Doug and come on out today. Tom – I’m no doctor but I think your snowboarding injury is healed enough to come back out. Bridgette? Jeana? How about some of you who are in danger of having to take the driving test again if you don’t get back out soon….Tim? Mike? Bo? Fred?

Todd, Kevin, Matt, Phil, Jason – I’ll be counting on you guys if you’re here today. Should be a nice soft field for soft landings assuming I can avoid contact with other players today.

Pull!

Farewell KellyG!

Tuesday was Kelly’s last game with us as she is leaving HQ. It was a good game to leave on. We had 15 people out there, overcast, not too hot, and NO SOFTBALL!

It’s nearing the end of transfer season and the Buzzards have done well. We certainly miss Swinny, Travis, MattC, Frank, JasonN and others but we have reloaded well. A bunch of new people have joined us this summer…I don’t know whether or not they’ve been here and just not playing or have transferred in but welcome to Bo, Mike, Dan, BobH, JasonK (back for a 2nd stint), George, Brian, Erik, Fred, Will, Eric, Paul, & Mark. Adding at least a dozen new players and only losing a handful works out to a really nice surplus as evidenced by the 8 on 7 game we had Tuesday.

Anybody else notice when you play with that many that you don’t get a lot of cross the field passes completed through traffic. I ripped one loose the other day to realize MattP was standing between me and where I wanted the disc to go. I saw Thunder and Kevin also finding several passes unintentionally coming there way.

Ultimate gets a good cross over from other sports as we have drawn from Flag Football, Soccer, Volleyball & Softball and whenever you get players from those other sports you make some prejudgments as to their strengths based on that. The football guys tend to have good field vision, the volleyball folks know how to position and jump, the softball players adjust well to discs in the air, and the soccer folks run and run some more. Then in Ultimate those skills start melding together and you find guys like Fred on Tuesday…a soccer guy if I’m not mistaken, finding his grip all of a sudden and pulling down everything thrown to him on Tuesday.

With that many people we, on the green team at least, attempted to run a few things from the stack and that worked with varying degrees of success. One of the things we did seem to do pretty well was to utilize the dump pass. In fact one of the new guys, Mike, used it quite well on at least 4 occasions that I noted. Never mind Rodney’s whining Mike. Anytime he doesn’t get the disc on a play he thought he should have he gets a bit agitated. We’ve learned to just ignore him. If some of you want to see some fairly simple diagrams of stack plays as well as some other useful basic info, check out the U of Oregon’s Ultimate Basics page.

Looks like another great weather day for us today. Hope to have a good game.

Pull!

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.

Laws of Physics...lab demonstrations.

Submitted by Bill

v = 0m/s was never so evident as yesterday as the 4-man green team was humbled to the point of wondering whether we should ever come back out again. The dead Sir Isaac Newton could not have played much worse. I badly needed an unbalanced force to act upon my object (re:arse and everything connected to it) at rest.

Okay, first things first. I did put 3 very good players on the short team yesterday. Bryan, Eric & Bob are a formidable trio regardless of who they were playing. The fact that they were playing team Stonehenge yesterday though made them look like the Ultimate National Champions and their Frisbee catching dogs.

After giving up the first 8 points of yesterday’s match (at least…it could have been more), the Pet Rocks finally scored. And so then our goal was to go score for score with them for a while which I think we managed to do for 3 or 4 scores each. So then we got really ambitious and decided to try and score 2 in a row. This was the team with the extra player mind you!

At one point Thunder got the disc and pivoted to throw and found Conrad 5 yards in front to the right with Bob all over him and then Phil & I both behind him asking for the disc. “I think the object is actually to move forward guys”, Scott reminded us.

Is it just me or is marking Eric like being at the table in a World Series of Poker tournament? Those shades of his make reading his eyes a bit difficult. So, I’ve resorted to just heavily cheating on his awesome flick side and try to make him throw the forehand which he tends to do over my head. Putting Swinny with two capable handlers seems almost criminal. I’ve got to stop handicapping my teams with my lack of run…or I could start running I guess. Of course the one good spring I did have yesterday resulted in Phil sailing the throw way over my head and out of bounds. Not that I deserved a good pass anyway after dropping one right to my hands earlier and letting frustration settle in, subsequently spiking the dropped pass and warping the disc. My apologizes to the other participating Buzzards on a really crappy show of “SOTG”.

I’m looking at the responses for today’s game and already plotting whose team I can sabotage today. The good news is that we already have 10, which means at least 4 throwing options when you get the disc and hopefully one or two of those will make it downfield a bit. I promise to exert a little more effort and perhaps become the “object in motion”.

I have the first nominations for MOB and SOTG for May, thanks for the interest.

Today is probably the last game of the week what with the 4-hour early libo tomorrow. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend. Get out and throw a disc around somewhere this weekend, take some pictures of Buzzards at play and submit them for publication on this irreverent rant.

Move!

Missing the bus

Submitted by Bill

Well, by the time Swinny got out there and asked “What color should I put on?” it was already painfully evident that he needed to come to our side. The “school bus yellow” team was in desperate need of the extra man as we were, indeed, getting schooled.

So then, I’m thinking, “I’ve got Phil, Swinny & the extra person...this should absolutely swing the balance of power our way”. Unfortunately, Ultimate Karma had already set in apparently and with Phil mocking the SOTG score sheet, Jorge, Frank, Swinny & I were left to suffer the wrath of the disc gods, not to mention just some pretty good play on the other side of the field by Todd, Hollan, Rodney, & Wings (making his return after being gone a couple weeks).

Despite all the rain the evening before and earlier that morning, the field was in surprisingly good shape with hardly any standing water…well except for that one mud bog that MattP stepped in when pivoting for a throw. It distracted him so much that I came about a half second from getting a 10 count on him.

I found myself a half second or half foot shy in several other instances as well…going up for a jump disc against Todd, following Rodney across and enzone cut and watching his arms extend further than I’ve ever seen them before to catch a score, tossing my “machete” to Phil for a potential score gone bad, and whirling around on the final point of the game some 13 times before watching the disc land in Hollan’s hands for the final score.

At the suggestion of another faithful Buzzard, there has been some talk of offering up a couple monthly awards; most Outstanding Buzzard, and of course “Spirit of the Game” winner. The prizes are yet to be determined but we’ll start with May honorees. Please email me with your selections towards the end of next week. The “SOTG” award is self explanatory if you read the description on the upa.org website.

As far as criteria for the “MOB” award…I’m open for suggestions but it should, I suspect, be someone who has come out “regularly” (a majority of the games called), and who has demonstrated some Ultimate prowess, throwing efficiency, catching (layouts are a plus), and the underappreciated good defense. Perhaps when you nominate somebody you could just give me a couple bullets as to why you are.

Since we rarely keep score in any kind of official capacity and because my team pairing can be unfairly prohibitive to individual success at times, that should not necessarily be a factor in your nominations. Obviously, the MOB is going to make his/her teammates better but they still may not come out on top all the time. Also, to keep this as a morale booster (as if playing Ultimate everyday wasn’t enough), maybe we could stipulate that a player can not win the award more than once a quarter? I’m open for ideas. Shoot me an email if you have some thoughts.

Going to be a beautiful day for a game today…sunny, mid 60’s, don’t miss the chance to come out before the long weekend.

Running on empty...it's too late for me

Submitted by Bill

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheelsLooking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields.

I could hear Jackson Browne’s melodic Southern California style ringing in my ears yesterday as I returned to the field after more than a week away and struggled to find my wind. Of course, that wasn’t the worst of it. In my misrepresentation of my own running potential I must have evaluated some others on our green team similarly and when Todd lined up for the first pull and looked down the line to see who would be “running” with him he must have been discouraged not only to find he was a player short but that there weren’t a lot of chasers there on his side.

After the game, Phil remarked “Well, you had a lot of handlers…” and to be sure we had a very nice team of handlers yesterday. Of course, the handlers can’t just all hang back and throw to themselves in the middle of the field all day long and our inability to cut and slash and run vertically caused some problems yesterday. The lack of running was not limited to the offense and we let a lot of runners by us on the defensive side as well.

I called the game with 8 responses yesterday and then Wings came out after we secretly sabotaged the football game by having his boss call a meeting and then excusing himself at the last minute…okay, we’re not quite that conniving…or smart for that matter. So we had 9 confirmed on the way down to the locker room. I saw Swinny as I was leaving and that made 10 and then got out to the field and Paul had wandered out as well. That gave us the 6 on 5 game and for some reason I thought putting Phil, Swinny, Paul & the “sneaky fast” trio of Bob, MattC & Wings on one side seemed equitable.

Myself, Tim, Thunder & Shadow are more “bursty fast” which is to say we have bursts of speed surrounded by a lot of, um, “field stagnation” leaving Todd to wonder whether to cover Phil or Swinny each time down and playing the odds that Tim or I might be able to stay with the other for a play or two. Even when Lon wandered out and gave us and even 6 on 6, we seemed to have problems tying 3 or 4 completed passes together or marking all our men at one time.

Give gold credit for realizing this and making several nice short pass drives up the field and playing some good D. I told Bob on one trip down the field that usually I could just toss the disc up and count Todd being able to out hustle a defender to the disc but after watching a lazy pass into the end zone get quickly double teamed and drop to the ground I realized that I’d have to do a better job placing the disc.

You know each game seems to bring something unique to the field and yesterday was no exception. While setting up the cones we noticed a nice surprise toward the middle of one side of the field…a pile of horse crap! So, we deployed a couple extra cones and had the added bonus of aromatherapy. I think I may need to switch to jasmine, juniper berries or patchouli today because yesterday’s scent was too indicative of the way I played.

I want to take a minute to offer a hearty Buzzard farewell to another regular. Yesterday was Travis’ last day at HQ, and in fact, in the Coast Guard. As one of the few guys who could actually run with Swinny on a regular basis, you’ll be sorely missed. We wish you the best as you head to MIT to get more geekier. We hope to see you on their Team Page in the future.

Good idea of the day ~ Phil making sure to have a 120’x40’ yard field mowed at his vineyard for the annual Ultimate Vine Invitational ~ “Now, pulling for the Shiraz team, Thunder”… “Oh, what a layout by Swinny of team Reisling” Quick, respond now with your favorite grape and start recruiting your players

It’s good to be back Buzzards.

Doctor my eyes
Tell me what is real
I hear their cries
Just saying "It's too late for me"

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!

The Greatest Rain Game Ever (is that too hyperbolic?)

Submitted by the whiny, dutifully remorseful and apologetic (you told me so) Chief Buzzard, Bill

You know you’re having one of those weeks when the LTjgs have to pick up the slack for you…

After a weekend of hiking and then getting a torrential rain shower Sunday night, I thought, after peeking at the weekly forecast that Monday and Tuesday might be a good little break on the Ultimate field. Not that I don’t enjoy playing in the rain, contrary to all the “I’m melting” jibes I received Monday (despite actually being out there), I love playing in the rain. But I thought it was going to be thundering and lightening as well. It turned out being just cool and breezy and apparently there was a groundswell of voices wanting to play as Swinny called Phil before heading to a meeting to beg him to call a game.

Meanwhile, even though I did have gear here, well all except a towel, I thought I might just quietly sit in my cube, eat my Caramel Chex Mix and sleep…er…uh…I mean catch up on some work during lunch. And then I got caught! On my way back up from the Exchange and getting my Chex Mix, Rodney spotted me coming out of the elevator (I knew I should have taken the stairs) and asked in his quiet unassuming manner “What the hell are you doing here? Why aren’t you playing?”

So, I was shamed into going back to my cube and replying that I would come out. And it turned out…finally…to be a great sponge game. The whole walk out the field, it just started raining harder and harder and the wind was blowing and I was grumbling to Phil about what he had dragged me into. But after more than my share of whining, we got 10 out there as Kelly had been similarly manipulated and dragged out by Bryan.

It wound up being a great game of many layouts and slides. Frank, Hollan, Todd, Bob, & Scott were the other hard core Buzzards who came out. Well done everybody! You would all make the universal Ultimate club very proud. I felt like I was 11 or 12 again heading out to play football in the rain and mud. My cleats are still wet.

Kelly stepped up yesterday when I was legitimately tied up in a meeting (of very little value…especially when balanced against missing Ultimate) and I hear there was a great game of 12 and the sun finally came out.

Today the forecast is sunny and low 70’s. Time for all the fairer weather Buzzards to come out. It will not get any better than today for weather…but you really should try a rain game sometime. As demonstrated by Hollan and Bryan doing belly slides into puddles at the end of the game Monday, it will bring out the inner kid in you when you used to like to stomp in puddles and get muddy, and track dirt into the house (yea, Scott, I know that was just last week for you).

Fly high Buzzards. Pull!

Ultimate Dozen

There are a lot of great things that comes in sets of twelve, or dozen if you prefer. Some that come to mind for me right off are a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts…having recently “passed” another Coast Guard weigh-in, they can go back on the diet a little more often…do you know there is one of the old original KK factory stores in Richmond. You can go there and watch them rolling off the lines and get them hot…it’s pure ecstasy. There is also Horace Mann’s Twelfth Annual Report on Education. This will be incredibly obscure and probably unknown to most of you but I feel compelled to mention it since I had to read it during this current class I’m taking and much of the excuse I’ve given to not keeping this blog updated more often. There is, of course, the classic film The Dirty Dozen, of which may actually have some interesting application to the characters of this blog and we may address that later…how about a 12-pack of ice cold adult beverages? Realizing, I am way down the food chain of Buzzards as beer coinsures (maybe they’ll offer up a comments for some I’ve missed) here are maybe my top dozen brews, in no particular order…Amstel Light, Wiked Pete’s Summer Brew, Rogues American Amber Ale, St. Pauli’s Girl, Sam Adams Pale Ale, Anchor Steam, Schlitz (has an inexplicable dorm room nostalgia feel to it…I offer no excuses)…and you know what, I don’t think I can ramble off another 4 impressive ones so I’ll leave that to Todd, Swinny, Phil et al…I like the Twelve Days of Christmas, not the song mind you, but the actual days…I’m a holiday kind of guy and it’s a great excuse to bake desserts…but of course the best 12 is a dozen Buzzards flocking about in the sunshine for a game of Ultimate.

It was a fabulous turnout and game yesterday. Early on, it looked like a fairly even match up but for some reason the green team never really clicked and the gold team of Bryan, Bob, MattC, MattP, Hollan, Scott just found its groove and spanked us. Half this team is in recovery from some sort of injury, knees, calves, shin splints, hamstring…but you would not have know it from the way they kept getting open. The green team was definitely the more winded as Bill, Lon, Conrad & Frank kept watching their guys go by them. We stuck Todd with Bryan who complained after the game that he “didn’t get to run enough with 6’s” ….poor guy. Green also had a new Buzzard out on the field…Tim. He more than held his own showing that could both catch & throw as Scott observed…sometimes on the same play which can be a rare occurrence for us.

The first Ultimate cookout is in the planning stages. Hope to have something on the calendar in the next few days so stay tuned and be ready to tell your supervisor that you’ll be headed out for a game of Ultimate and then a cookout…estimated time back in the cube, uh, tomorrow morning.

Penniless, no Kash, just broke…

submitted by Bill (recently ressurected from school work)...

No, I’m not describing the current economic woes in the Chief Buzzard’s life…even as gas skyrocketed above $3.30 a gallon which you can really feel when you drive 250 miles to and from work a day. Have I mentioned that Bush (Arbusto Energy, Spectrum, Harken Energy, big Oil) + Cheney (Haliburton) = Exxon/Mobil Corporation record profits? Not, that I’m bitter or anything.

Actually, it’s the Buzzards Point Ultimate Club that was “penniless” on Friday. Shadow copped to having separated the pinnies from the rest of the gear the game before. Actually, well intentioned, as BPUC and Ultimate, in general, instills the kind of camaraderie and esprit de corps that makes everybody want to share in the responsibility and function of this well-oiled machine…but in the future gang, let's keep the pinnies with the gear (they are washed and cleaned for today).

Okay, maybe that was a bit melodramatic….In fact, the well oiled machine could use a some new parts. I mentioned no Kash. Friday we said goodbye to one of our regulars over the last year, Kash. Well, actually Friday was his last day but we haven’t seen him in about 3 weeks as he’s been job hunting presumably. A couple more of our regulars or quasi-regulars, Travis, MattC, & Sniper will all be on their way out soon as well. Couple that with Mallard’s move into the Witness Relocation Program and a solid part of the BPUC core, over the last year is or will be soon, gone.

What that means for the rest of you is that you need to get your best recruitment lines out now. I’m up for any and all ideas…cookouts, disc raffles, cube to cube visits, flyers, dunk tanks, skills fair…but we need some more players. We currently have about 50 names on the email distribution list but less than 20 of those have been out over the last few months

Okay, starting now, any current Buzzard who brings somebody new out that plays at least 3 times with us will get their own brand new 175 gram disc for themselves and the newbie.

The play the last few weeks should not scare anybody off. We look like we’ve been stumbling out of hibernation for the most part. There have been flashes of brilliance here and there buried under a lot of mediocrity. I saw Scott go head first last week in his first ever layout. Swinny and Todd continue to run most of us into the ground…by the way did we mention that Swinny won our Buzzard NCAA tournament bracket? Phil had his "best" and "3rd best" days ever...at least that's what he told his 2nd and 4th best friends...

There have also been a bunch of nagging little injuries lately. Please remember to stretch before and after as you need and act your age….no, I mean your real age with stress levels, cholesterol, blood pressure, and diet all taken into account.

Have some cool weather today but should be nice and then warming up through the week. No game on Thursday…there is a Papal visit planned for Nationals Stadium and much as I’d like to wander over and get a little holy water thrown on some of our Ultimate gear, I’ve been encouraged to stay away from HQ that day, as I’m sure some of you have as well.

Play nice and practice that next new throw…you know, hammer, off the head, bouncing through 5 arms, score!

Pull!

Finally...a dozen!

~ submitted by Bill

After about a week and a half of pretty nice weather but pretty sparse numbers (Travis & I got stuck on the short end of 2 on 3 game last week) we finally broke some people out of their offices yesterday…6 on 6!!!! It was upper 50’s, overcast, very light breeze…perfect day for Ultimate.

And the game was good. Seemed like a lot of running to me which you would normally think would be kind of the opposite when you have so many players. We may have been on a slightly smaller field yesterday also as we set up east to west instead of the normal north to south direction. Welcome to “the new guy”, Jay. Did anybody get contact info for him so I can add him to the distribution list? We were a man short yesterday on green when he came up to the field and asked to play.

I know the other team hated to tell him to put on a green pinnie because he was easily the tallest guy on the field when he walked on. And I know MattP would normally have been able to keep up with him but with his bad hammy, his vertical leaping is considerably hampered.

Speaking of leaping…did anybody catch Todd’s first few attempts at that yesterday? It was like he was hearing a different rhythm music than the rest of us and constantly going off the wrong foot. I think he mumbled some excuse about a volleyball tournament last weekend and a tender quad muscle but for those of us that are used to seeing Todd above our head, it was somewhat comical. He finally found his footing later on and was able to go up and grab a hammer throw from me in the end zone for an impressive score.

I mentioned Wings’ bad hammy…by the way if you saw that leg…it was ugly…but he managed to slip free for a couple scores that I noticed yesterday. Really not sure how that happened. He’s been studying Shadow’s elusive end zone camping apparently. The rest of gold managed some nice short passing drives yesterday. Swinny, Jason, MattC, Shadow & Hollan (who by the way I’m nicknaming “Ink” as soon as I get his ok…dude has some nice artwork) worked with Wings and gave them the edge for most of the game.

The green team of Todd, Bill, Bob, Travis, Conrad & Jay just couldn’t seem to get any consistency most of the game though they did figure out that offense was much easier when they were playing decent defense and made a few pretty good hustle plays for scores. But there were not a lot of long scoring drives for green yesterday.

March Madness begins today. The Buzzards have a friendly little pool going which, as of this writing has 7 participants, Scott, Todd, Ink, Bob, Swinny, Wings, & myself. I must say that for the most part the picks are fairly conservative. I’m in 3 different pools this year and there just aren’t a lot of upsets being picked. Now, I will mention that Swinny inexplicably has Wazzu (Washington St.) coming out of an East bracket where most of the smart money is either on Carolina or Tennessee, in fact the Buzzards were split on that one. And Bob has the bigger and crazier pick of Gonzaga coming out of the Midwest. But really, that may be the most open bracket and it wouldn’t surprise me to see one of a few teams emerge (not Gonzaga though). Our consensus pick was Kansas with Georgetown and Wisconsin also getting mention. The South also seems to be up for grabs even with a team (Memphis) with only 1 loss in that bracket. The Tigers were the consensus pick but not convincingly so with only 3 of us going that way. Two Buzzards picked Pittsburg to come out of that bracket and 2 others chose Texas. In the west though we unanimously chose UCLA as the Final 4 participant.

So right now, at 0634, there is still over 5 hours until tip off. You still have time to submit brackets.

Today’s forecast: This quote from the weather folks “A WIND ADVISORY MEANS THAT WIND GUSTS OF 45 MPH OR HIGHER ARE EXPECTED. WINDS THIS STRONG CAN MAKE DRIVING DIFFICULT... ESPECIALLY FOR HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES. USE EXTRA CAUTION.”

I don’t know if we have any “high profile vehicles” in our Ultimate club but I don’t know of any of us who can throw in 45 mph winds. We may take today off.

The Wind Blew In!

It was a great turnout yesterday for a chilly and windy day! In fact, we have some new award recipients for the Wind Ribbon. Only MattP on the gold team yesterday already had his so we added his teammates Travis, Eric, Conrad & Frank. And on the green team, Bryan and Lon picked up their ribbons and were playing with Todd, Bill, & Bob who already had played in 25+ winds which may have explained the big lead they shot out to early in yesterday’s game.

The disc was dancing all over the place though and it was a gusty wind so we actually had many (okay, some) instances of being able to complete long passes between gusts. Todd connected on a few to Bryan and myself (800mg Motrin has been a miracle cure!) and Conrad hauled in a long one as well. Mostly though, both teams were more successful with the short passing game (which I think neutralized Frank). Not the really short passes like when Conrad took one in his ear but the more “medium short” passes. Because at other times Eric was sailing one through the SE endzone corner multiple times in a strange jet stream and Todd, when not completing long passes, was throwing it in the ground.

I saw at least 4 hammer passes completed yesterday, maybe more. I think MattP & I each threw one for a score and there were others. Interesting that pass would be somewhat effective in that kind of wind. Especially for me since I can not usually throw it where I want it on a calm day.

Tried to run the “39 go” play a few times today with varying degrees of success. Speaking of that, good to have Lon back on the field. He and Swinny had checked the same weather report thinking it was going to be in the 50’s and had been lured out to find temps down in the 20’s with the wind chill. So thanks to everyone who did come out anyway because 5 on 5 is a nice game.

As we head to the weekend the Chief Buzzard will be headed to the mountains for a little hiking and photography. However, if you’re so inclined to stay home and take in some indoor activities I’ll give you my weekend preview…

Quick Buzzard’s-eye view on the world of sports…NFL: Commissioner is in town speaking to Congress about drugs in his sports…ironically, Kevin Faulk of the Patriots was in Louisiana hangin’ with his peeps at a Lil Wayne concert and got cited for “simple possession”…nice poetic juxtaposition there pigskin league…speaking of better living through medication…how ‘bout “The Rocket”? The latest on the Clemens saga is that his wife and the ex of Jose Canseco allegedly had an implant show and tell at a Canseco party. Ah the life styles of the rich and famous. March Madness is not quite upon us…check back next week or so and I’ll be starting to get excited. The gear heads are in Las Vegas this weekend…Look for Toyota to get its first win.

Not in the mood for sports viewing…I’ve watched several movies on DVD in the last couple weeks I would recommend with varying degrees of enthusiasm…Knocked Up if you’re feeling nostalgic about some friends you haven’t spoken to since college…Fantastic Four 2...okay outside of Jessica Alba in a jumpsuit, there's not a lot of redeeming value here…if you’re in the mood for an adventure sequel, I’d steer you towards Spiderman 3, Pirates – At World’s End, or X-Men: The Last Stand instead. Want a good sports movie? Invincible has been out a while but is a decent flick based on a true story…and if you need a good, hmmmm, how should I say this? Uh, let’s say something on the more relationship based…romantic comedy side then No Reservations I thought was pretty enjoyable.

Doesn’t look like we’re going to get enough to play today which is too bad. Now I’ll be forced to choose between flag football and studying for my class.

Fly high Buzzards.

Super Fat Tuesday Game Day

Was it actually humid yesterday? Seems hard to believe but in the first week of February we were all in shorts and short sleeves and actually very warm yesterday during the game. Today is supposed to be even warmer.

While the temperature was great yesterday, the play was not…well at least not for the green team who, despite being a player up for the first part of the game, was getting beaten by gold’s quickness and accurate passing. Chasing Kash, Travis & Phil around is not ever easy but when you put me, Wings & MattC on the same team…well, we aren’t the fleetest of foot perhaps. Visor & Swinny were looking for spare parts.

So, it was a good turnout. CaptK & Conrad also joined us. Brook was a no-show…though he was careful to have an email waiting for me when I got back to the cube letting me know it was the first time he’d ever responded for a game and didn’t come out…and as far as I can remember, he’s right.

I understand the game on Monday featured new or returning players. Welcome BrianT & Chris. In fact I got emails from newer or resuming players yesterday saying Monday’s game needed recovery time before they could come back out.

Today should test your throwing skills if you venture out. The wind is supposed to be near 20mph. Don’t be intimidated though…that’s why Ultimate is played with that 175 grams of plastic…it can be done. So grab a friend or co-worker and come on out today. We’ll be missing a few regulars so we need some of you other, less frequent, or better yet new players, to come join us.

Happy belated Fat Tuesday Buzzards and readers…it was a Super Tuesday as well and while I’ll probably try and refrain from making any obviously partisan political comments here from time to time I may appeal to your social conscience as a citizen. For those of you that call the metro area home, the Maryland, D.C. & Virginia primaries are next week…get to your polls.