Boston Corporate League 2006
So, on Thursday night I played my first summer league game of the 2006 season. I have to admit, there is nothing like playing summer league to feel like you can still play the game. The team I play on, SwillMillGrill, is a conglomeration of various teams that have gotten too old and lost too many players to field their own teams so they have combined to become one swilly team that likes to play and party. The roster is probably somewhere between 30 and 40 players, but we're luck to field any more than 12-14 at any given game, and NEVER on time.
My kids are finally old enough that I can bring them out to a game when the weather is reasonably nice and not have to worry about them too much. It also helps when we have some extra players on the sideline. The fields were still a little messy after the deluge of rain we have had for the last 3 weeks, including 2 more days of pretty solid rain this week. So I got a little messy in the first half when I slid and sank my butt into some grass water.
Back to the validation of playing summer league... I played the entire first half (we went down 4-1) and got through about 5 or 6 points before they started focusing on me, with their sideline continually saying 'don't let him touch the disc.' At one point our guy was walking up to the line as they are saying this, so I tell my defender 'you got that?' and he laughs and says, 'yeah, now don't move'. After we went down 4-1, we started playing zone with our ragtag collection of oldsters (including 3 iron(wo)man who had to play the entire game with none of them younger than 40, well, maybe Sheila). Now our zone is nothing to write home about, and yet for some reason it continues to confound teams. I'm sure most of my loyal readers are aware that I salivate for teams to throw zone against DoG, or pretty much whatever team I'm playing with. So I am always leery of playing zone defense myself, not quite comprehending how people turn it over.
Regardless, I played one of the deeps, and we rode the zone to a 6-4 lead before taking half 8-5 and pulling downwind. During half, my son Christian says he needs to go poopoo, and I'm trying to negotiate with him to try and wait/hold it in, whatever. Jeff Zabel offers to take him to the bathroom so I can keep playing, but that's not really fair, so I take the kids to the port-a-potties at the WAY far end of the fields, trying to rush them along. As I'm watching, they stuff and score right outside the other endzone to make it 9-5, so I feel pretty good we have the game in hand. Naturally by the time the kids are done with the bathroom and we get back, it is now a 1 point game and I rush back in. We start trading and at one point are 12-11 or something close like that. Keep trading before we pull the game out 15-12 or something like that. It must have frustrated the shit out of the other team, who I'm sure felt they should have beaten us pretty thoroughly. Also, late in the second half, we switched back to man which occurred at just the right time, as we got some more quick turnovers and closed it out.
Now keep in mind we had maybe 2 or 3 people under 40, myself at 39, Tyler who is markedly younger, and maybe 1 other person right around my age (maybe...). We had a guy, Nooch, who retired in '86! Two years after I started playing. The first point he was in, we said we were forcing forehand, and he said 'What?' He ended up actually playing pretty well with solid throws.
More validation... in summer league games I break out the hammer big time, and this one was no different as I threw close to 20 hammers, a bunch for goals, a bunch that were dropped early on (and they weren't even my more difficult bladey ones that were dropped. Very frustrating). Makes me realize that I need to throw them a little more with DoG, because it is truly a weapon that can be taken advantage of. It got a little funny after awhile when I got the disc anywhere near the endzone. People would start clearing that space and then EVERYONE was looking for the hammer. The best catch of the day was probably the hammer I threw to Westy, one of the ironwomen. I caught a pass outside the downwind endzone and it was pretty crowded. She had curled in for the forehand, and then curled back out. I immediately threw one of the truly bladey ones to her, and she was actually expecting it even though she wasn't looking anywhere near me when she flared out. She turned and had maybe one second to catch the disc in stride, and she made the great stumbling catch for a huge point.
I threw anywhere from 6-9 goals, including LOTS of hammers, blades, and the nonesuch. It also helps that DoG has been doing conditioning runs already so I have a headstart going into the summer season. I definitely felt like I was running well out there. Finally, it was nice finally having a reasonably hard field to run on after two weeks of CRUDDY fields at DoG practice.
Finally, the Mill portion of the team. We play swill, we mill after the games with numerous beers, and we usually grill with a portable grill. Unfortunately we don't have our usual fields this year so we are travelling to 'away' games a little more, and this field wasn't appropriate for the grill (and far from the parking lot), so it was just the 'mill' portion with beer. Stayed at the fields for another hour milling (naturally the other team, Swingers, left long before then), then brought the kids home to get to bed at 9:30, a solid two hours after their bedtime. For once, they went straight to sleep...
My kids are finally old enough that I can bring them out to a game when the weather is reasonably nice and not have to worry about them too much. It also helps when we have some extra players on the sideline. The fields were still a little messy after the deluge of rain we have had for the last 3 weeks, including 2 more days of pretty solid rain this week. So I got a little messy in the first half when I slid and sank my butt into some grass water.
Back to the validation of playing summer league... I played the entire first half (we went down 4-1) and got through about 5 or 6 points before they started focusing on me, with their sideline continually saying 'don't let him touch the disc.' At one point our guy was walking up to the line as they are saying this, so I tell my defender 'you got that?' and he laughs and says, 'yeah, now don't move'. After we went down 4-1, we started playing zone with our ragtag collection of oldsters (including 3 iron(wo)man who had to play the entire game with none of them younger than 40, well, maybe Sheila). Now our zone is nothing to write home about, and yet for some reason it continues to confound teams. I'm sure most of my loyal readers are aware that I salivate for teams to throw zone against DoG, or pretty much whatever team I'm playing with. So I am always leery of playing zone defense myself, not quite comprehending how people turn it over.
Regardless, I played one of the deeps, and we rode the zone to a 6-4 lead before taking half 8-5 and pulling downwind. During half, my son Christian says he needs to go poopoo, and I'm trying to negotiate with him to try and wait/hold it in, whatever. Jeff Zabel offers to take him to the bathroom so I can keep playing, but that's not really fair, so I take the kids to the port-a-potties at the WAY far end of the fields, trying to rush them along. As I'm watching, they stuff and score right outside the other endzone to make it 9-5, so I feel pretty good we have the game in hand. Naturally by the time the kids are done with the bathroom and we get back, it is now a 1 point game and I rush back in. We start trading and at one point are 12-11 or something close like that. Keep trading before we pull the game out 15-12 or something like that. It must have frustrated the shit out of the other team, who I'm sure felt they should have beaten us pretty thoroughly. Also, late in the second half, we switched back to man which occurred at just the right time, as we got some more quick turnovers and closed it out.
Now keep in mind we had maybe 2 or 3 people under 40, myself at 39, Tyler who is markedly younger, and maybe 1 other person right around my age (maybe...). We had a guy, Nooch, who retired in '86! Two years after I started playing. The first point he was in, we said we were forcing forehand, and he said 'What?' He ended up actually playing pretty well with solid throws.
More validation... in summer league games I break out the hammer big time, and this one was no different as I threw close to 20 hammers, a bunch for goals, a bunch that were dropped early on (and they weren't even my more difficult bladey ones that were dropped. Very frustrating). Makes me realize that I need to throw them a little more with DoG, because it is truly a weapon that can be taken advantage of. It got a little funny after awhile when I got the disc anywhere near the endzone. People would start clearing that space and then EVERYONE was looking for the hammer. The best catch of the day was probably the hammer I threw to Westy, one of the ironwomen. I caught a pass outside the downwind endzone and it was pretty crowded. She had curled in for the forehand, and then curled back out. I immediately threw one of the truly bladey ones to her, and she was actually expecting it even though she wasn't looking anywhere near me when she flared out. She turned and had maybe one second to catch the disc in stride, and she made the great stumbling catch for a huge point.
I threw anywhere from 6-9 goals, including LOTS of hammers, blades, and the nonesuch. It also helps that DoG has been doing conditioning runs already so I have a headstart going into the summer season. I definitely felt like I was running well out there. Finally, it was nice finally having a reasonably hard field to run on after two weeks of CRUDDY fields at DoG practice.
Finally, the Mill portion of the team. We play swill, we mill after the games with numerous beers, and we usually grill with a portable grill. Unfortunately we don't have our usual fields this year so we are travelling to 'away' games a little more, and this field wasn't appropriate for the grill (and far from the parking lot), so it was just the 'mill' portion with beer. Stayed at the fields for another hour milling (naturally the other team, Swingers, left long before then), then brought the kids home to get to bed at 9:30, a solid two hours after their bedtime. For once, they went straight to sleep...
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 8:37 PM
5 Comments:
nice write up. i often wonder if it's just being a lefty, or if my hammers arent' any good.
i certainly love the throw.
And then I ran smack dab into DoG practice today (Saturday). I'm not sure I threw a single hammer, although a number of blady forehands. I had one coast to coast backhand for a goal, and that was about it. A few lazy turnovers, some good handler D and an actual D or two. Oh yeah, and a heel bruise which will hopefully be gone for tomorrow's practice.
If find I'm somewhat more motivated to catch your "more difficult bladey ones" -- like the buzzsaw to the throat you threw the first half -- it's pure self-preservation. Missing would really hurt.
So what your fans want to know is how many D blocks did you have playing Deep in a zone?
Are you Al e Fron eville? or can you still force some turnovers?
I had a few D's. Not exactly rocket science when playing deep at corporate league.
Funnily enough, Jordan Haskell was at the Boston Invitational, Day 2, and he said about that Corporate game, and being very coy about it and saying I couldn't tell anyone else, but it was the best game he had ever seen me play. Oy!
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