1995: Let the Naysayers Begin

Month			Tournament	Finish		Notable Wins/Losses
	Comments
April		Baltimore		5-1, 2^nd		Cojones
	Motel room from hell, ro-cham-make Jordan go get beer, wins by 1, 1, 3, 2, 5, introduction and death of the Matador defense
May		Mothers’ Day		4-2, semis			Both squads lose to Cojones, also loss to Philly
				6-1, 2nd
	Teams split into 8 and 9. Dr. Gil shows up and plays for a game. Alex gets hurt picking up a disc. Dennis takes 1.5 hours to get beer. Opponent calls timeout on a 7 on 2 fast break. Team comes back from 5 down late with Clam to 1-3-3 D against Chesapeake, then Cojones returns the favor to them.
May		Regionals, Albany		6-0, 1^st			Beat Cojones 17-13 in finals
	First victory over Cojones this year.
June		Easterns		7-0, 1^st		Beat Cojones 17-14 in finals
	Big struggle against Cornell on day 1. I accidentally hack a Bud twice while marking, so on the 3^rd time, he makes a big step and calls foul as the disc sails OB, only to realize I was standing 2’ away from him. Sockeye loses to 9 man Chesapeake in semis, Chesapeake then folds for us while Cojones score 4 of 5 to beat Cornell at cap. Relaxed final, with NL writeup by Pablo, uncontested foul on final goal.
		scrimmage, Scarsdale		2-1		Beat Philly and ‘Peake, lost to Cojones
	The first of two this year, one day get together. I had one or two layout blocks.
August		Street, England		11-1, 2^nd		Lost to Double Happiness
	Climbed the Tor, watched naked people lay out for hucks down the hill. After an uneventful game against a Scandinavian team, their pep speech was "you Americans take too long and you make too many calls." Woo-hah. Lots of English beer. Turnover-plagued final. Field was painted to look green.
September		scrimmage, Scarsdale		2-1		Beat Philly and ‘Peake, lost to Cojones
	Incomplete notes, but I think we blew a late lead to Cojones. AdF informs me we were up 14-12 and lost 16-14.
		Tuneup, Chicago		5-2, semis			Sockeye, Cojones
	Began a tradition of taking a small squad to Tuneup. Also "The Tuneup Curse" started this year. Some of us flew in Sat morn (big mistake). We only had 6 just minutes before the 1^st game, as the earlier arrivers had gone to breakfast at Hardees, then barely beat Chain on a 3 goal run at the end. Sockeye called timeout on us to ice a 2 point win for them. We eked through the rest of the way. Lost in semis to Cojones. Most lasting memory was in Sockeye-Chain game, next point wins, Sockeye turns it over, Chain hucks it, one of our old nemeses playing with Sockeye begins boxing out without even looking for disc, but Chain guy pulls a MAC’ed disc down for game.
October		Sectionala		4-0, 1^st
		Regionals		6-1, 2^nd
	Beat yungai@aol.com by 1 or 2 on Saturday, a game that they still dispute. Yungai got knocked out on point differential by a Canadian team, then got knocked out by one vote at the Sun captains meeting. Played our worst game ever and lost finals to Cojones 17-6. Not a misprint.
November		Nationals, Birmingham(AL)		7-0, 1^st	Everyone
	Practices leading up to Nationals were terrible. Jordan still said we’d win "going away". We all laughed at him. I thought we could either be in there at the end or else got knocked out in pool play. First game was against Chain, and we came out strong, and I knew we’d be playing Saturday afternoon. Then came Double. They were huddled well past start time as we watched, then we found out we each had been assessed a point. 8 turnovers en route to 19-15 win. Saturday morning was a terrible game for us leading into semis. Semis was the other "Best Game Ever" against Cojones, 21-17. Amazing number of hucks. Mooney gets concussion. Alex and I connect on a memorable huck in that game. Finals were the best performance ever, 3 turnovers in 21-10 win over Sockeye.
65-10. 11 tournaments, won only 4, but did win Nationals. We had lost some of the magic from the year before, as things were just enough different. I dislocated my finger in the Corporate tournament and had to tape it all fall. We somehow got it together and put on a great performance.

1995 semis evaluation

WAS THIS THE BEST GAME EVER????

Here are some criteria for determining BGE.

1. Well played game.
2. Big plays.
3. Close game.
4. Emotional game (helps if there is history between the teams).
5. Heroes/goats.
6. Significant game.
7. Some back and forth nature.
8. Uniqueness or memorability.

1. True. There were some mistakes, of course, but both teams scored on over half their possessions (well, NY on half, us on 21/35).

2. Yes, yes, yes. We completed a huge number of hucks (9?). One in particular stands out to me, and you may have heard this one. Just before Nationals, Mooney declared that he needed to take the pulls instead of Alex, so he took every one all tournament. At about 13-13, Mooney gets sent out of the game with a concussion, so Al starts taking the pull. At about 16-15, Cribber blades a pull that five-holes Alex and rolls out the back corner, much to the delight of the increasingly large crowd. I'm the Man, and as he walks it up, it looks like they're going to be forcing his backhand to the middle. A very fast Tully Beatty is covering me. I line up about 15-20 yards away, fake in, and then break deep and get a good jump on Tully. Al launches it, but the pass is more crossfield than upfield, and the disc crosses the opposite sideline maybe 30 yards from where he threw it. However, it doesn't go much further than that, and I continue running downfield. Despite my head start, Tully has as good of an angle on it because of the trajectory, and the two of us are running as fast as any two ultimate players have ever run (really, since no one gets to top speed until about 40 yards, and it's rare that you have a 40 yard sprint). The frisbee continues going upfield while hugging the line. Finally, at about two yards outside the endzone, the two of us arrive. I get there a little sooner, and toe the line as I reach OB to grab the disc while Tully flies by the disc trying to block it. I stagger back inbounds, wobble off a forehand to Cork for the goal, and then become suddenly aware of the huge crowd noise.
3. 21-17, half 11-8, one point game as late as 16-15.
4. Very much so. I had trouble speaking afterwards. In addition to the 10 years of matchups, that year was particularly notable. DoG won 1994, looked washup up going into 1995, while NY again had an attitude. They beat us most of the year, including a 17-6 win at Regionals, and went into Nationals seeded 1st.
5. Yessir. In addition to all the big throws and catches from us, NY had their share. Dick also made Bob Deman have a terrible game.
6. Semis at Nats.
7. NY went up 1-0, DoG 4-1, up to 10-6, then 11-8 at half. Tied at 11 and 12, NY (Cojones) takes lead 13-12. DoG has only two turnovers the rest of the game. 14-13 DoG, 16-15, 17-15, trade until a turnover at game point. Coop takes an injury sub after running into Bob on a block in the endzone. Mooney comes back in for the final possession.
8. The matchup wasn't unique, as NY and Boston had faced off at Nats in an elimination match in 1989, 1990, 1992-1994 (1991 they met in pool play). But only the previous year was the game close at the end. And both teams had new looks from the NY dynasty years. And DoG was the defending champ who had been beaten throughout the year, as NY had been in 1992-1993.