I'm Center, Table side
Less than a minute into the game. Shooter gets fouled.
TWEET! "That's two."
As I walk to reporting area T walks by, to take my spot, and I mumble, ("I lost the fouler!")
He said, "Twenty."
I turn and report, "Red, 20!"
I turn to give signal to the lane and Lead, who has 'em lined up, looks at me inquisitively. I step in and I hear, "It wasn't her, it was me, from R44. (a Blonde)." I looked at R20 (a Brunette) and immediately realized it wasn't R20.
I said, "Thank you.", and changed my report to the table.
No praw. Just looked really <u>Stooooooopid</u>.

Trail later apologized for giving me the wrong number. I told him to not give it another thought. I was the one that kicked that call, not him. :(
mick


[Edited by mick on Oct 6th, 2001 at 06:27 PM]

Hmmmmm
 

Sounds like you hade a "blonde moment" and didn't realize it! :D

I am glad you eventually straightened out that "Brunette Moment".

That's a lonely feeling. I've done it, too. It's very similar to losing the FT shooter. Oh man, I've done that and I kicked myself. It's that same stooooooooopid feeling. It also tells me that I am not mentally into the game and I need to wake up.

Chuck

Everyone has these problems. To help overcome them we have to improve our Communicationns with our partner(s) at the timeof the call. If we let them know what's happenining we won't get into these embarassing situations. Blow the whistle and then SLOW DOWN!!!!.
Pistol

Been There. Done That.
Habit that I was taught was to call out the fouler and tell him/her what the foul is as soon as I dropped whistle from mouth.
Saying "R44 on the arms" helps plant the seed in your mind.

I like to use the fraction thought. If red 44 whacks white 32, I think "44/32" and say in my mind "44 over 32" while heading to report. Usually works. Helps with feeble minds like mine.

Interesting thought, Clyde.

I, not being an engineer or a physicist like some of the guys here, would have to go with the fraction, 44/32, too.
They could go with 1.38, and only have to remember one number.
mick

Don't be ridiculous, Mick. We can't carry slide rules onto the court to convert the fraction to decimals.

Everyone knows, though, that the fraction should be converted to the lowest common denominator - 11/8

If you haven't had your "blond" moment yet then just wait. I've stepped into the lane and asked, "Who was it that I just called that on?" Usually they are honest enough to tell me.

But 8 isn't a legal number. :)

OK...22/16, to keep it legal. ;-)

oh,, yeah....
 

Tim,
I get those moments.
But they are "White" and senior.... :o
mick

16?

I saw that too, but then I saw the winky face. Ya' gotta watch for those subtle things.

I remember an old Bob Jenkins post where we were having a discussion about numbers and he asked, kind of tongue-in-cheek, if there really were any "illegal" numbers. His point was that by using that terminology, we were kind of escalating the importance of what is just a game.

I agree with Bob. If you think about it, using the terms "legal" and "illegal" is kind of over the back, er, I mean, over the top.

Illegal numbers
 

When was the last time you arived at the gym and noticed that one team had numerous numbers with digits over 5? A quick look and you begin to suspect the team is simply thrilled that someone provided some jerseys. (Granted, this is not a HS varsity game.) The numbers look fine to me!

A couple of weeks ago I arrived for a 7/8 grade doubleheader. The home coach explained that he had a problem; the visiting school only had one team. He wanted to combine his 7th and 8th grade girls so that all could play, but that would mean duplicate numbers. I asked him to swap jerseys or whatever to give us a 22-blond and 22-brunette or whatever. (Turns out he had to keep the book while coaching and saw for himself every foul but one or two. Usually before we could report he had already recorded a foul on "Susan" or whomever.)

It really is a game.