One for the index finger...

The Lady Zerks have succeeded where so many teams have failed before: beating Wanna Buy A Duck in the Minneapolis Winter League finals. Apparently, all it took was all our women leaving for spring break tournaments and rotating in six women (mostly from Bait and CLX) not from our roster into the game. This unintenionally allowed us to avoid Duck's previously successful strategy of letting our less experienced women catch unders and then force no-dump. Call it an Asterisk Game if you will, but it's still a black mark on Duck's record.

Even though it makes me feel unclean, this title is going up on my wall of sports accomplishments including, but not limited to, 2003 High Tide Ultimate Champs, 2000 St. Olaf Intramural Volleyball Champs, and the Most Improved Player on Chippewa Falls Senior High's Varsity Men's Basketball team for 1999.

Isn't it supposed to be difficult to beat the same team three times?

At least, I'm hoping that's the case. The Lady Zerks prevailed by 3 points in our semifinals matchup against Rocket, who did not have any non-Masters males playing for them on Friday. This leads into a finals appearance against Wanna Buy a Duck. However, most of our women will be gone, so we may have to play 5 on 3. It would be their third victory over us this year if they win.
My prediction? Pain.

The First Love

Ultimate is great, don't get me wrong. I love the dynamics of the game. But most everyone has started with another sport before picking up the disc (okay, some naturally freaky athletes don't play sports until college). That's right, dammit, I still love watching soccer.

Be it the English Premier League some afternoons on ESPN, or highlights over at Footy Tube, I still love watching the (supposedly) boring sport that the rest of the world loves (okay, lump college basketball in there, too). I think that it has something to do with having at least some experience in a sport allowing someone to appreciate the best a sport has to offer at least a little bit more than the casual fan. This results in people thinking that NBA players don't try as much or that anyone could make a top-flight soccer team if they tried. And that's precisely what I find most amusing about professional athletics: they make it look effortless to the point that any schmuck thinks they know how to run an NFL team or balance a MLB roster. I'd lump Ultimate right in the middle of that as well.