I’m no longer Gee-Kaw.
As Finley’s speech has improved he’s getting closer to saying grandpa. For now I’m Pan-Paw. Perhaps by his second birthday in a little over two weeks I’ll officially be transitioned over to grandpa, but I’m not too sure I like the generic name. Perhaps when he gets a little bit older and can understand the concept of individual names we’ll decide to revert back to Gee-Kaw or some other special moniker. Gilda is still Gee-Gee.
I spent an ultimate weekend with Finely and Co. (his parents) in Sarasota, Fla., this past Thursday through Sunday at the USA Ultimate (Frisbee) Club Championships. For the second straight year Dan’s team, Boston Ironside, matched its undefeated tournament record against San Francisco’s undefeated Revolver. Sadly, the results repeated, as Ironside lost by an identical 15-10 score.
As I wrote last year, it’s almost harder on the friends and family of team members as we anxiously sweat out each game and the night before the championship game. We’re powerless to do anything but provide moral support, before, during and after. For Dan, and just a handful of others on the 27-man Ironside squad, this was the third time in the last four years Ironside lost in the finals. Second place in the country is no small honor, but never having tasted the Champagne of ultimate success is a bummer.
Ultimate Frisbee at the club level is a young man’s sport. At 33, Dan is the elder statesman on the team. How much longer he’ll be able to play is a question of his body and competitive spirit holding out, the number of new players challenging veterans for spots on the roster, and most importantly, the commitment Allison is willing to make to allow Dan to pursue his goal of a championship. Dan, as well, knows his obligations to Allison and Finley restrict the time he can devote to Ultimate. Aside from playing, Dan also coaches the Tufts University team.
As for me, being with Finley and his girl friend Eliot, daughter of team coach Josh and his wife Sangwa, was special. Regretably, Gilda couldn’t get away from work, so I played grandparent to both of them by myself, even babysitting one evening while both sets of parents attended a team dinner. Testing my mettle, both kids pooped, but they made up for it by going to bed exactly at 8 with nary a whimper.
Showing posts with label Ironside. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ironside. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, July 9, 2010
Muddled Joy in Mudville
Or in this case, Prague.
It took another U.S. Team, Sockeye from Seattle, to finally hand Dan’s team, Ironside, a defeat in the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships. In quarterfinals play. In overtime. 17-15.
Sockeye will play for the championship against another U.S. team, Revolver, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ironside won its next two games to finish fifth in the world.
Hard to be sad when you can say your son plays on the fifth-ranked Ultimate Frisbee team in the world. But I know how disappointed Dan must feel considering the OT loss to Sockeye. Close losses always are harder to get over than blowouts.
Needless to say, Gilda and I are very proud of Dan and his teammates.
It took another U.S. Team, Sockeye from Seattle, to finally hand Dan’s team, Ironside, a defeat in the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships. In quarterfinals play. In overtime. 17-15.
Sockeye will play for the championship against another U.S. team, Revolver, on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Ironside won its next two games to finish fifth in the world.
Hard to be sad when you can say your son plays on the fifth-ranked Ultimate Frisbee team in the world. But I know how disappointed Dan must feel considering the OT loss to Sockeye. Close losses always are harder to get over than blowouts.
Needless to say, Gilda and I are very proud of Dan and his teammates.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Games, Songs, Films and Sales
World Cup Update: No, not the soccer, er, football, matches in South Africa. I’m talking Ultimate Frisbee Club Championships in Prague! Dan’s team, Ironside, is one of five representing the U.S. at the quadrennial competition featuring 48 squads from 29 countries in the Open Club division (overall, there are 136 teams from 37 countries participating in four classes: Open, Women’s, Mixed, and Masters).
Five of the top six Open teams are from the United States. Ironside is seeded fourth in the world, behind two U.S. teams and one from Japan. In the preliminary round, Ironside has vanquished its three opponents, teams from France, Germany and Slovakia. Tuesday’s foes include a team from Great Britain and another from Germany, on Wednesday it will be Australia and Finland, followed by another team from Down Under on Thursday.
Keep checking for updates, or, if you’re really into Ultimate, here’s the web site: http://wucc2010.com/node.
Felipe Melo, I feel your pain: For those who don’t know who Felipe Melo is, he’s a star midfielder on the Brazilian World Cup soccer team who accidentally headed a ball into his own net in a loss to The Netherlands last Friday. Although upon further review the benevolent soccer gods credited a Dutchman with the goal, Melo and everyone else in Brazil and around the world know his mistake in letting a shot glance off his head cost his team a goal. When you lose 2-1, that really hurts.
I made the same mistake when playing intramural soccer back in college, but in a much more lopsided loss (http://nosocksneededanymore.blogspot.com/2010/06/goooooooooooooooooallllllllll.html). Felipe, don’t worry, you get over it in, say, 30-40 years. At least that’s the time span for intramural play. Heaven knows what the recuperatory period is for World Cup f---ups!
Born in the USA: Gilda and I went to the White Plains fireworks extravaganza at the high school last Thursday. A local band did a lot of covers of Bruce Springsteen songs, capping their performance with "Born in the USA" as the fireworks started exploding. This anthem to working class values and a search for connection to the government and family pulsates with the title refrain. It’s transcended any meaning Springsteen might have had for the song into a form of national anthem.
I couldn’t stop wondering as "Born in the USA" reverberated in my ears—what does it say about immigration policy? Is only someone “born in the USA” kosher, capable of feeling the patriotism devotees of the song have adopted? I can’t believe Springsteen would want his song co-opted by anyone who believes, as they do in Arizona, that illegal immigrants are deliberately causing crashes on state highways; that they are beheading people and leaving corpses in the desert; and that they are all “mules” carrying illegal drugs across the border.
I am glad, I am blessed, that I and the rest of my family were born in the USA, that my parents were allowed to emigrate here. “Born in the USA” should be a mindset, not a requirement for citizenship. It should be a reminder that we are a nation of immigrants, that tolerance has distinguished our country from all others.
Prescient Quote: Flipping through TV channels a week ago I stopped momentarily on the movie The Wind and the Lion. It’s a rousing tale based on a true incident in 1904 when Berber chieftain Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli (the lion) kidnaps an American and President Teddy Roosevelt (the wind) sends a rescue mission to Morocco. In real life, Raisuli took a man and his son into custody. For the Hollywood version, Raisuli, played by Sean Connery, kidnapped Eden Perdicaris (Candice Bergen) and her two children.
During the course of the film, Raisuli and Perdicaris develop an understanding relationship. But it starts out, as might be expected, rather strained. Riasuli, after all, did kidnap her and her children, in the process killing many of her servants and a guest while trashing her home. Moreover, at their first stop after fleeing the city, a well owned by Raisuli, he summarily executes two of four men who drew water without his permission.
In explaining his actions, Raisuli says, “You see the man at the well (one of his loyal band). When one bucket empties, the other fills. It is so with the world. At present, you (meaning the Western countries) are full of power, but you are spilling it wastefully and Islam is lapping up the drops as they spill from your bucket.”
Hearing that matter-of-fact explanation of global transformation curdled my brain. How easily the dialogue could have come from Osama bin Laden. How prescient of the screenwriters. Keep in mind, The Wind and the Lion came out in 1975!
I brake for...tag sales. I am regressing, going back to the years when our children were young and we stocked their playpens with cheap finds at garage sales. The fountain of youth is a grandchild, at least as far as backyard commerce goes.
This past weekend I scored major finds, several Fisher Price/Sesame Street trucks, a Play and Speak animal sounds toy, plus a riding front loader, all for just $5. Also, a huge wooden pick-up truck for $3. I was in a feeding frenzy. I would have bought more, but calmer minds (Gilda, in other words) prevailed.
Five of the top six Open teams are from the United States. Ironside is seeded fourth in the world, behind two U.S. teams and one from Japan. In the preliminary round, Ironside has vanquished its three opponents, teams from France, Germany and Slovakia. Tuesday’s foes include a team from Great Britain and another from Germany, on Wednesday it will be Australia and Finland, followed by another team from Down Under on Thursday.
Keep checking for updates, or, if you’re really into Ultimate, here’s the web site: http://wucc2010.com/node.
Felipe Melo, I feel your pain: For those who don’t know who Felipe Melo is, he’s a star midfielder on the Brazilian World Cup soccer team who accidentally headed a ball into his own net in a loss to The Netherlands last Friday. Although upon further review the benevolent soccer gods credited a Dutchman with the goal, Melo and everyone else in Brazil and around the world know his mistake in letting a shot glance off his head cost his team a goal. When you lose 2-1, that really hurts.
I made the same mistake when playing intramural soccer back in college, but in a much more lopsided loss (http://nosocksneededanymore.blogspot.com/2010/06/goooooooooooooooooallllllllll.html). Felipe, don’t worry, you get over it in, say, 30-40 years. At least that’s the time span for intramural play. Heaven knows what the recuperatory period is for World Cup f---ups!
Born in the USA: Gilda and I went to the White Plains fireworks extravaganza at the high school last Thursday. A local band did a lot of covers of Bruce Springsteen songs, capping their performance with "Born in the USA" as the fireworks started exploding. This anthem to working class values and a search for connection to the government and family pulsates with the title refrain. It’s transcended any meaning Springsteen might have had for the song into a form of national anthem.
I couldn’t stop wondering as "Born in the USA" reverberated in my ears—what does it say about immigration policy? Is only someone “born in the USA” kosher, capable of feeling the patriotism devotees of the song have adopted? I can’t believe Springsteen would want his song co-opted by anyone who believes, as they do in Arizona, that illegal immigrants are deliberately causing crashes on state highways; that they are beheading people and leaving corpses in the desert; and that they are all “mules” carrying illegal drugs across the border.
I am glad, I am blessed, that I and the rest of my family were born in the USA, that my parents were allowed to emigrate here. “Born in the USA” should be a mindset, not a requirement for citizenship. It should be a reminder that we are a nation of immigrants, that tolerance has distinguished our country from all others.
Prescient Quote: Flipping through TV channels a week ago I stopped momentarily on the movie The Wind and the Lion. It’s a rousing tale based on a true incident in 1904 when Berber chieftain Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli (the lion) kidnaps an American and President Teddy Roosevelt (the wind) sends a rescue mission to Morocco. In real life, Raisuli took a man and his son into custody. For the Hollywood version, Raisuli, played by Sean Connery, kidnapped Eden Perdicaris (Candice Bergen) and her two children.
During the course of the film, Raisuli and Perdicaris develop an understanding relationship. But it starts out, as might be expected, rather strained. Riasuli, after all, did kidnap her and her children, in the process killing many of her servants and a guest while trashing her home. Moreover, at their first stop after fleeing the city, a well owned by Raisuli, he summarily executes two of four men who drew water without his permission.
In explaining his actions, Raisuli says, “You see the man at the well (one of his loyal band). When one bucket empties, the other fills. It is so with the world. At present, you (meaning the Western countries) are full of power, but you are spilling it wastefully and Islam is lapping up the drops as they spill from your bucket.”
Hearing that matter-of-fact explanation of global transformation curdled my brain. How easily the dialogue could have come from Osama bin Laden. How prescient of the screenwriters. Keep in mind, The Wind and the Lion came out in 1975!
I brake for...tag sales. I am regressing, going back to the years when our children were young and we stocked their playpens with cheap finds at garage sales. The fountain of youth is a grandchild, at least as far as backyard commerce goes.
This past weekend I scored major finds, several Fisher Price/Sesame Street trucks, a Play and Speak animal sounds toy, plus a riding front loader, all for just $5. Also, a huge wooden pick-up truck for $3. I was in a feeding frenzy. I would have bought more, but calmer minds (Gilda, in other words) prevailed.
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