Levelset

I don't really know what that means...I guess I do though.

8th Grade Travel team has two (2) more games in regular season. We play in a 12 team league so a bye for 1st round of playoffs is already out. Gotta win these 2 for a good spot for a run. Over the last couple of weeks we've lost by one point, two points and four points in games we might've/should've won. Short roster and missing players (for a variety of reasons) contributed.

The game we lost by one was amazing. We literally had at least 20 shots go in & out of hoop. It was surreal. Anyway, we play a game tonight we should win. And one Sunday. Then we see what we are made of. It's been real, I only have about 2 more weeks with these boys, most of whom I've coached for the last five years. Time flies.

I Stand Accused

Rec hoops this morning. Really early. 9AM.

Playing a team coached by a guy who, shall I say, pissed SoulSlam off. But that's not unusual. We have a rule that all players must play at least 1/2 the game. The spirit of the rule is that all players should get fair playing time. So in a basketball game, if say three (3) players are on the court 95% of the time, and four (4) players are basically playing for two (2) spots, then technically the rule wasn't broken. I admit as much.

Now, we had 8. I would say that within a minute or so, most of my boys played about 25-26 minutes total.
25 x 8 = 200. That's how many player minutes are in a 40 minute basketball game.

So what am I doing standing on a soapbox? It's rec. And all the boys deserve to play. Here's how the other team shook out:

Player 1 = 32 minutes (he only took this kid out because I complained to the wishy-washy league director at halftime)

Player 2 = 40 minutes

Player 3 = 40 minutes (I never saw 2 or 3 leave court once)

Player 4 = 22 minutes

Player 5 = 22 minutes

Player 6 = 22 minutes

Player 7 = 22 minutes

So after the game I told the fat little weeble of a coach that it was BULLSHIT playing 3 players the whole game. His response was "he didn't play three the whole game"...and I guess that is technically true. At that point I told Chubby that he was a piece of shit. That's when it got good.

Mr. Technicality told me I was an asshole. And that I was the reason his son didn't play baseball anymore. Which I found funny since I never coached his kid. And since his kid could never, ever hit a baseball, I found it funny. I did remind the round mound of baloney that his kid was good at stealing laptops, since he stole YSSS's.

This is gonna get bigger!

Like a Merry-Go-Round

That you can never get off...it's about 8 degrees (not a typo) here right now at 11:30AM and the forecast for the weekend is more snow and ice. Sweet. Holy crap.

Quick 7

I started this bit of rant 'n' roll approximately seven years ago on a lark. Time flies.

My boys were 9 and 7

I drove a minivan I think

My max bench wasn't what it is now

The Mets were terrible

Twitter wasn't really a thing yet, at least not with me

Max & Maggie (my pups) were just puppies

My wife was as beautiful as she is today

Here's the first posts from February 2008 if you want to delve...

BRRRR!

We have got historic cold here in North J. I think I read someplace important that we haven't had weather this cold in decades. I will attest, it is a might chilly.

We also have snow or ice every 2-3 days or so...waiting on another storm overnight. The baseball diamonds may not be ready to use in two+ weeks when NJ HS Baseball starts...

Chemistry

I started typing a whole big story here, then deleted.

Team's need chemistry. Without it you got nada. Just a bunch of players all for themselves.

That's bad juju.

Needles

Right now I feel like needles are all around me. No matter what goes on, there's always a dark cloud hanging.

I need a sunshine day. Maybe one will come along, but that's aways away.

I Hate Winter

Wasn't always that way. But the constant precipitation and cold is killing me.

Winter Pool Blues

So SoulSlam detected that he's gonna need a new pool liner this upcoming season. Water level has dropped significantly since closing in early October. Me and YSSS patched liner about 4x in late summer, so at 8+ years old, the time has come.

Today, with all snow and ice we have gotten the pool cover has slipped/dropped in...just tried to pull the bad boy up after removing some snow but's it way to heavy. SoulSlam was figuring I may have to release cover sooner or later anyway if it didn't warm up soon, so this made the decision easy.

Taking bids on liner replacement!

Baseball Longing

I'm here in the sub-frigid tundra of North J counting the days/hours/minutes to MLB spring training, as well as OSSS's HS tryouts on 3/6 and YSSS's MS tryouts sometime in mid-March. It's BASEBALL! And you either like it or you can leave.

As American as Apple Pie!

I long for the days when I would hit my Johnny Bench Batter-Up for hours on end in the backyard.

Chill

It is/has been cold around here. Yesterday it warmed up a bit, but we are back to frigid and gray. Looks like Scandinavia.

Forecast is pretty dismal too. Looks like a real wintery weekend coming up...which is 100% not required.

In hoops news, we lost a tough one last night. 46-44. I'm down a player since he's too busy being hurt for my games but OK for his school games. He's my most talented player. Now he'll be my most talented sub. That was his choice when he decided to pick the MS team over the one he's played for since 4th grade. Gotta be fair with the boys who come and compete (some of which are on same school team). So I am tremendously proud of the way they have competed and played w/o this player.

Injured

Here's what I once read/heard/remember....

If you are injured, don't play. If you play, don't tell me your injured when you don't play well.

Words to live by.