States - follow up

On Monday, I drove to Arundel High School in Gambrills, MD, to attend the 3A semifinals.  I was assigned to sit at the scorekeepers table, taking stats, making sure there were no issues with the clock, time the timeouts, and count down the ends of the half on the field for the lead ref.  It doesn't sound like a lot as compared to actually running the game and making calls and relatively speaking, it's not.  But I was definitely busy.

The first game was Blake vs. Northern.  As it turns out, the woman who shares a cube wall with me at work is good friends with Blake's coach.  So she came to the game.  That was cool to see her there.  The two officials running the game are from my officiating Board, the Baltimore Board of Women's Sports (BBOWS), and the one official and I trained together for both lacrosse and field hockey.  We've known each other 10 years now!  The other ref and I have worked games together before, and the three of us had a good time officiating this game.  It was a nice relaxed atmosphere, but it would have been anyway, even if the game wasn't a snoozer.  The scorekeepers from each of the schools were boys + their friends, and they were all sharing out of the same Old Bay fries basket one of them had bought.  Boys will be boys, I thought.

The second game was Hereford vs. Mt. Hebron, two traditionally strong field hockey schools.  So I expected a fast and furious game.  It certainly started out that way, and then Hereford just broke it open.  Although Hebron eventually scored, the game was pretty lopsided.  It's clear that Hereford's turf field has allowed Hereford to take their game to another level.  The scorekeepers for this game were all girls + their friends.  And they were sharing lolipops.  I commented that what they were doing was good for the swine flu, and they all just shrugged it off.  Girls will be girls, I thought. 

The on field officials for this game were from the Anne Arundel County board, one of them being the infamous Sue Diff.  Now I have most certainly heard of Sue Diff, notorious as a lacrosse ref (and I think college assignor?), but never had an opportunity to work with her.  I've heard stories (good and bad), and the woman is just a legend.  So here I was, faced with having to work with Sue Diff at a state semifinal game.  She's never heard of me, and I'm just... sitting back and saying nothing because I have heard that I want no parts of being on her bad (as opposed to good) radar. 

The game started, all was normal.  The first half ended, no issues.  That's when my first "Sue Diff" story happened for me.  Sue came to me and said, "Go tell the announcer that the foul is not called "raised ball".  It's "Dangerous".  Not all raised balls are dangerous." 

::blink:: 

She's serious.  And she's not even complaining about the other names for fouls that aren't correct either... just the "raised ball" one.  I mean, if it matters to you what it is the announcer is saying, then why not correct the others, too??  Needless to say, I was confused about that, but whatever.  She made it clear that I had to go tell him.

Good thing it was a 10 minute halftime because I had to trek all the way around the stadium to get to him to tell him.  He got it right for the rest of the game, though I think I caught a sense of sarcasm whenever he'd say it, not that I blame him. 

The second half began, and all was going well until Sue Diff stopped the game.  It was clear she was going to card someone.  Side note: I wouldn't have pulled out cards for that foul, but I am averse to using cards.  I feel like I can handle the situation without the need for cards.

Anyway, Sue Diff goes to pull out her cards.  She hunted for them, couldn't find them.  Game was restarted.  When she had a free moment near the scorers table, she called me over to her.

"Do you have your cards?" 

"Yeah!" 

"Can I borrow them?"

I rushed off to get them out of my bag and handed them to her. 

There it was.  The great Sue Diff didn't have her cards.  Hilarious!!!

One of the state athletic administrators saw the whole thing, and couldn't wait to give Sue all sorts of grief for it.  He also said to me, "Don't you say a word or you'll never see another Varsity game again in this state!"  To which I replied,

"Good thing I'm not a part of her officiating board and that I'm not a lacrosse official!" 

So now I have a Sue Diff story of my very own. 

States!

On Friday, I got a call from my field hockey assignor that I was awarded not 1, but 2 state championship (semifinal) games for today!  Unfortuntely, I don't actually get to run them but instead I will be running the clock and making sure that all of the procedural stuff goes smoothly.  If I were actually officiating, I'd have only been assigned 1 game, like I was in 2007.  Either way, I'm stoked to be involved with 2 state playoffs!

Follow up to "The Band That Wouldn't Die"

Last week, I had written about the ESPN Films special "The Band That Wouldn't Die" earlier this week. 

Steve and I watched it on Wednesday (DVR for the win!) since I was out Tuesday night.  More than once we found ourselves sad, remembering how much it hurt when the Colts left town.  The dedication of the the Colts Marching Band is incredible.  I definitely didn't know all the history behind what they did to help bring a team back to Baltimore... coupled with Schaeffer having the vision to build a new stadium to bring a new team to the city.  If building the stadiums hasn't paid for themselves by now (even if it's just in goodwill... look at how packed the stadium is each home game!), I'd be surprised...

Something that seemed to be glossed over is that Mrs. Irsay finally allowed the Baltimore Colts Marching Band to keep their uniforms... which allowed the band to pull their uniforms out of the mausoleum... goodness the significance of that whole series of events could not have been scripted better.

They also touched on how the Baltimore fans felt after it was announced that the Browns were coming to Baltimore.  The sentiment was that we didn't want to take someone else's team... we know what it's like to lose a team.  I remember that feeling very distinctly, but I also remember being ok with it once I heard that Cleveland would get to keep its team's name, colors, and history. 

If there's anything that still pains me about the Colts leaving Baltimore, it's that our history has not been given back to Baltimore... It's not like Johnny Unitas was an Indianapolis Colt.  He was a Baltimore Colt, so those records should belong to Baltimore.  Indianapolis can keep all the history they've made since the Colts moved to their city, especially since Peyton Manning is going to continue to make history and break records as long as he plays.  Just give us OUR history back, and I'd be willing to let it go.

I also give kudos to the Modell family for
1.  Embracing the Colts Marching Band immediately.
2.  Allowing the Colts Marching Band to finish their history in Memorial Stadium.
3.  Letting them become the Marching Ravens in the new stadium.

I truly had no idea how much the Baltimore Colts Marching Band had directly helped Baltimore get a another NFL team.  Thank you to Barry Levinson for having the vision to focus on this story.  The story of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band needed to be told, and Baltimore couldn't have been more honored to have one of its own, the great Barry Levinson, tell it.

Thank you to Bill Simmons of ESPN for being willing to allow the film directors to think outside their own box.  And thank you to ESPN for being willing to show these non-traditional documentaries on their ever-popular airwaves.

The Band That Wouldn't Die

To all Baltimore Colts fans:

Mark it on your calendars or DVR it. Tuesday, October 13, 8:00PM on ESPN.

ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary series is about the story behind the big story, not just big headlines rehashed from the last 30 years. Instead, ESPN asked big name film directors to make these documentaries because they interested the firm directors personally. To boot, ESPN gave them almost full control of the creative reins. So this isn't just ESPN doing it's usual thing... it's Barry Levinson (Rain Man) and Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and others like him making a documentary. Real film directors making a documentary? This can only be good....

Here's a link to the an article from the originator of the series, talking about how the project started and how it evolved into what we're seeing on TV. A quick excerpt:

These wouldn’t be typical documentaries with highlights and talking heads and a chronological theme. These would be stories with a beginning, middle and end. That’s what we wanted.

In many cases, the filmmakers did the brainstorming while we did a lot of nodding.... Our friends at NBA Entertainment wanted to make a film about how Yugoslavia’s basketball team was ripped apart by the Bosnian War—not just because it was a terrific story, but because they were sitting on a treasure chest of footage that nobody had ever seen. ... These ideas would put the onus on the viewers, make them think, make them use their brains, make them wonder what might happen next. Everyone already knows what happened with the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team. But how many people know what happened the night Mike Tyson knocked out Bruce Seldon in Las Vegas? That’s what we wanted.

Tonight, Steve and I watched the first episode of ESPN's 30 for 30 series which was about the Wayne Gretzky trade from the Oilers to the Kings. It wasn't about the trade itself but it was about the story behind the trade... what led up to the trade, what happened after the trade.... It was EXCELLENT. We were absolutely rivited.

So why am I blogging about this? Because Barry Levinson was asked by ESPN if he would be interested in filming a documentary, and *he* said he wanted to document the Baltimore Colts Band!

And if the Wayne Gretsky documentary we saw tonight is any indication, as Baltimore Colts fans, this will be a fantastic tribute to the band that musically protested to the NFL that Baltimore did not have a team until it finally got one.

ESPN's feature page on The Band That Wouldn't Die has Barry Levinson commentary and a trailer. I'm already hooked...

And in case you didn't see it in the Baltimore Sun this morning, here's a link to the article that advertises that the documentary was shown at M&T Bank Stadium tonight. There's also a little Q&A with Barry Levinson at the end.

It's nice to see Baltimore on TV in a *GOOD* way, even if it's Barry Levinson's quirky way.

Chad Ochocinco (Johnson)'s book

Apparently, I've been reading a lot of ESPN's Rick Reilly lately!

He decided to review Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad (Johnson) Ochocinco's book. Maybe he didn't decide and it was decided for him, but the outcome is still the same. We have an excellent book review worthy of the New York Times Book Review.

This review is so good and thorough that I feel no need to read this book. It tells me everything I need to know about the book and Mr. Chad Ochocinco himself. Here is one of the reasons why Rick Reilly contends this book is a good read:

[Mr. Ochocinco's] torrid introspection. When he found himself at the only birth he was able to attend of his four children (by three different women) the moment hit him deeply. "I'm holding a little me," he thought to himself. "Just having little
me's around is cool. No lie." That's transcendent.

I've never had such insight in a man like Mr. Ochocinco before, and just these summaries of his points (see the rest of the article) speaks volumes about him. So glad he isn't a Baltimore Raven!!!