Winter Dodgeball - Week Six: Flat.

I just finished reading Ric Flair's autobiography, To Be the Man, and it inspired the shit out of me. As a result, I'm consumed - more so than usual - with being the best at what I do. Ric Flair sacrificed his time, his bones, his organs, and any chance at being a decent husband and father - all to get that coveted gold. I'm prepared to do the same for dodgeball. And while we aren't yet allowed to film pre-match promos to drum up excitement before we play, if we did, mine would definitely be of this caliber. And then after we won it would be like this. And if I got injured and then came back, it would be like this.

Maybe if I had been able to cut a sweet promo, we would have looked better out there this week. Because as it was, something just seemed a little off. We didn't play flat-out terribly, but we did play a little flat. And because I am trying to develop a brash new attitude a la The Nature Boy, it really didn't aid me in acquiring an overbearing air of cockiness. So that was a bummer. Maybe after I get that new robe that I've had my eye on, everything will fall into place. All right, enough with the Ric Flair links.

The team we were supposed to play in our first match didn't show up, so we played a team that had just finished their two matches for the night but said they were up for playing another one. We hadn't played them yet this season, so that was cool. They were a little spent and we were a little cold, so things never really got too exciting. But, we racked up some quick wins and eventually took the whole she-bang by a tally of 7-2. Lots of quick games.

There were some quick games in our next match, too, but they weren't in our favor (see above). I can't speak for everyone else, but I just felt sluggish out there. I dropped more prospective catches in one night than I have in any other of recent memory, and while some of my throws were connecting, a lot of 'em were way off target. Frustrating. In fact, I think we all got frustrated pretty quick, because after we lost the first game (which was looking like a win for us until the last 30 seconds), we never recovered. We fell behind and just lagged. And I didn't sweat nearly as much as I usually do. Something was up. Voodoo? I think it was probably voodoo.

We ended up winning a few (check the vid above for one of 'em), but in the end, we were handed a loss (6-2) almost as lopsided as the one in our first match of the season (6-1). So I guess we know how to bookend things, huh? Two brutal losses on each end, one super-close loss towards the middle, and a bunch of victories otherwise. Is that a bell curve? It's something like that.

As usual, things didn't turn out too bad overall, but I think this might be our weakest regular-season finish in a while. We ended up in fourth place, though the standings are pretty close at the top, so we're still looking good for the playoffs.

Maybe I need to start drinking coffee before the games. The energy drinks just aren't doing it anymore, apparently. I think this week I'm going to pound iced coffee while listening to Helloween's Keeper of the Seven Keys, Part 1 on the way to the game. See how that works out.

Standings are here.

More videos are here.