<rant>
Barf. Vomitous Mass. The excrement of a thousand wasted frisbee-related weekends.
That more or less sums up my sentiments from our game last night. Quickly: after scoring the first point, we quickly went down 6-1 after a slew of idiocy - a dropped pull, a couple of turfs, miscommunications, you name it. We looked hideous. The other team's captain actually walked over and told us they would be "practicing their zone" against us, since clearly this game was so out of hand.
Not so fast, homes. We ripped off four straight to close it to 6-5. And then basically battled back and forth all game long, eventually closing it to down 12-12. And then the soft cap went on, and we scored, so we were up 13-12, game to fifteen. Nice, yah? So then they scored, and we scored, and the hard cap goes on. So it's 14-13 us, and we were under the badly mistaken impression that this meant that either we would win 15-13 or be tied 14-14, since "hard cap" usually means "last point." So they scored, and we were merrily walking off the field, happy that we had pulled out a tie after our early game gaffes. But no - it actually turns out we have to complete the game with a next-point wins, "Universe point." Uh-oh - nothing quite like walking off the field, thinking the game is over and having to play another point. So they pull to us, and someone whose name rhymes with "Hammerin'" throws his namesake instead of the open-side backhand. Turnover. But then they throw it away. And we throw it away. And they throw it away. Cue Woody Guthrie:
"This disc is your disc, this disc is my disc, whoops now it's your disc, whoops now it's my disc..."
Just HIDEOUSLY BAD. This included Al trying to get off a hammer but turfing it, me seeing Obert for a score in the corner and throwing it right to the cone... only he cut the other way. But BY FAR the worst was poor Crystal who, despite dropping a pull earlier, had played a fantastic game, including a SICK layout hammer grab for a score. But her unfortunate epithet is "Poor" because she cut deep, Al threw a gorgeous huck to her in the middle of the endzone: it floated down, no one within ten yards of her, game ove... GACK!!! She dropped it. Just a horrible feeling, both for having not won and just feeling bad for her. Our spirit was more or less shattered at that point, and the other team just walked it down the field. I commented to former teammate and VOTS webmaster Katherine that even though we lost by one, we should probably be marked down for a -11 point differential. Just really, really stupid Ultimate.
So the hangover is not from losing, because hey, it's spring league, and we did make a rather stupendous comeback considering how things looked at the outset. The barfiness is the general realization that this sport that I love was really, let's be honest, being played at a rather pathetic level last night. Just sickening to put that much effort and heart into something that can boil down to the stupid turnover, sloppy-fest that last night's game dwindled to. It didn't help that I tweaked a hamstring while warming up and pretty much hobbled my way through the day - I mean, I'm thinking of trying to play club, and I can't even play pickup and spring league on back to back nights without going lame? ARGH. Frustrating, and enough to probably make me skip tonight's Sprawl scrimmage in an attempt to heal up. Also frustrating - Tufts bud Craig was in town and present at tonight's game to see this whole debacle unfold. It was laughable on a profound level - a former teammate on a hyper-competitive club level seeing that my Ultimate outlet is only occurring on this silly, dumb, tragicomic level.
I hope this is not coming off as condescending - it's not "wow, I'm so much better than these players, blah blah blah." It's being upset that whenever I try to play at a more competitive level, I inevitably hurt myself, and so I'm more or less limited to playing at a level where things like this happen, where a supposed skill game turns into a total crapfest. And it's embarrassing to have your friend see you so far removed from whatever former glory previously existed. That's all, and I'm sure we'll have more fun next week. So it goes. But in the meantime, if you have a spare hamstring lying around, you know, one that doesn't get sore at the slightest provocation, let me know. Because right now I am looking at my own and vomiting in its general direction.
</rant>
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