I did a set of poor quality men's wreck games tonight.
First game went pretty well, except I had one notable whiner. I warned him in the first half about it. Early in the second half he started in again, and I whacked him. Just business. No big deal. To me. He, of course, was an *** about it. They always are.
But, it turns out the league rule is any sportsmanship technicals require the recipient to sit out for the remainder of the half. And if it's the second half, he has to sit the first half of the next game too.
I have to say I think he had a legitimate gripe about being sat down for nearly a whole game during the tourney over an ABS technical.
Don't get me wrong. He deserved it. But that's pretty harsh.
The second game went pretty well (perhaps word has spread?) The third game forfeited. Why is it never the last game that forfeits?
The fourth game featured the archetypal wreck league men's team. Middle aged. Past their prime. Mouthy. Whiny. Want every touch called. Lazy. And always, always, always somebody was standing in the middle of my open look. And there was the requisite player who informed me that he was a ref too.
On the very first call of the game, a couple of these jokers lit me up.
But still feeling badly about the first T, I decided to try a different tactic. I got in their faces, big time. I made it clear that they would not be behaving that way tonight or I would be dropping T's on them like Hansel and Gretel dropped bread crumbs.
Smart players would have gotten the message.
These were not smart players.
Still, I decided to press on with my little experiment in behavior modification each time they got out of line. It wasn't long before I was being roundly renounced as taking everything personally.
I made it all the way to 1:30 left in the game before I whacked one of them. After that, it was quiet and peaceful.
So, what did I (re)learn from tonight's fun?
1. The T in the first game was effective.
2. Trying to avoid the T was ineffective. It was a fool's errand. They were too stupid to get it.
3. T early and T often.
So next time I'll whack the first SOB who goes off at me, without warning and without remorse. I don't care if the league rules require the offender to be beheaded in the public square. In fact, I might enjoy watching that. And if two of them go off at once, like tonight, I'm gonna whack 'em both. I wouldn't want to show any favoritism, now would I?
