tempe bound

Wow. My first tourney on "grass" (Tempe in January = a lot of brown) since Labor Day 2007. W0w again. Lots goes through my head. Sure, I've played plenty of games since then, but not that much. Winter and Summer leagues with a stellar record of course, but probably never more than 5 straight hours of play. This is two days. And while there was some talk of working out, it didn't get very far. I hit the stairs up from the reservoir a few times, but I never was pushing it. That's what I find the hardest now -- just actually caring enough to try. One long league game by itself can be tough, this will be 7 or 8 games. Thank goodness we have a few previous world champs besides myself. Ones that still play, you know, the Fall Season. Throw in the Team USA tryout kids, the UPA champs, you start to see why although I might be out of shape, I'm not too worried about the result. I hear we even have a beach stud -- might be very helpful on those sandy fields.

Any team that plays us needs to focus on one main thing -- be the team that plays us the last round on Saturday. It's a key round. People are focused on important things like lasagna, The Library, hot tubs. The greater Phoenix area has a lot to offer. Apparently, there is even surfing in Tempe! Surfing's probably our #1 nemesis in this difficult last round. Maybe people are thinking about golf, there is loads of golf in the region. And imagine the distraction that is the Super Bowl. What if we run into some Cardinals fans that think we should throw every pass like a Kurt Warner bomb, but in thumber form? Who will be our Larry Fitz? Do people think that will help our chances in the last round of the day?

Yes, those were my last round concerns. But I figured, hopefully, the local and/or UPA insiders on the roster can set the schedule up in just the right way to get us through that evil round. And then a few minutes ago, after all the good things I've ever said about Tempe, I look at the schedule and they have us playing a showcase game. A showcase game? In January!?!?! Unbelievable. I guess it makes sense. This tourney was always about the late finals under the lights on Sunday. But that damn Super Bowl has all the locals running the show ready to bail ASAP on Sunday. And they still want their showcase. So elite pool #1 and #2 play a last round game -- please, pull up a chair to the sideline -- on Saturday night. Well, Big Sweet Onion Co., this is your huge chance. For your sake, I hope you make it count.

Sunday last round is a whole different ball of wax.