Monday, January 09, 2006

20/20 revision

so, another quarter is heard from, as jeff "dick" brown brings his considerable acumen to bear on the thorny issue of history, or, as he calls it, revisionism. seems jeff was sick and tired of reading what i was writing, so he decided to do something he never does (because he hates rsd) and reveal the truth. and after we had already wasted all that time on lies.

yes, friends, jeff was standing "right there" when it all happened back in 1993, and he was quick to reveal that in truth i struck the first blow (surprise, surprise) and that he thinks i'm a prick (no surprise, no surprise) and that everything that happened to me was warranted because i had started it all. he added a few jabs at our style of play (cheating) and how they were sick of being pushed around (justifiable response to unspirited behavior) so steve didn't back down when i hit him first and jeremy gave me what i had coming when i retaliated at steve for not backing down when i hit him first (yes, the logic does seem to break down a little in that section, but i think by then jeff was in over his head and simply grasping at whatever was out there that might keep him afloat). as a final tip of the hat in the spirit of fair reporting and fair play, jeff allowed that joey deserved every bit of cribber's head butt. what a gracious jeff that dick is.

not that we really need to go over it in too much detail, but jeff is, not surprisingly, totally mistaken. when i pointed that out to him in an email, even detailing the scene when, bleeding from the lip from jeremy's blow, i insisted that steve tell jeremy that he had started it all, jeff had an interesting reaction. "whatever," he wrote, sounding much like the fourteen-year-olds i teach when they discover that they're wrong. he added the question, "so, what? steve whispered it to jeremy or did the whole o line know?" i got the feeling he wasn't really interested in the answer when he added "i just thought it would be nice to say hello, but i was wrong." and not for the first time either.

what i'm still trying to figure out is precisely where in the i'm sick of your revisionist version of events because the truth is you hit him first which makes you a liar and your team a bunch of cheaters communication i was supposed to unearth the "hey. how're you doing?" i've looked several times, but i'm still not sure.

so let's give that horses' carcass a break, but not before we ask one question: if jeff, who was a member of the team and was standing "right there," never heard from moons that he had started it all, then how many of his teammates did moons allow to leave that field believing that he (moons) was guiltless and we (ny) had showed our ugly and evil nature by precipitating a brawl that deprived them (boston) of their right to a good, clean spirited game in which they would surely have been victorious?

while we're pondering that one, let's speculate as to just how joey giampino feels about this latest (jeff's) attempt by a former teammate to throw him under the bus. for years after that ill-fated contest, you couldn't throw a rock at a frisbee party without hitting some member or former member of the boston ultimate scene who was all too eager to blame the whole 1993 debacle on joey and his misguided efforts to bring toughness to beantown. they were, of course, singing a different tune when they beat us at regionals that fall by 7, but we never really did our best cheating until nationals-everyone knows that. still, the treatment joey received courtesy of his former comrades in arms was reminiscent of what happens when, waking up in a haze after a night of heavy drinking, you roll over to discover you're lying next to that not very attractive girl who looked a whole lot better when you were drunk. then, as you begin to slide quietly out of bed to make your getaway, you realize with a start that you're in your own bed.

yes, joey got the "i really have to be going, my nephew's fifth birthday party is today, i have to go to church, my niece's baptism is in an hour, leave your number and i'll call you, yeah it was great, i had fun too whatever your name is, don't bother freshening up, you look great, don't bother waiting for the elevator the stairs are faster, please don't tell anybody where you're coming from on your way out, bye" treatment in a big way. and you always read that boston is such a friendly town.

guess you can't believe everything you read.

so parinella gave me a chuckle when he said that joey teammates' hadn't rushed to joey's defense because he was the instigator with crib. perhaps that's what jim was thinking. lenny, however, had a different reaction, as he jumped in with both horns and insisted that cribber had to be thrown out of the game. never mind that there were no observers, no yellow/red card system, and no precedent for making such a decision. "cribber's gone," he yelled. realizing that in fact crib probably was, for our purposes, gone, i called his bluff.

"fine," i said, but jeremy's gone too." to no one's surprise, he rejected the offer, and the game continued.

and you're telling me you'd really rather read that history book? whatever.

7 comments:

Luke said...

pfft. can't use a computer screen as a coaster.

parinella said...

There certainly were observers that game, and in fact, it was an overturned call that prompted the whole Joey-Cribber incident. (You are correct that there was no precedence for them to do something like toss Cribber.) Does that make you a liar, untrustworthy, or just mistaken on one and only one issue?

The problem with the Boston 1993 team was the mob mentality we had. We were all too eager to join in the fun of spiking and being assholes and rushing the field after every goal whether you wanted to or not. Yes, without Joey, we wouldn't have had the final ingredient to do that, but as you would have heard at that rock-throwing frisbee party, it's our fault, every one of us, for taking part. I spent 20 fruitless minutes yesterday searching rsd for a post of mine that said just that.

The official Boston propaganda guide suggests portraying Boston as innocent victim to NY's aggressions prior to 1993, as misguided but willing perpetrators in 1993, then as semi-disgusted self-reformers post-1993, albeit without anyone to play the part of the Evil Empire, as Cojones was not NYNY either in personality or in personnel (but still damn good). Occasionally someone strays from the party line, or an overeager journalist might select a quote or two that makes a good story, or an overager propagandist might speak off the cuff incorrectly, but this is the way it's supposed to happen.

Alex de Frondeville said...

We definitely all jumped on the mob bandwagon. Since we couldn't beat'em, let's join'em and beat'em at their own game. The offensive philosophy was basically do whatever you want in terms of trying to score with hucks, etc., because we were going to 'GET IT BACK' with in your face defense. Yeah, we beat you at regionals, and then tie game in the first half, and then it blew up. What was the funniest thing about that semi is that even after you guys were up 17-10, I still thought we were going to win the game. In fact, I was sure we were, that's how confident (misplaced, obviously) I was. In that sense, Joey and the attitude he brought to the team definitely made a difference. In retrospect, it didn't work.

From my perspective, I didn't disavow Joey or the attitude he brought to the team. 1994 was an experiment we tried, it didn't work, let's try something else. I also think it didn't last beyond that year and the 1994 spring blowup occurred because we DID lose again when we were even MORE sure we were going to win than in 1992. We had tried it too many different ways and failed so it was time to start over from basic principles. Obviously, it's not like we started out that spring saying this was going to be the difference and this is our year (it took awhile before the confidence caught up to the rsd spew), but it definitely grew on itself.

kd said...

jim, i'll try to be more careful. because the observers were added at halftime (in response to the first half brawl) and the game was already decided by then, i wrote that the game (the part when the outcome was in doubt) was played without observers. as for the three possibilities you offer for interpretations of my character based on that misstatement, i don't believe any one of them is accurate.

alex, we know about your confidence. anyone who has ever watched you swagger 70 after turning the disc over knows that confidence is something you don't lack, misplaced or otherwise.

still, i'm not buying either of your denials of disavowal of joey. jim argued that joey didn't get backed up because he was the instigator with cribber, but you guys backed your players regardless of who was the instigator (as you should-as we all do). and boston propaganda aside, joey was scapegoated by many of the players on the team. you may not be among them, but i can't believe you wouldn't admit it's true.

Alex de Frondeville said...

Granted, it was easy to say what I said regarding Joey from my perspective today. At the time, I expect that I was probably more militant about it, again based on the confidence shattering loss and that it was a repudiation of a style that hadn't worked for us when it counted. And Joey probably was a convenient scapegoat, yes.

parinella said...

As for observers, I distinctly remember being overruled myself at about 4-4, or maybe 2-2. I know that it was early, I'm pretty sure it was tied, and I think it was before the other fisticuffs. I cut to the cone from just inside the endzone, Jonny planted and leaned hard into me as I was running by him, he sprawled and called foul, I caught what should have been a goal, argued with him about what a terrible person he was, and then the observer ruled it a foul on me. He considered himself vindicated, while to this day I think it was a blown call. We then turned it over, you guys scored, I think. Maybe I'll look at the newsletter to see whether it mentions anything.

As for the headbutt itself, I'm suddenly not sure, although yesterday I was certain that I saw the whole thing developing from not 10 yards away. Yesterday, I would have said that I saw Joey get in Cribber's face, literally inches away, and start laughing at him. Cribber butted him, Joey took an obviously-faked Nestea-plunge dive backwards, and I shrugged. Today, I'm not even sure I was still at the game at that point.

There must be some reason why the team did not behave the same when Joey was hit as it did when the first melee happened. Possible reasons: our spirit was broken and we had given up; in the first one, a lot of things were going on and so most people did not see all of the events leading to the bumps, whereas in the headbutt all eyes were trained on Joey and Cribber and saw everything as it developed; there was something about Saint Steve vs Scapegoat Joey that caused the rest of the team to treat them differently; or maybe the general reactions were indeed the same and I'm just mistaken. Although I remember it just like it was yesterday, maybe I don't remember yesterday that well.

I'm sure that I scapegoated Joey on occasion, although I would have more frequently blamed us for our mob mentality. Joey just wanted to win, and he played the game tough. He may have been the ringleader, but you can't cheat an honest man, so we have to take the blame.

Anonymous said...

for what it's worth, i was also right there, although my memory doesn't seem to be as detailed as everyone else's. i thought jay suckerpunched kenny? and i never heard a word from mooney. and yes, everyone blamed joey for everything. you could see the collective guilt as late as worlds in sweden,with the referees shirts as uniforms and intentionally losing the argument/game to sweden in pool play. anyway, kenny, you need to get an RSS feed going on this thing.

later
sack