Masters Easterns 2007
Well, according to George Cooke, now I'm supposed to blog about Masters Easterns and all about how I did. Well, I have never been one to confound expectations. Despite ominous weather predictions for the weekend, the masters division ended up getting through almost entirely unscathed. Basically, other than a little misting on Sunday, the only rain that occurred was approximately 5 minutes after I left the field with my kids to drive to the local watering hole to celebrate the victory with Jim. It began to POUR, and I felt for the other divisions that had another round to play. Oh well.
The tournament format was set up beautifully for a bunch of old players with families and other obligations. After Pittsburgh bailed at the last second, we ended up with a 4 team tourney, round robin on Saturday then semis and finals on Sunday. The Saturday rounds were at 12, 2, and 4PM. Sunday was at 10:50 and 12:50. Talk about awesome.
We began the day against the DC Funk masters team. Keeping true to form (and also talking about myself), I promptly committed yet another first point turnover (2 games at WMO I did the same) when I slightly overthrew Zaz on a full field backhand huck. The difference this time was that we got it back and eventually scored. This game ended up being far more difficult than expected, which was a trend through much of the weekend. We took half 8-4 or 5 or so. The game stayed mostly close throughout and we eventually won 15-12. Iron Man Tom Coffin had brought his wife up for the tournament and it was good to see him out there still playing. It gave me hope. The next game was against Mt. Crushmore from New Hampshire. Dennis McCarthy, who actually made an appearance on Saturday for DoG, despite his ongoing recovery from recent right shoulder surgery, knew many of the players since he now makes his residence near Portsmouth and plays in the various leagues up there. Crushmore had had some difficulty against Above & Beyond in the first round, losing 15-5, so naturally we had to try and better that score to make sure we were truly the better team. After coming out playing man on the first point, we proceeded to zone and clam them to death, pulling away to an easy 15-3 victory. Meanwhile, A&B had taken half 8-3 against DC Funk, so we figured we might be able to start our game early against them. Well, DC proceeded to smoke them the second half and make it a game, tying it up a few times towards the end. They were playing on the field next to our sideline, so this naturally set up huge heckling opportunities, which we felt obligated to participate in. Best of all, it was a turnover fest, so there were lots of comments to be made. A&B pulled the game out 15-13, and ended up winning the game about 5 minutes before the next round was supposed to start. We had finished our game in less than 45 minutes, leaving us over an hour to 'get rusty'.
This brought up the 1-2 match against A&B from New York. Despite only having Matty Jefferson (that anyone could figure out) from the title winning NY squads at this tournament, they were playing solid if unspectacular ultimate. Arnold Sanchez was a rock for them, dominating the defensive side of the field and making things happen on offense. I already forget the flow of the game point wise. I think A&B might have gone up a few points in the first half, although that might only have been during Sunday's game. Regardless, the game was very close. We had a number of opportunities to extend the lead, but we continually frittered them away with ill-timed throws and bad execution. Also, our defense was largely lackadaisical. The man D was pitiful, and the zone was just OK, but had surprising success against them. Jeff "Dick" Brown came up with some huge blocks, as did Alec Ewald. We took half 8-6 pulling, and then in the second half, we gave up 2 goal leads (including the serve) 4 separate times, making the game much tighter than it needed to be. We ended up receiving at 14-14 double-game point (none of that universe point crap here) and fortunately were able to score without a turnover to win 15-14.
A few of us celebrated our day at the very convenient Deven's Grill and watched the Red Sox smoke the Yankees. I got home around 8:30, quick shower, then off to Jeff Brown's house for some poker with his Tufts buddies, including Alec Ewald who was staying over at Jeff's for the tournament. Well, $20 in, almost all Hold'em and I was up a little, down more, before finally ended up the last hand dealing blackjack $3 limit. Only 2 people took me up on it. We played around 8 hands, I NEVER had anything higher than a 7 showing, lost $12 on the first hand (one guy split and double downed one of his splits, I busted), before slowly working my way back and ending up down $10 on the night. I probably broke even playing blackjack, maybe up a couple of bucks.
Next morning we have the semifinals against Crushmore. The weather is looking more ominous, and this time I have Christian and Catherine with me. It is also significantly colder today, and I hadn't paid attention so the kids were in shorts and t-shirts. Catherine was fine but Christian definitely suffered a wee bit. Otherwise they kept themselves amused. The Crushmore game was more of the same, as we employed a variety of junk defenses, 2-3-2, 1-3-3, clam for 5, clam for the point, etc. Crushmore was short a few guns to really take advantage and ended up losing 15-6. A&B was a little more responsible against DC Funk this morning, and they won 14-8, setting up the rematch for all the marbles.
We received to start, scored, and then promptly went down 3-1 with some open grumbling about our poor play. We got it back a little at a time, and eventually took half again, probably 8-5/6. Again, we had numerous opportunities to put the game away, but we persisted in keeping A&B in the game, eventually winning 15-13. They put up a tough fight, and once they get the rest of their absent players, should be a force in the fall again. As for us, we were an old team. It remains to be seen who are the young guys that we are going to pick up to round out the squad. And, of course, those all-important 5 out of region players, at least one spot which is being used by Zaz who lives in Chicago. It will be interesting to see how we do at the Boston Invite in 3 weeks, where I hope (and assume) that we will be granted an entry into the Elite portion of the tournament. As Jim and I have speculated, there is definitely the potential of making the semis, although now that the bulletin board material is out there, we'll probably flame out in the pre-quarters. See George, I talked about the tournament with almost no references to my play...
Off-topic, this tournament continued a remarkable run of ultimate for me. I had mentioned in my last entry that I was going to be chasing down as much frisbee/pickup as I could because that was the only way for me to get into shape (HATE working out). Well, I ended up playing 5 times in 8 days, pickup Sunday, pickup Tuesday, summer league on Thursday, had the Showcase game canceled Friday, and then two days of Masters. It is actually great to be running around. I feel pretty good running these days although I am nursing very tight calves which have already cost me 4 visits to Russ this season. I made the observation numerous times towards the end of the day Saturday that in that one day of the tournament, I threw more long backhands than I did all last year with DoG, including all tournaments and practices. It was nice to air it out again and play with teammates that actually cut for it. I even pulled a bunch of times until, oh yeah, I left this out.
Against DC Funk, we were playing zone at one point and I was playing short deep (I think) or wing. They were on the right side of the field, and I was expecting a hammer. I baited it beautifully, they put it up, and I was springing crossfield to make the play. Tracking the disc behind me, I also could sort of see Jude (from Tufts) getting ready to make the catch. As the disc finally passes by me and I'm going up, I see that Jude has bent his legs to lead into me with his knees to protect himself, and he proceeds to totally crush my upper chest. Fortunately I had not thought of ducking during the play, or I might have needed a new set of teeth. As it was, I called injury sub, and yelled at him as I lurched off the field, "What are you doing leading with your knees?" or something witty and urbane along those lines. I had been pulling a bunch up to that point (and surprisingly well), but my first pull after this occurred, I felt something go in my front equivalent of the trapezius, and gave up pulling duties for the rest of the weekend. After that I was very selective for my longer throws as they hurt each time. I was also a lot more tentative when we played hot box to warm up before games, as there is a LOT of contact in the box in our variant, and any upper body contact HURT. BTW, there still isn't a better warmup for an ultimate game than playing a good game of 3-3 or 4-4 hot box. And just to clarify for everyone, a goal requires TWO feet in the box, not one. We now play that to clear the disc only requires one pass away from the goal, so you can have two people literally play catch in and out of the goal to score multiple points in a row. It makes the game VERY fast-paced and exciting, requiring a lot more effort on the turnover to get back and cover the box because of the quick strike offense.
It was fun to see a bunch of oldsters out there, from both DoG and other teams. Oh yeah, I ran into Tiina Booth, and we had a nice discussion about frisbee and blogs (don't worry, I won't give up your secret). Guess that's about all for now.
The tournament format was set up beautifully for a bunch of old players with families and other obligations. After Pittsburgh bailed at the last second, we ended up with a 4 team tourney, round robin on Saturday then semis and finals on Sunday. The Saturday rounds were at 12, 2, and 4PM. Sunday was at 10:50 and 12:50. Talk about awesome.
We began the day against the DC Funk masters team. Keeping true to form (and also talking about myself), I promptly committed yet another first point turnover (2 games at WMO I did the same) when I slightly overthrew Zaz on a full field backhand huck. The difference this time was that we got it back and eventually scored. This game ended up being far more difficult than expected, which was a trend through much of the weekend. We took half 8-4 or 5 or so. The game stayed mostly close throughout and we eventually won 15-12. Iron Man Tom Coffin had brought his wife up for the tournament and it was good to see him out there still playing. It gave me hope. The next game was against Mt. Crushmore from New Hampshire. Dennis McCarthy, who actually made an appearance on Saturday for DoG, despite his ongoing recovery from recent right shoulder surgery, knew many of the players since he now makes his residence near Portsmouth and plays in the various leagues up there. Crushmore had had some difficulty against Above & Beyond in the first round, losing 15-5, so naturally we had to try and better that score to make sure we were truly the better team. After coming out playing man on the first point, we proceeded to zone and clam them to death, pulling away to an easy 15-3 victory. Meanwhile, A&B had taken half 8-3 against DC Funk, so we figured we might be able to start our game early against them. Well, DC proceeded to smoke them the second half and make it a game, tying it up a few times towards the end. They were playing on the field next to our sideline, so this naturally set up huge heckling opportunities, which we felt obligated to participate in. Best of all, it was a turnover fest, so there were lots of comments to be made. A&B pulled the game out 15-13, and ended up winning the game about 5 minutes before the next round was supposed to start. We had finished our game in less than 45 minutes, leaving us over an hour to 'get rusty'.
This brought up the 1-2 match against A&B from New York. Despite only having Matty Jefferson (that anyone could figure out) from the title winning NY squads at this tournament, they were playing solid if unspectacular ultimate. Arnold Sanchez was a rock for them, dominating the defensive side of the field and making things happen on offense. I already forget the flow of the game point wise. I think A&B might have gone up a few points in the first half, although that might only have been during Sunday's game. Regardless, the game was very close. We had a number of opportunities to extend the lead, but we continually frittered them away with ill-timed throws and bad execution. Also, our defense was largely lackadaisical. The man D was pitiful, and the zone was just OK, but had surprising success against them. Jeff "Dick" Brown came up with some huge blocks, as did Alec Ewald. We took half 8-6 pulling, and then in the second half, we gave up 2 goal leads (including the serve) 4 separate times, making the game much tighter than it needed to be. We ended up receiving at 14-14 double-game point (none of that universe point crap here) and fortunately were able to score without a turnover to win 15-14.
A few of us celebrated our day at the very convenient Deven's Grill and watched the Red Sox smoke the Yankees. I got home around 8:30, quick shower, then off to Jeff Brown's house for some poker with his Tufts buddies, including Alec Ewald who was staying over at Jeff's for the tournament. Well, $20 in, almost all Hold'em and I was up a little, down more, before finally ended up the last hand dealing blackjack $3 limit. Only 2 people took me up on it. We played around 8 hands, I NEVER had anything higher than a 7 showing, lost $12 on the first hand (one guy split and double downed one of his splits, I busted), before slowly working my way back and ending up down $10 on the night. I probably broke even playing blackjack, maybe up a couple of bucks.
Next morning we have the semifinals against Crushmore. The weather is looking more ominous, and this time I have Christian and Catherine with me. It is also significantly colder today, and I hadn't paid attention so the kids were in shorts and t-shirts. Catherine was fine but Christian definitely suffered a wee bit. Otherwise they kept themselves amused. The Crushmore game was more of the same, as we employed a variety of junk defenses, 2-3-2, 1-3-3, clam for 5, clam for the point, etc. Crushmore was short a few guns to really take advantage and ended up losing 15-6. A&B was a little more responsible against DC Funk this morning, and they won 14-8, setting up the rematch for all the marbles.
We received to start, scored, and then promptly went down 3-1 with some open grumbling about our poor play. We got it back a little at a time, and eventually took half again, probably 8-5/6. Again, we had numerous opportunities to put the game away, but we persisted in keeping A&B in the game, eventually winning 15-13. They put up a tough fight, and once they get the rest of their absent players, should be a force in the fall again. As for us, we were an old team. It remains to be seen who are the young guys that we are going to pick up to round out the squad. And, of course, those all-important 5 out of region players, at least one spot which is being used by Zaz who lives in Chicago. It will be interesting to see how we do at the Boston Invite in 3 weeks, where I hope (and assume) that we will be granted an entry into the Elite portion of the tournament. As Jim and I have speculated, there is definitely the potential of making the semis, although now that the bulletin board material is out there, we'll probably flame out in the pre-quarters. See George, I talked about the tournament with almost no references to my play...
Off-topic, this tournament continued a remarkable run of ultimate for me. I had mentioned in my last entry that I was going to be chasing down as much frisbee/pickup as I could because that was the only way for me to get into shape (HATE working out). Well, I ended up playing 5 times in 8 days, pickup Sunday, pickup Tuesday, summer league on Thursday, had the Showcase game canceled Friday, and then two days of Masters. It is actually great to be running around. I feel pretty good running these days although I am nursing very tight calves which have already cost me 4 visits to Russ this season. I made the observation numerous times towards the end of the day Saturday that in that one day of the tournament, I threw more long backhands than I did all last year with DoG, including all tournaments and practices. It was nice to air it out again and play with teammates that actually cut for it. I even pulled a bunch of times until, oh yeah, I left this out.
Against DC Funk, we were playing zone at one point and I was playing short deep (I think) or wing. They were on the right side of the field, and I was expecting a hammer. I baited it beautifully, they put it up, and I was springing crossfield to make the play. Tracking the disc behind me, I also could sort of see Jude (from Tufts) getting ready to make the catch. As the disc finally passes by me and I'm going up, I see that Jude has bent his legs to lead into me with his knees to protect himself, and he proceeds to totally crush my upper chest. Fortunately I had not thought of ducking during the play, or I might have needed a new set of teeth. As it was, I called injury sub, and yelled at him as I lurched off the field, "What are you doing leading with your knees?" or something witty and urbane along those lines. I had been pulling a bunch up to that point (and surprisingly well), but my first pull after this occurred, I felt something go in my front equivalent of the trapezius, and gave up pulling duties for the rest of the weekend. After that I was very selective for my longer throws as they hurt each time. I was also a lot more tentative when we played hot box to warm up before games, as there is a LOT of contact in the box in our variant, and any upper body contact HURT. BTW, there still isn't a better warmup for an ultimate game than playing a good game of 3-3 or 4-4 hot box. And just to clarify for everyone, a goal requires TWO feet in the box, not one. We now play that to clear the disc only requires one pass away from the goal, so you can have two people literally play catch in and out of the goal to score multiple points in a row. It makes the game VERY fast-paced and exciting, requiring a lot more effort on the turnover to get back and cover the box because of the quick strike offense.
It was fun to see a bunch of oldsters out there, from both DoG and other teams. Oh yeah, I ran into Tiina Booth, and we had a nice discussion about frisbee and blogs (don't worry, I won't give up your secret). Guess that's about all for now.
posted by Alex de Frondeville at 7:44 PM
11 Comments:
It was Philly (Old Sag) that bailed, not Pittsburgh.
Boy, the games are running together for me, too, but I think we went down 3-1 to A&B in the Saturday game and went ahead 5-3. The rest is hard to remember.
Hot box is only fun until someone loses an eye. Then it's hilarious.
Alex,
If Jude's knees were in your chest, where does that put his crotch? I'm sure your readers want to know the whole story...
Paul P
DC Funk
Well, keep in mind that he had effectively done a leg raise leading with his knees, so actually his crotch was still a couple of feet away. Keep trying...
Hi Al,
I have fond memories of playing with BEU in 04 and I appreciated the opportunity to participate. I recall getting on the line at one point and looking down (I was on the far right of the line) to see you, Jim, Mooney, Cork, Dennis, and Zaz on the line. I was hoping that the other team would pull before someone stated singing "One of these things is not like the other" (I can imagine the conversation of the other team as they set up their match-ups: "I got 1", "FU....I got 1"...etc).
At one point we lined up our team by ego size and I remember that you, Dennis, and Jim were fighting it out for the Big Ego slot at the end(this exercise caused me some consternation as I felt I should be somewhere on the low side of the ego line. Of course, I started an inner dialog in which I wondered if putting oneself on the low side of the ego line is ACTUALLY a statement of ego. I was rendered incapacitated by this conundrum. Zaz and Marshall helped out by switching me(to lower) and Simon(higher) in the line based on the fact that he drives a BMW while I drive a RAV4.
So,I thought my comment in my blog would actually be taken as a compliment. Sorry if it wasn't.
Thanks for the team-oriented write-up and congrats on the tourney win.
-G
"Despite only having Matty Jefferson (that anyone could figure out) from the title winning NY squads at this tournament, they were playing solid if unspectacular ultimate."
Hey now, what did I do to deserve such a denigrating comment? If I am so easy to figure out, how come I got open so much that weekend? I'll be sure and watch you play next time so that I understand how not to be predictable in my cuts.
I did see us play some spectacular ultimate a few times on the A&B side, btw. Think Showers skying over Moons, lather rinse repeat.
Arnold was spectacular on D, but we actually had to overcome several mind-boggling turnovers on his part (remember his turf on our own goal line TWICE!!) to get back in the game.
If you guys are gonna challenge in Masters, you better come up with a better O than repeated long hucks to Alec, of which he caught 8 shame on us(several very luckily).
MJ
George: Just trying to work it for some sympathy. I'm well aware I have a big ego, thus the team name is most appropriate.
Matty: I don't see that as a negative comment. You are still annoyingly uncoverable.
And word on the Showers/Moons matchup.
And yes, we have LOT of work to do on many fronts, including figuring out how to get younger and actually play respectable D.
I was surprised at how much you guys struggled against the zone though, but that won't be as effective across the board at Nationals I'm sure.
no doubt our inability to play conservative offense when necessary hurt us throughout the tourney. the reason DC came back against us was pass after ill-advised pass in the 10% likelihood of completion range. In addition, any of the completely assinine low percentage throws that miraculously were complete were cheered wildly with high fives by my teammates.
anywho, I thought you meant that anyone could figure me out as in how to cover me and thus my huge NYNY ego was bruised a bit.
both our teams have a lot of work to do in order to be in the hunt for the trophy, and thank god we have lots of time to work out the kinks. we still are settling on our roster and were trying some of the SALT guys out.
looking forward to tangling with you guys again soon.
Alec Ewald! The man taught me to play Ultimate and then disappeared off the face of the planet. Glad to hear he's still playing.
j
That's what moving to Vermont will do to your frisbee career.
George,
After we lined up by ego, I never did get a chance to explain the concept of an enlightened, but still big, ego. Al is the perfect example of someone who wears his ego on his sleeve. Jim and Dennis are similar (Dennis wears his a bit lower): give them an opportunity to lay claim to their own greatness, and they will avail. But the enlightened ego sees the bigger picture, namely that such squabbling is seen as crass, hence actually damaging to the self. The enlightened ego lines up at the highest level *below* the shameless squabblers.
This is a secret, one that should never be advertized (thus buried in an out-of-date blog comment, or on page ... of a certain book).
-zaz
I'm still bitter that I blew out my knee at Terminus this spring and so had to miss this tourney. Nothing I like better than shutting down the Count... Hopefully, I'll be available when Funk plays y'all again.
And hey, Mattie J, nice to see you are still out and about as well!
-- Scooter
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