Calling on Webster

Posted by Bill

We had our third great game of the week yesterday and while I’m at it I just want to welcome back out a couple people who have played sporadically with the Buzzards in the past and have been back out this week…Steve & Bridgette, great to see you both back out there!

“Skeptically humorous”…in case any of you were still wondering about the accusation flung about in the email exchange yesterday prior to the game. That’s what sardonic means and what my comments were labeled for questioning the intentions of some of the Buzzards for wanting to know how many were coming out to play yesterday. I apologize if I offended anybody by questioning their devotion to duty (extra points for working in a core value today).

Continuing to thumb through the BPUC vocabulary we stumbled across prostate (well, not literally) but as you’ll see in one picture below, Bridgette may have been on her way there with Todd if she’d taken any more clothes off him, prostrate which is what Rodney was after his fabulous lay out catch yesterday, and redundant possessive which happens with a misplaced apostrophe or when you watch the seagulls on “Finding Nemo” “mine, mine, mine, mine, mine”!

At any rate, we had 9 today as Bridgette did finally get out on the field though apparently fielding an important call on her cell as she tried to decide which color pinnie to wear and eventually joined Phil, Bob, Tim & Steve on the gold side. I saddled Todd with Rodney and myself again but also gave him Leroy hoping to find some sort of balance of speed. Who knew Rodney and I would actually both run a few times on the same play? What a pleasant surprise!

Hollan came out again and snapped off some more fine photography as you’ll see, though in a couple instances he may have missed the best action by a couple seconds either right before or right after it happened.

Todd had a great line yesterday by the way. After Leroy could not adjust to a pass in the end zone and pointed to where he wanted it to have actually been thrown, Todd remarked “Hey, if I could put the plate where I wanted all the time…” I’m not sure what the follow up was to the “If/then” statement but my own take is that it would be a lot less interesting.

If you check out the Flickr Ultimate Action Shots you’ll notice people making great leaps and lay outs for passes partly because the disc doesn’t always go where we want it and the receiver, occasionally needs to make a play…go get the plate!!!!!

Going to start getting a little hotter out this afternoon but we should be able to beat the 90’s by our game time. See you out there.




Bill chasing one down with Steve in pursuit.

Now this is tight D, Bridgette is literally undressing Todd as he tries to get off a throw.

More interesting D - Leroy high kicking on Phil.

Steve posting up Rodney.

MOB & SOTG Awards

posted by Bill

I may have forgotten to mention...to the wide audience our May award winners:

MOB (Most Outstading Buzzard) - Bob
SOTG (Spirit of the Game) - Bryan

Bryan was presented his award by a small contingent of the EXCOM (me, Todd & Phil) in his cube in the presence of an ungodly number of cadets wandering around.

Bob was presented his award standing naked in the locker room. We decided to forgo the photo op for that one.

And voting is open for June. Please email me with your nominations.

...or are you just happy to see me?

Posted by Bill

“Ultimate is a non-contact sport” I had to remind myself yesterday after getting body blocked to the ground by Phil and hearing Frank cheer in the background…

“Yea! Great move man!”

To be fair, there was a little of that big brother slips in the first shot, little brother’s retaliation is more dramatic and the only thing seen by the parents but geez Phil!!!!

Welcome back humidity! Did we mention, we didn’t really miss you though? After last week’s comparatively mild temperatures and low humidity, we were reminded yesterday that summer, has in fact, begun. It really wasn’t that hot yesterday but as the cliché goes “that ain’t what kills ya.”

#1 fan (he's got the t-shirt to prove it), and most active member of the disabled list, Hollan, was out on the field again yesterday taking some shots with my camera, fully charged on batteries this time. He remarked though that it was difficult to get good shots with the nice short passing game that the gold team was using yesterday. Frank, Phil, Bob & Leroy abandoned the long game after Leroy had some “tracking” issues on a couple discs up in the air.

“I hate this thing!” he said, shaking the orange 175g’s after a fumble in the end zone.

“Well” Phil said, later in the locker room “you know it’s not shaped like most things”. What Phil, you mean like plates & tires?

“Like most other sports gear” Phil clarified, “like basketballs, footballs, baseballs, golf balls”.

Ah, you’re right. Well, that’s because it’s not like most other sports. Did I mention Ultimate is non-contact? And self-officiated?

Exhibit A ~ Todd called a foul on himself (which even technically you can’t do, the person being fouled needs to call it) but he felt so bad about sending Leroy tumbling across the end zone line on a pass the clearly was going to be out of reach anyway. Well SOTG points for Todd, I thought it was the right call. It was a foul and you never know when somebody is going to make that “catching the disc in the air on the way out of the end zone tossing it back in for a score” play.

I put the extra guy on the green team yesterday because I had stuck Todd with myself, Rodney, Tim, & Tom. Now Tim is the youngest and swiftest of that foursome which is all you need to know about it because let’s face it, he hasn’t exactly shown “breakaway speed” out there yet. But lo and behold all four of us sprinted to the end zone on a couple occasions for scores. “I like the Monday legs” Todd observed with pleasant surprise.

There were a couple nice deflections caught for scores yesterday. Bob, to nobody’s surprise had one of them. You can’t let that guy keep circling around a disc like a Buzzard around roadkill. He’s going to grab hold of it eventually. And Leroy after a couple frustrating drops snagged one that I had managed to misdirect. Bob also made a nice play coming around Rodney on the end zone line and reaching in front of him to take away what should have been an interception. Rodney remarked he just needed a little refresher lesson on why you should come to the disc.

You’ll see a good picture below of Bob homing in on Rodney and the disc with Tom and Leroy also in the muddle. Surprisingly, there was no contact on this play other than maybe the disc bouncing off Rodney.

Repeat after me, “Ultimate is a non-contact sport”.

We've reached the maximum upload on Flickr for the month so good thing July is right around the corner.

Really, there was no contact between bodies here...just the disc bouncing off Rodney.

Todd looking for an open cutter.

Frank getting vertical against Tom.

Me catching one in stride...which means I actually was striding.

Okay, I have no idea what's going on here.

Photos part III

For the rest of the photos, check out my Flickr site.

More Photos

Posted by Bill ~ Photos taken by Hollan



Bill ready to flick.

Dennis...a picture of concentration.






Frank is watching the wrong flying object.



Phil & Todd have both already run by this.





Conrad curling up to throw as Paul runs to his right.

Paul getting ready to throw.

/a

Todd reaches over the still-grounded Phil for this one.

Phil strolling into the game.

There is no way Rodney is coming down with this between "The Two Towers"...Todd & Frank.

Todd finds a passing lane between Bill & Rodney.

Ink's photo essay...

Posted by Bill

Last Thursday was a good game as we had 5’s and we had a good run but I was questioning the wisdom of playing on the same day that I’d be walking 18 holes later on with Todd & Bob. But it was such a great day and both the Ultimate and the golf were great. Never mind that I had gotten up at 0300 and didn’t get home until 2300…that’s a long day.

Thanks by the way to Hollan, who came out and napped by the tree while he took a few pictures. And here they are for your enjoyment.

Rodney sporting his new "Sheed" look.

There's no way this isn't a collision.

Conrad laying down on the job.

Bill jumping just a bit too soon as Todd waits patiently.

"Please come down so I don't have to jump."

Categories of new players...

Posted by Bill

It was nice to get some decent numbers back out on the field yesterday. We want to welcome out two new players, Leroy & Kevin and one returning player, Brook, who had been gone so long he had to get put back on the distribution list first.

Leroy reminded me of some of the other summer hires, interns and students we’ve had come play with us before… "young and can run”…Thanks for making some of us more “seasoned” players feel even older and slower. And speaking of feeling slower…playing with Dennis yesterday I found out after that amazing catch he made in the end zone where I thought he just misplayed it but found out he was really juking up the defender first before running behind him and falling down to catch it…anyway, Dennis, who most of you know has some good wheels when he’s running is doing so short one ACL…I’ve got two perfectly healthy ACLs and I don’t usually run that well.

Of course the other type of player knows you can run smarter, not harder and that would describe our other new addition, Kevin. I knew he had played before as we were marking up he was shouting out the number player he was taking, “I’ve got 6”, which most organized Ultimate players will recognize as him saying he had the 6th guy from the left . Of course most of the guys on the gold team yesterday had no idea what he was saying and asked for some sort of clarification “green shorts”, Kevin elaborated, not wanting to confuse anybody with the jumble of names he promised to remember, albeit, not with any particular faces. I knew I was going to enjoy playing with him when I heard him mention “I don’t need anybody to mark me when I don’t have the disc, I can do that myself”. Sorry, Kevin, hope I didn’t let out the secret to your elusiveness.

So Brook, how was the first game back in, uh, how many months? Feeling a little gassed? It was fairly humid yesterday until about two thirds of the way into the game when we were mercifully given some cloud cover and a breeze.

Hollan was playing some mad D yesterday…well, right up until he broke his heel. Okay, so we don’t know exactly if that’s what happened but his negative reply to the game this morning “because I’m on crutches and headed to Bethesda” didn’t sound good.

Rodney and I both seemed pleasantly surprised at the lack of contact from each other after the game yesterday but he seemed genuinely offended that I told him I’d have to use veto power on any selection of him for SOTG in June. Speaking of the Spirit…Bryan brought the SOTG trophy disc out to the field yesterday. I initially suspected he’d been through too many hazing ceremonies and thought he had to carry it around with him everywhere until it was awarded to somebody else but as it turns out, he’s winding down his last week with us before departing to the upper Midwest and wants me to keep it safe so he doesn’t forget and leave with it.

Conrad…how is it you’ll drop a disc in the wide open but when I’m marking you and am all over you and tipping the disc, you manage to come down with it?

I heard Bob mention that there were a lot of good handlers out yesterday…I’d have to agree. Whenever you’re playing with Eli, Todd, Brook, or Eric, you know if you can get yourself open that you’re likely to get a good pass at some point. Todd may have made the best one on the last point of the game yesterday…a full length huck for a score.

We managed to keep Bryan from diving for anything yesterday, hoping to preserve him for his marathon this weekend. Good luck!

Going to be another great weather day today but surprisingly only 4 people have responded so far this morning. Hollan, you’re excused, the rest of you????