Sports: not just for watching anymore

[dumbfish]

We have the biking thread, but not much else for sporting endeavors in which we participate. So here goes.

I play some pickup hoops, and have encountered some differences in rules across geography and time. Wondering what LPTJ's input is on this: If you call a foul as you shoot, and the ball goes in, does your team get the bucket or just the ball? At UNC the tradition was you got the bucket, but at NC State and other places the rule was usually just the ball. Which is more common?

I've encountered lots of other differences in basketball cultures, but this seemed like the juiciest.

[alex]

Are you talking a game on a full-size court with two baskets, teams of five, and shots worth 2 or 3 points? Or a streetball-style game with less players, one basket, and shots worth single points? Because for the former, I've always played as getting the points PLUS one free throw, and thought of that as quite standard. For the latter, I have no clue how it's done hereabouts, for lack of experience.

I wish I had people to play basketball with! I had a bunch of people who mostly didn't take it too seriously and weren't overly competitive or bothered by people playing badly (which is a prerequisite for me wanting to play, because I play quite badly and don't particularly care that I do) when I lived in Vienna, but haven't played for a few years now. I keep thinking about signing up for playing in the university sports court, but I'm too intimidated. Plus it'd be awkward if I ended up playing with my own students.

[jebreject]

I kicked some ass at some darts last night let me tell you. Probably the only sport I'm really decent at.

[hannah]

dumbfish: the last time I played pick-up hoops (which was probably like ten years ago), I'd say you'd sacrifice the bucket for the ball. That's what you get for being a whiner, after all.

I wish I had people to play basketball with! I had a bunch of people who mostly didn't take it too seriously and weren't overly competitive or bothered by people playing badly (which is a prerequisite for me wanting to play, because I play quite badly and don't particularly care that I do) when I lived in Vienna, but haven't played for a few years now. I keep thinking about signing up for playing in the university sports court, but I'm too intimidated. Plus it'd be awkward if I ended up playing with my own students.

I am in the same exact boat. I even put my name in as a "free agent" for the university intramurals league, but that didn't pan out... I wish there were some women's pick-up games I knew about, or something.

[dumbfish]

Alex, that's interesting. That approach is most similar to the real game, but I've never seen it in pickup (ie, no referees, teams chosen arbitrarily) here. I assume that's because it'd be too easy for an offensive player to call foul after foul, since the players referee themselves.

People use this argument in support of the "just the ball" approach as well. My problem with that approach is that the offensive player has to make a decision right after s/he gets fouled-- do I call or do I want the result of the shot? And it's considered bad form to wait until you see the result of the shot before calling the foul. Weird, huh?

Jeb: As a fellow large person, how do you feel about leaning forward to shorten the distance between you and the board in darts? Is it explicitly forbidden, implicitly frowned upon, or fair play? I don't know darts well, but in beer pong it's mostly just frowned upon.

[elpollodiablo]

I kicked some ass at some darts last night let me tell you. Probably the only sport I'm really decent at.

I'm wicked good at darts! It is the province of large gentlemen.

[alex]

Alex, that's interesting. That approach is most similar to the real game, but I've never seen it in pickup (ie, no referees, teams chosen arbitrarily) here. I assume that's because it'd be too easy for an offensive player to call foul after foul, since the players referee themselves.

I should probably say that my experience is probably not representative of what you call pick-up. I really only ever played in a proper team (with a referee or, during training, a coach doing the refereeing) or in the aforementioned group of acquaintances who barely even bothered to keep track of the score, and where there was very little fouling going on anyway. Come to think of, I'm not even sure the situation even arose there - it's entirely possible that I just assume that that's how it would be handled because that's how it works in the real game.

[Ignatius]

Calling the foul on a shot almost always means the ball has no chance of going in, according to my narrow experience with pickup ball. If you were to claim that you were hacked on a jump shot, but it didn't affect the trajectory of the ball enough to keep it out of the basket, it must not have been much of a foul, you know? I guess if you manage to power or spin it in underneath/on a layup despite hard contact, you can rightly claim that you deserve the basket and foul. But even then I feel like if the shooter thinks she can score in that situation, she would rather fight through the foul and take the points. That's what makes the 'and one' call a boast - the shooter felt he was hacked, but waved it off because he's a superior talent and can't be stopped even by fouling.

Does this make sense to anyone? Basket or the ball, anyway, not both.

[dumbfish]

Yeah. I've actually played in games where saying "foul" got you the foul and not the shot, and "and one" got you the shot and not the foul. If you said "and one" and missed you got nothing but disdain.

[kyle]

I play on two mens recreational league soccer teams in a league called the Central Virginia Soccer Association. It's got like 9 or 10 divisions with something like 100 teams and the competition gets pretty intense up there near the top.

Last year my 6th division restaurant team (Sticky Rice FC) went undefeated and won the CVSA version of the Europa cup (the cup for teams that aren't in the Premier, 1st, or 2nd divisions... called the Copa Bruce Cup) in overtime against a 4th division team. It was pretty astoundingly momentous and if you were facebook friends with me at the time you would have been inundated with tagged pictures of me drinking beer with a large trophy or singing Queen songs into the night. It was pretty hilarious that people would for months afterwards bring it up to me randomly at shows or whatever. "I saw on facebook that you won something... congrats?"

Well, here are a few photos:

[img width= height=]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs530.snc3/30105_888585670093_6213468_47874456_4267025_n.jpg[/img]
I'm the one with a fist in the air

[img width= height=]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs550.snc3/30105_888585869693_6213468_47874481_1754872_n.jpg[/img]
Sports are great.

[img width= height=]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs546.snc3/29925_1489083634186_1446830288_1269806_7730660_n.jpg[/img]
After party. Giving love to the trophy. They apparently don't let teams take the trophy if they win. You just get your name on it and then it just sits in a display case at the CVSA office. Somehow our coworker/injured goalie convinced the guy that it would be safe.

We didn't damage it, but it might have needed a good buffing afterwards. A month or two later they brought us a trophy to keep in exchange for taking back the Copa Bruce. We were sad to see it go, but you can drink beer out of the new trophy, so that's a plus.

Thank you for allowing me to discuss this.

[Nick Ink]

That is brilliant on a wide range of levels, kyle!

Sticky Rice FC are now officially my 4th favourite team, behind the Mighty Irons, Brighton & Hove Albion and Greenock Morton FC.

[coldforge]

Sticky Rice FC. Excellent name.

[alex]

I'm also a fan of Sticky Rice FC.

[coldforge]

By that same token: Greenock Morton FC. Sounds like a smelly friend of my grandfather's.

[kyle]

Thanks everyone! There have been some other really great team names in CVSA, like Beef FC, or Somalia Pirates United.

[Andrew_TSKS]

So hey, there is a UFL team in Virginia Beach now. I'm already planning a road trip to see a game this fall. Which is to say that I'm talking about it to pretty much everyone I know in hopes of getting them as stoked about it as I am.

[El_Josharino]

Yeah dude, I @ed you on Twurtster last night declaring an Omaha/Virgina UFL rivalry.
We'll just see if you can find a tandem of running backs to match Ahman Green and Maurice Clarett.

[kyle]

So hey, there is a UFL team in Virginia Beach now. I'm already planning a road trip to see a game this fall. Which is to say that I'm talking about it to pretty much everyone I know in hopes of getting them as stoked about it as I am.

Andrew I'd be down to go see one of the Arena Football games. Also there's a Virginia Indoor Soccer league, which would be fun to go see.

[kyle]

Showed up to watch my friends play their championship game for their indoor team, but they were short on players so I ran home and grabbed my crap.

We were down 1-5 at halftime, and came back and won 7-6. Pretty incredible time.

Outdoor season starts on Sunday and I'm already sore. Wooo!

[FreddyKnuckles]

Played basketball for like 3 straight hours at the community center tonight. Knocked down a couple of 3s but I kept missing easy putbacks. The competition is good over there which is nice

[El_Josharino]

Baseball activities have resumed in Omaha! Even though it was like 35 degrees today, we all said "Fuck this, let's play baseball." We had a pretty decent round of BP and fielding practice and I realized in a hurry what a loaf I'd been all winter. The first time I swung the bat, I lined a fastball for a double in the left-center gap, which sure felt nice. Everything after that was pretty rusty. Summer should be pretty fucking awesome.

[kyle]

First game day was a rainy one. We were all surprised that they let us play through what turned into a pretty significant downpour.

First game we won 3-0
Second game we won 4-1

It was fun while out of the field, but on the sidelines it was pretty cold and miserable.

[El_Josharino]

We finally got in a couple of full baseball games today. I played decently, I had a few defensive putouts at short, and logged a few innings at second and left field. It was kind of a rough day at the plate, going 1-4 with 2 BBs and 2 K's. The K's were especially tough, as they came against my buddy Brendan. We have an unspoken rivalry when I bat against him, and usually we come out pretty even, but he had my number today. I did manage 4 stolen bases, though, which was great, even if I always scrape myself up doing it thanks to always sliding headfirst. I think stealing bases is probably my favorite thing to do in baseball. It's especially fun for me, because dudes always underestimate me due to the fact that I'm a big doofy chubby clumsy guy, but I'm a big doofy chubby clumsy guy with surprising speed.

[kyle]

Exciting second match today!

Sticky Rice was playing a team that wasn't as good as us, but our core players had played a pretty tiring first game so we weren't at 100%. We were up 2-0 from a free kick cross that caught the wind and ended up in the top shelf, and a well ran counter (which I started, hehe) that led to our center mid getting a through ball to him going 1v1 the keep and he slotted it. I was playing a sort of Stopper/Destroyer position since one of our integral defenders was out of town. Went for a header and thwacked some other guys head and as I fell caught his knee in my face. Luckily just a fat lip, though I was checking my nose for the next ten minutes.

Later on, our tiredness was showing and we started conceding a number of dumb fouls, one of which was just outside the box and expertly curved over the wall. Well, expertly for division 5 mens rec. We then gave away a PK right at the end for a handball which was arguable. The ref called it only to have our player show him the welt he had on his side from where the ball had struck him, not on the arm. Our center back got a red card for calling the ref "fucking retarded". This is not out of the norm for him.

So we run the ball back up to the midline, most of us accepting the three points dropped, only to have our midfield and forwards work some magic in the next ten seconds after the restart. After four passes and a horrible attempt at a slide tackle by their center back our man Lou, who is turning 40 this year, put us through! The ref blew the whistle right afterwards.

Pretty crazy how easy it is to go from resigned disappointment to absolute exultation. Created some last minute magic. Good sports day, however I had to run home and shower and come to work and stand around till 3am, which is where I am now. I feel like I fell down some stairs.

[Thermofusion]

So hey, there is a UFL team in Virginia Beach now. I'm already planning a road trip to see a game this fall. Which is to say that I'm talking about it to pretty much everyone I know in hopes of getting them as stoked about it as I am.

Andrew, did you see who's coaching these guys?