The Ethicist
I pose an ethics question to you: is it unethical to sign up for spring leage as "Stefan Spielman"? It is my name, of course. And I like winning. The lower I am drafted the better my team will be. I also like playing with people I know. I would only be drafted by someone who could see through my subterfuge, most likely a friend. Oh, wait it might be Danimal. He drafts terrible.
posted by kenji at 10:48 PM
9 Comments:
I drafted you after Jeff and Kevin. Ben Foote also uses fake names, so you have company. Nobody really knew you and that you are as good as you are. That's why I got you in the 3rd round. You've moved up in your ulty playing and social status, so I'm sure that you'll have your ego satisfied and get drafted earlier...... maybe even on a team that doesn't tie every other game.
The other subterfuge method you can use is to imply that you won't be available for the majority of the games.
Kenji is a much better player than he used to be. His social status however is unchanged.
for you ulty-ites(?)...would you like ultimate to catch on to a main stream audience and even possibly a major league or do you like having your own niche that others don't understand? Are you the outsiders of sports society? Does ultimate fulfill your need to not quite fit in or follow the established path of society, especially since most need to work within that world? These are real questions and not meant as jabs...I'll do that again later.
It has nothing to do with popularity. As you remember, I used to play hockey all the time, and even though hockey is the bitch sport of the 4 major American sports, it’s still more popular than soccer in this country for spectators. But playing hockey, I only would hang out with Troy Smith and Jim from my team. I liked to play a lot, but there wasn’t much of a social aspect. Ultimate does that. For the most part you end up hanging out with people roughly your same age, and with similar interests other than throwing a disc around. That’s why I play it more than other sports.
If hockey was structured to be effective at coed, and I could play 6 games a weekend cheaply, and then go get beers and party with my team without worrying that we would only go to strip clubs, or have to listen to stories all night about borderline pedophilia, then I would play hockey a lot more. Emphasis on the cheap. Some ulty players bitch about going through cleats, but I would break a 50 dollar stick about every 6-10 games. I’m rambling now, sorry.
As far as ulty going mainstream, I would like it to get popular like soccer here. More youth participation leads to more credence in getting field space, more fields built on park land, and better skills in all players. I could like a flying fart about watching it on tv. I watch pro athletics to see people do things I can’t do.
I would pay someone to wear a hidden camera into the draft room. I'm really curious what happens there. Bachman always dishes the good gossip, but it's not enough.
I suppose I could be a captain, but I wouldn't wish that on any Spring League team.
So you might draft Ben Foote accidentally? That would be TERRIBLE!!!
I'd like to be drafted in the 5th round. Then I think my team would be pretty good.
I tried the availability approach last year. I said my knees were made of oatmeal and that I would miss half the games and probably the tourney.
Danimal choose to regale our team with stories about how he and another captain kept hollering at everyone to "draft #50!" (Gordan). Of course he was then randomly assigned to us at the end.
Maybe in my profile I will claim to have become a Jehova's Witness and am looking forward to converting my new team. That should get me down to the 8th round or so.
The key is to draft Lars as your captain.
Both Lars and Merm, preferably.
I wasn't making a jab at Foote, but he's used fake names like when you order a pizza and they ask you your name for when it's done. He would say something like Skip or Bob. I drafted Future Boy 5th, and he almost killed my girlfriend on the field..... she was on the same team. Kevin and Jeff showed some senior chivalry and yelled at him for being a dumb ass. Where were you, Kenji!
The only other sport hobby that I have now other than ultimate is skiing. That sport is broken down into many social classes although they are all very white. They use phrases such as "that was epic", "shred the gnar", "rip it", "hit the pow", "safety break". Actually, that was from one day of skiing with Scotty and Broman who both play ultimate. Snow boarders are a different breed altogether.
Ultimate will never catch on to the mainstream as long as it has this stigma of not being a sport attached to it with much of society.
Right now I just wish VCU had beaten Pitt......
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