Archive for the ‘sports’ Category

Spring DC Bocce League: Week 4 Recap

Thursday, May 14th, 2009
A Teal of Two Schwettys

Fact: The only thing better than eating salmon for breakfast is eating salmon-flavored Schwetty Bocce Balls for dinner.

In Week 4 of the Spring DC Bocce League, Change You Can Bocce feasted on their salmon-colored opponent in a 14-9 shellacking for the ages. Though The Beast, The Captain, and Mr. Awesome were significantly outnumbered (2 humans, 2 dogs) by their opponent, Petes Schwetty Bocce Balls, their insatiable hunger for salmon-flavored victory was enough record their second consecutive win this season. You had to see it to believe it!

The win marked a critical step toward our goal of an undefeated season; indeed, few teams in bocce history have ever lost their Week 4 match and still managed to go undefeated. Will there be a challenger?

Do you have what it takes?

—————————————————————————————
Week 2, April 28: Change You Can Bocce 16, Bocce Ballers 10
Week 4, May 12: Change You Can Bocce 14, Petes Schwetty Bocce Balls 9
Regular Season Record: 2-0
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Spring DC Bocce League: Week 2 Recap

Friday, May 1st, 2009
Change You Can Bocce

The 2009 spring bocce season has already offered its share of adversity. A 10-minute torrential downpour postponed Week 1, and DC Metro construction left Change You Can Bocce without two of its stars, Mr. Awesome and Dr. Clutch, for its Week 2 match against Bocce Ballers. Even worse, our Week 2 match took place on the bocce courts, which meant we didn’t have the luxury of relying on the unpredictable grassy terrain, “the great equalizer”, to mask our inadequacies.

For these very reasons–and because they agreed to pay the $40 entrance fee–we recruited two entirely new team members for the 2009 spring season. Until Week 2, neither of these individuals had even so much as cradled a bocce ball in their hands, let alone competed in an organized league, and therefore neither had been assigned nicknames clever enough to pass our rigorous nickname-vetting process. After all, everyone knows that nicknames can only be awarded for amazing feats of physical dominance, clutch maneuvers, or generous gifts of golds and spices.

Fast forward to the end of our Week 2 match — the score is 13-10 and only a few minutes remain until the game is called. Our newest teammate, Anuj, against all notions of logic and tradition, hurls his ball into a tight corner, knocking all of our opponents balls out the way, and securing a 16-10 victory for his team. A HUGE shot by Anuj! An-HUUGE!!

And, so it was decided, to the list of Change You Can Bocce members, which includes The Beast, The Enforcer, The Captain, Unkle Unkool, Mr. Awesome, and Dr. Clutch, we add An-HUGE!

Now that we have that resolved, we will try to work on perfecting our simultaneous complex aerial maneuvers, as demonstrated quite unsuccessfully in the above picture.

—————————————————————————————
Week 2, April 28: Change You Can Bocce 16, Bocce Ballers 10

Regular Season Record: 1-0
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Tea(l)Bagging Party – You’re invited!

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Tea(l)Bagging

The 2009 DC Bocce Spring season may have been postponed by a 15-minute thunderstorm that sent the District of Columbia into a whirlwind of uncontrollable fear and panic, but that didn’t stop our team, Change You Can Bocce, from showing up to Garfield Park last Tuesday night for our opening match. Of course, you wouldn’t know that because we were the only team that showed up!

While we were disappointed that our match was cancelled, we were thrilled to pick up our swanky teal team t-shirts. That’s right: TEAL. Become familiar. It is the color of inevitability. The color of your doom.

DC Bocce League: mark your calendars for June 13, the DC Bocce Spring Championship. There will be a Tea(l)bagging party, and everyone is invited.

(cue extended maniacle laughter)

Prediction: Arizona Cardinals to Super Bowl in 2009-10

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
ARIZONA CARDINALS 2009-10 REGULAR SEASON
Date Opponent Outcome Score
31-17
28-21
38-33
24-21 OT
30-10
34-17
20-13
28-0
21-17
34-28 OT
31-3
29-12
10-6
45-13
38-7
20-7
28-21


Predicted final record 16-0

(the over-time victory during their bye week does not technically count toward their win total)

ESPN SportsNation Super Bowl survey

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

(votes for Cardinals in Blue, Steelers in Red)

Check out this survey on ESPN’s SportsNation, which shows the nation completely divided on its Super Bowl predictions. Interestingly, the western half of the country predicts the Cardinals, while most of the eastern half picks the Steelers. Talk about critical analysis.

What does all of this mean? Nothing. Who even cares? The Cardinals are in the Super Bowl!

Cardinals to Super Bowl Email Template (distribute freely)

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Feel free to adapt this template for your personal email correspondence.

Cardinals,

–Body of email– (which must include some mention of Cardinals, Super Bowl, and Cardinals to Super Bowl)

Cardinals,
Cardinals

P.S Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals 33, Carolina Panthers 13

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

I cannot adequately describe how amazing it has been to watch the Cardinals this season. For those who have never followed a perennially horrible franchise, it might be difficult to understand exactly why this has been such an emotional experience. Patriots fans are upset when their 11-5 team does not make the playoffs. Still, they have 3 Super Bowls in the last few years. The Cardinals have now won 3 playoff GAMES in my entire lifetime. They have two winnings seasons, and that includes this year. Arizona Cardinals fans have never experienced this. More thoughts to come…

Cards to Super Bowl!!

Just a recap of the ridiculous emails and messages I received during the game last night:

Chris C.: Since I don’t have my Bengals, my hearts is with the Cards. GO AZ!

Steve T.: Hey, I think Fitzgerald is open!

Lindsor: I wish I could watch, but I’m out seeing Marley and Me instead.

Devon: We are having a blast! Everybody is shouting “Let’s go Cardinals!”. Wish you were here!

Jen: Super Bowl tickets first in line du pee du!

Marty: A dream.

Pouya: Unreal.

The Pejman: John, can you believe this?! I love you and the Cardinals!

The Pejman: I just ran around ESPN Zone screaming, ‘Cardinals!’

The Pejman: In case you missed it, I predicted the Cardinals to Super Bowl in 2009! Move over Nostradamus!

The Pejman: This is really happening! Cardinals in the NFC Championship! Somebody get me gasoline; I’m lighting myself on fire!

The Pejman: I think I am dead.

MG: Congratulations!!

Richard: I am going to riot in Charlotte.

The Beast is The Beast in The Beast

Saturday, January 3rd, 2009

With the bocce season on hiatus, each member of The Greatest and Best Team in the World is free to pursue their own personal endeavors (that is, in addition to our rigorous off-season nutrition, acupuncture, and exercise regiment). For example, Jennufine and the Captain pass their time as Citizen Foresters with Casey trees; the one individual whose nickname did not pass our nickname-vetting process worked for the Obama campaign; and the others prefer a quieter, low-profile experience.

The same cannot be said for The Beast, who throughout the year will be appearing on A&E’s The Beast, a gritty crime drama about a veteran FBI agent assigned to a new partner, unaware that he was recruited as a double agent to investigate his activities. Thrilling! Don’t worry–all of the episodes are scheduled to film prior to the Bocce season to ensure The Beast will not miss a single throw.

Please tune into A&E to support one of your own, The Beast, if not to preserve the sanctity of DC Bocce, then certainly because The Greatest and Best Team in the World (representing The Beast) has signed an incentive-laden, back-end contract deal based on the show’s performance.

Unleash the Beast!

Ronde and Tiki Barber make a pretty good team

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

While shopping for children’s books with Linslee and Matt, I came across the book, “My Brother’s Side”, written by professional football players and twin brothers, Ronde and Tiki Barber. I’ll give you a moment to chuckle to yourself. Be thankful that you aren’t in a children’s book section trying to stop your chuckling. It doesn’t come off well to the parents.

I haven’t read the book, so I can’t provide much of a review. Let’s just assume the Barber brothers write as hilariously hyper-articulate as they speak. I did notice that the cover of the book mirrors reality: the players appear to be wearing the stripped down, de-commercialized uniforms of Ronde and Tikie Barber’s teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants, respectively. I wonder how they decided to have Tiki’s team dodging tackles and running untouched toward the endzone.

Anyway, I give the book 4 stars. I also present to you the world famous Ronde Barber/Tiki Barber Song, which was written in a time and place and by a person we will never know.

Verse 1
Ronde Barber
Tiki Barber
Hey Hey Hey
Geraldine Barber

Verse 2
Ronde Barber
Tiki Barber
Hey Hey Hey
Geraldine Barber

Verse 3
Ronde Barber
Tiki Barber
Hey Hey Hey
Geraldine Barber

Chorus
Ronde Barber
Tiki Barber
Hey Hey Hey
Geraldine Barber

My Arizona Cardinals predictions become a reality!

Thursday, January 1st, 2009
WK DATE OPPONENT Prediction Score
1 Sun, Sep 7 atSan Francisco Win 23-7
2 Sun, Sep 14 Miami Win 33-14
3 Sun, Sep 21 atWashington Win 18-14
4 Sun, Sep 28 at NY Jets Win 27-10
5 Sun, Oct 5 Buffalo Win 24-13
6 Sun, Oct 12 Dallas Win 23-20 OT
8 Sun, Oct 26 at Carolina Win 42-9
9 Sun, Nov 2 at St. Louis Win 20-10
10 Mon, Nov 10 San Francisco Win 27-3
11 Sun, Nov 16 at Seattle Win 33-27
12 Sun, Nov 23 NY Giants Win 14-13
13 Thu, Nov 27 at Philadelphia Win 26-10
14 Sun, Dec 7 St. Louis Win 17-14
15 Sun, Dec 14 Minnesota Win 38-21
16 Sun, Dec 21 at New England Win 24-18 OT
17 Sun, Dec 28 Seattle Win 21-0

The NFC West Division Champion Arizona Cardinals went 9-7 during 2008, and not coincidentally, I also went 9-7 in my season predictions. Correct predictions are highlighted in red to create an obvious visual distinction between those predections that were correct (red) and those that were not (black). Some of my predictions were eerily similar to the actual scores, suggesting I may have a future in psychic reading or other fields requiring supreme clairvoyance. These predictions include but are not limited to:

  • Week 1, I successfully picked the exact number of points, 23, scored by the Cardinals.
  • Week 2, my final score prediction of 33-14 was eerily close to the actual final score, 31-10.
  • Week 4, I chose a Cardinals blow-out victory while in reality the Cardinals suffered a blow-out loss.
  • Week 6, I successfully predicted a Cardinals overtime victory over the Cowboys.
  • Week 11, I successfully predicted the margin of victory over the Seahawks.
  • Week 16, I predicted the Cardinals would score 21 points in a win over Seattle while in reality the Seahawks scored 21 points in losing.

At this point, I can no longer discuss my amazing predictions for fear that their macabre connections with reality may set in progress a series cataclysmic events which might ultimately bring about the end of the universe. Pretty cool, huh?