Testosterone Man #1 
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From: parinell@athena.mit.edu (James C Parinella) 
Subject: Re: Spirit discussionsDIR/ALL 
Date: 29 Nov 1993 20:40:45 GMT

Ban whole teams for a year?  Put a man in the penalty box for
spiking?  What a bunch of thin-skinned self-righteous whiners!

I play for Big Brother, and it irritates me to know that I am
now considered evil.  Where the hell do you people get off
saying this?  I thought Tross' "Six levels of Ultimate"
posting was an excellent behind-the-scenes look from an
"elite" team's perspective, and I had hoped people would
realize and accept that it's a different game at that level.
Unfortunately, a lot of people refuse to accept that socialism
will never work.

I don't play the game because of SOTG.  I don't bust my ass
doing wind sprints in the cold and rain because I want to be
accepted in a friendly community.  I don't spend several
thousand dollars a year and all my vacation time so that some
computer geek has a high opinion of me.  Ultimate, beyond
everything else, is a sport, and sports are about competition.
That's why I'm out there.  I want the game to become more
competitive.  I want Cuervo to sponsor us.  I want the game to
be accepted in mainsteam America.  I want it to evolve into
something more watchable.

You want to spike the disc?  Spike it!!  (Incidentally, George
"Win one for the Gipper" Gipp is often credited with the first
"spike" in football).  Most spikes I've seen aren't
personal--they're either celebratory ("Yes, we scored, we're
still in this game") or mildly retaliatory ("You fouled me all
over the field and I still scored!  Ha ha!").  In fact, we
even spike it during practice.  It's about intensity, emotion,
competition, winning, and losing.  In the NFL, you know that
if you get scored on, a spike is coming, and you better accept
it.  I've never seen a football player return the spike, by
the way, like many good-spirited ultimate players do.
Retaliation equates with being a poor loser.  It also takes
your concentration away.

Retaliation led to the near-"fights" in the NY-Big Brother
semifinal.  Unfortunate, but as Tross stated, it's surprising
it hasn't happened sooner.  If you consider the typical
ultimate player, though, it isn't surprising.  Most
historically have never played another sport at a level higher
than gym class, and have no idea what it's like to do so.  He
thinks we should respect each other because we are all equal,
all of us just creatures of this world, and he can't stand to
see other people get ahead if they don't play by his rules.
Your typical non-ultimate athlete, on the other hand, believes
that the best man wins.  The best way to stop someone from
spiking at you is to work harder and play better so he never
has the opportunity.  You say that we have no respect for
other players.  I say we have a higher level of respect, the
respect of warriors, the respect that says you give everything
you have on the field of honor, and it's all decided on the
field.  Afterwards, it's over.  That's what sports is about.

I don't think most levels of the game have to be this intense.
If you're just playing for fun in a friendly, less-competitive
atmosphere, then aggressive behavior isn't good.  Many NY/Big
Brother players coach high school teams, captain summer league
teams, and play in pickup games and tournaments (many
"good-spirited" players mentioned in a recent posting about
the Fairfield, Ct., Turkey Bowl are NY/BB guys), and wouldn't
dream of spiking it on some rookie or screaming after a goal.
But it's a different game at the top, as different as your
pickup touch football game is from the Super Bowl.

Learn to deal with it.  If you can't, I suggest you take some
mildly hallucinogenic drugs and stick to summer league.

Jim Parinella 
Big Brother 
"Testosterone-filled asshole and proud of it"