Win or Lose, We Booze: Season 1 Wrap Up

In spite of rain outs, poor field conditions, an in-progress Hasbro commercial that kicked us off the field, and the holidays, our kickball team finally finished our season a few weeks ago, only 6 weeks behind schedule (note: the season was only supposed to last 8 weeks to begin with)!

During the regular season, we had 6 losses (or what I like to call "moral victories") and one "win" (which I only put in quotation marks, because the team we were playing was down three players - that's if you include the girl that couldn't do anything but stand on the side because she had just had a C-Section and was only there to keep them from having to forfeit). Over the seven games, we scored 32 runs and had only 89 runs scored on us (which pretty aptly shows that all of our moral victories were pretty crushing).

Surprisingly, we performed much better during the playoffs. The tournament was elimination/bracket style, and in true form, as the penultimate team in the league (ranked #14), we were slated to play the McKool Smithies (#3) for the first round. We had played them once before, and they had obliterated us 13 to 1. During the playoffs, however, things were different. After falling behind a few runs early on in the game, we managed to come back and tie the score in the 7th inning, which meant overtime. We were then able to not only score a few more runs, but hold the other team at bay when they were up to kick, and win the game! The underdogs coming back to win against the somewhat rude team that had beaten them so badly before? I call that movie magic!

Unfortunately, the movie magic ended there, in that we lost to the SEC Ballers during a very uneventful second round. But it's probably for the best; had we won, we would have had to give up a Saturday to finish the tournament.

Buster Bluth: "(Holding up a trophy) And I finally feel good about myself. 'Saddest.'"
Michael Bluth: "And I saw those people, that was a very competitive category."

Highlight of the season? Watching how our team was able to eke out some of the weirdest plays I've ever seen. For example, there was one point where Brian bunted, thought it was a foul (even though it wasn't), and just stood there. He then wandered around aimlessly (in a somewhat circular motion) for about 2 minutes (with the ball still in play) and eventually slowly took first base. Amidst the confusion, Jared slowly sauntered all the way from second base back to home for a run without anyone even trying to tag him out. How does that even happen?

Low point of the season? Getting hit in the face with the kickball (that will teach me for closing my eyes when trying to catch a fly ball). Although, I must admit, even at the time it was pretty funny (in spite of the fact that my face was numb for the rest of that inning).



All in all, we did much better than I expected us to do. If nothing else, we're in a much better position for the next season, which is already off to a very good start... but more on that later.

What are some of the weirdest sporting event happenings you've been witness to? Do you think that Hasbro should have let us be extras in their commercial in exchange for cancelling our game last minute? For other members of Win or Lose, We Booze: what would you consider the highlights and low points of the season?

Win or Lose, We Booze

A little over a month ago, one of my long-time friends called me up from out the blue (or more accurately, texted me up) with a new and exciting opportunity. He was forming an adult, recreational kickball team (with the team name Win or Lose, We Booze*)! It took me a good 3 seconds of deliberation before my mind was made up: I had to get in on that action. Not only would it afford me the opportunity to finally have something in common with one of my coworkers (who kept regaling us with tales of his kickball league last spring and the hilarity that would inevitably ensue during the course of each game), but it would also give me a chance to reclaim yet another favorite elementary-age past time of mine that had, until now, been long forgotten.

Was I nervous? Sure. The only kicking I had done since those recesses of yesteryear had been either on football fields at half time (when I was in drill team) or as an accompaniment to screaming whenever Hannah wanted to go to Jin's Asian Cafe in College Station for dinner. In addition, I knew from past experience that my catching and throwing skills left much to be desired (I wasn't benched for multiple seasons of softball for nothing). Regardless, once Jeff assured me that no one actually expected me to have any talent whatsoever, and that this was going to be a purely social league, I was very excited.

Doesn't our team look so fun?

We've now played four games, and while we've lost every single one of them (we were so close to winning one when the other team had forfeited in order to watch the World Series, but when game 6 was postponed, so was their forfeit reneged), it has definitely been worth it. I've made some new friends, tried something new, and gotten slightly better at running short distances (although catching and throwing are still definitely not my strong points). I've also been pretty good at strategically placing myself in center field, flanked by athletic gentleman, in order to ensure that I can do as little damage as possible (much like the strategy I employ when playing Super Smash Bros., as Princess Peach is pretty good at floating in the corner of the screen unnoticed).

With only three games and a tournament left in the season, there has been talk of enrolling in some other team sports, but I fear that more mainstream sports may have a bit more a serious strain about them. The novelty and lighthearted nature of kickball are what make the games fun (we actually played one really serious team last week, and it just looked like they were all having a horrible time because they were way too into it and constantly frowning - I mean really, when you're 10 runs ahead, you might want to loosen up some). I'd definitely be on board for another round of kickball and potentially a team for dodgeball, but I don't think anything more serious would interest me (although I will say that volleyball was the one sport that I didn't totally suck at as a child)... so we'll see how that goes.

Here's hoping that this week's game will go well!

Have you ever participated in any of those adult recreational sport's leagues? Were you forced to play kickball in elementary school P.E. classes? Next time around, should I put "Fish Guts" on my jersey, instead of my last name, in honor of Mark from Blink 182? 

*Disclaimer: Boozing not dependent on winning or losing; ties and/or forfeit included. We come for the game and stay to party.*

(That's what we have written on our jerseys!)

Everyone is happier when we do the tap-tapioca!

I've been watching a lot of movies as of late. And yes, since the beginning of October, they have been almost exclusively Halloween-esque movies (with the one exception of a late night viewing of Sky High because Kirsten was too scared to go to sleep after watching Scream). What I've noticed is that even Halloween movies, with all of their blood, guts, and all around terror, can hardly resist the lure of dance sequences! Beetlejuice (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) features Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis using their newly acquired other worldly powers to make an entire family sing and dance to the Banana Boat Song. Leslie Neilson got to show off his (or probably a body double's) dancing ability in both waltzes and tangos in Dracula: Dead and Loving It. We get to see "Madonna" shakin' it with "Dadcula" in Hocus Pocus, Frankenstein and Frankenstein's monster acting as a chorus line in Young Frankenstein, and a romantic floating slow dance in Casper the Friendly Ghost.  Suspiria (fantastic suspense-thriller from the 80s directed by none other than Dario Argento) is about a ballet academy run by a witch/ghost. From Dusk Till Dawn is rife with vampire strippers, so some slight dancing is involved (or at least some jiggling... or whatever vampire strippers do). Gomez and Morticia Addams almost never stop dancing with each other (especially after Morticia speaks in French; Gomez loves when she speaks in French). And let's be honest, I can't be the only person who mentally superimposes the video from "Thriller" at least once during every zombie movie. Even the makers of Mad Monster Party (also the makers of classics such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) decided to ignore the naysayers and look past the fact that swing dance translates horribly in stop motion animation movies when they made Dracula and Francesca (Dr. Frankenstein's lady robot assistant) lindy hop (Dracula's stop motion tap-dance translated even worse).



In Mad Monster Party, both Dracula and a zombie came on to Francesca
 way too strongly for a children's movie, in my opinion

In spite of how bad Dracula's tap dancing was in Mad Monster Party (Frankenstein's monster wasn't that much better), this was one of many dance numbers I've watched recently that has gotten me all the more excited for next Tuesday. "What's happening next Tuesday?" you're probably asking yourself. Well, I'll tell you! Starting next Tuesday, I will spend 8 weeks learning to shuffle, scuffle, chugg, and slap in an adult beginners tap dance workshop! (Note: it's only one 60-minute class each Tuesday, I won't be doing this for 8 weeks continuously.)

I have always wanted to tap dance. When I was young, I would frequently try to trick my mom into getting me tap shoes whenever we'd be buying dress shoes, but something about them being super loud usually tipped her off (she claimed that tap shoes were inappropriate attire for Easter Sunday mass, but I have my suspicions). I even signed up for a tap class one semester in college, but the mixture of tap shoes not being free and the school's request that all dance students wear nothing but leotards and tights (in a class where you're surrounded by stick-thin girls) was enough to make me drop it. But now, after watching Singing in the Rain, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and that one episode of Psych where Gus is an awesome tap dancer, I finally decided to get on the Google and find me a tap class in town. How fortuitous for me that there was an adult beginners workshop starting up so soon!

Even if it does mean that the next 8 weeks are going to be extremely exhausting and hectic (I also joined a recreational kickball league on Wednesdays that lasts 8 weeks... not to mention the fact that holiday season is upon us), I'm really excited about what's in store!

Have you ever tried tap-dancing? Do you think it's odd that the title of this post references one of the only dance numbers in Thoroughly Modern Millie that didn't involve tap-dancing? What's your favorite Halloween movie?