Ah - the joys of Saturday rec leagues. First, the really funny part. Prior to one of my games, my partner (a HS kid) asked me what I used in my front pocket as a possession indicator. I told him I used a roll of LifeSavers. An buddy of mine who was just leaving his game heard me say that. He came over and said to me, "Is that a possession indicator in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?"

After I stopped laughing, I told him I was thinking of switching to a Hickory Farms beef stick. He laughed and said no one would believe that - maybe I should use a cocktail weenie instead.

OK - now for the game stuff. In a single 8th grade boys game, I had the following plays:

1) an inbound pass go into the goal (first time in over 10 years in a game of mine)
2) an inbound pass become a wedgie
3) A1, in backcourt, stop his dribble with one foot in frontcourt and one foot in backcourt - then pass to A2 who is jumping from frontcourt to backcourt and who caught the ball in the air
4) B1 commit an intentional foul on A1 as A1 was missing a 3 pointer
5) A1 hold the ball over the court on a spot throw-in where it was held by B1
6) a player shoot the ball into the wrong basket
7) B1 reach over the boundary on a spot throw-in and smack the ball while it was in A1 hands, then A1 drops the ball, steps out on the court and pushes B1 in the chest with both hands
8) my partner toss team A's head coach and team B's assistant coach
9) A1 miss a layup at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime
10) some kid's mom slap a parent from the other team after the game because the other parent said something negative about her kid

My other games were anti-climactic.

Mark,

Is #5 considered a held ball and does it result in an alternating possession throw-in?

correct.

What were your calls on #1-7?

Mark, seems like when it rains on you, it pours on you.

Kinda long but worth it::
I had something funny happen at one of my Friday night games that only my partner and I knew about. I had worked a pretty vigorous JV boys game at 5:30 and was moving to another school for an 8PM Boys V game. As is customary, this requires a couple of Alieves to help lubricate the knees. No water so I pop them in my mouth and walk to the sink. One of them falls back into my throat and causes me to caugh. Not wanting it to fall out of my mouth, I close my lips and it shoots up into my left sinus area. Once it starts to disolve, it starts to burn so I thought I'd suck some water into my nostrile to rinse it but it only speeds the disolving. Now I have blue foam running out of my nose and some draining back into my throat which is causing me to wretch. It's 15 minutes to tip and gotta put on the game face and get out there. Took lots of tissue with me and by half-time was doing lots better. Also, my lanyard broke 2 minutes into the game but that seemed kinda minor at the time.

They were loud.

I bet you were hoping the kid hit the layup at the buzzer so the game went into OT.

If that happened, I would either have found a way to wave it off, or obviously he got fouled. ;)