Talk about team luck (bad and good)!

[Billy_Bob]

I need a tranquilizer after my nerve wracking experience last night!

My “sort of league team” (I’ve played off and on for this team) is in 2nd place.

We were scheduled to play a weaker team last night, and it was very probable that this match would put us in 1st place.

Two team members on my team could not play last night because they were in Vegas (very good players). I was left to take care of the team while they were away.

I sub’ed for one of the players and they were supposed to get another player to sub before they left for Vegas. We were playing in a small town out in the middle of nowhere.

So it is 6:45 PM and the tournament starts at 7:00 PM. The third member of the team shows up and I ask who they got for the second sub…

He tells me they got so and so, but he called that person that afternoon and was told the person had passed away!

I looked at him and thought for a moment, then said “Ha ha, funny. Who did they get?”

He said I’m not joking. The player who was supposed to sub passed away!

I said you’re not joking?

He said he was told the player had passed away and we have no 3rd player!

I finally realized the truth.

So dealing with the situation and after a moment of shock, I ask around what to do? I was hoping someone would say that one of us could play in the other persons place? No such luck. Everyone said I had to find someone in the bar who would play...

There were only casual beginner players there and none of them wanted to play. I didn’t want them to play either. I wanted someone good, but we were out in the middle of nowhere and the tournament was starting in 15 minutes!

Then I remembered a friend had moved to that area (sort of good player). I called him up and begged him to come play. He said yes.

Good, at least we had a fighting chance! However he has not played pool all summer. Also I have not been playing much (doing summer stuff). We would have steamrolled over the other team with the other two excellent players and myself (me not playing so good), but now it was going to be a battle.

My friend arrives just in time to play his first match. He is racking the balls and his hands are shaking! (He has never played league before.) I thought, Oh jeeze, I need to calm him down. (He plays fairly good when relaxed.) So I tell him it does not matter how well he plays, just have fun. I pointed out that we were playing against a fun team. So Just have fun, does not matter if you make any balls or not… He ran the table for his first match, but later did not do so good.

Anyway, we squeaked by and won 2 rounds out of 4.

I thought… well so much for 1st place. There it goes. But at least we had fun and did our best under the circumstances.

And then we had an amazing stroke of good luck….

When I got back home, I talked to a friend and he said the team in 1st place had lost every single match that night!

So my team moved up to 1st place after all. The two out of town players will be happy with this.

But jeeze what a night! I need a tranquilizer or two…

 

[supergreenman]

He tells me they got so and so, but he called that person that afternoon and was told the person had passed away!…

Wow I thought I'd heard all the excuses for people not showing up for league night. I'm glad you pulled it together Billy_Bob.

 

[catscradle]

Wow I thought I'd heard all the excuses for people not showing up for league night. I'm glad you pulled it together Billy_Bob.

Now if he had only showed up and played, and they later found out he had passed that afternoon ... then we'd have an even more interesting story.

 

[ScottW]

(Insert "Playing the ghost ball" pun here)

 

[TX Poolnut]

Leadership under pressure. Way to go Billy_Bob!

 

[Koop]

I had a similar night in that we were fighting for first place as well.
The team we played last night, we also had to make up a match with them so there were two matches going on at once. They were the first place team and the only way we could surpass them would be to take 9 out of 10.

Well, it came down to me as we already had an 8-1 lead. Big shout-outs to my buddies Tony and DaveInBoston for playing lights out last night. Hill-hill for the marbles, the guy I'm playing dry breaks and I ran the rack out....You could hear a pin drop as the team we just dismantled went from 1st to 3rd in the blink of a night.

IT WAS BEEYOUTIFUL

 

[TheConArtist]

I need a tranquilizer after my nerve wracking experience last night!

My “sort of league team” (I’ve played off and on for this team) is in 2nd place.

We were scheduled to play a weaker team last night, and it was very probable that this match would put us in 1st place.

Two team members on my team could not play last night because they were in Vegas (very good players). I was left to take care of the team while they were away.

I sub’ed for one of the players and they were supposed to get another player to sub before they left for Vegas. We were playing in a small town out in the middle of nowhere.

So it is 6:45 PM and the tournament starts at 7:00 PM. The third member of the team shows up and I ask who they got for the second sub…

He tells me they got so and so, but he called that person that afternoon and was told the person had passed away!

I looked at him and thought for a moment, then said “Ha ha, funny. Who did they get?”

He said I’m not joking. The player who was supposed to sub passed away!

I said you’re not joking?

He said he was told the player had passed away and we have no 3rd player!

I finally realized the truth.

So dealing with the situation and after a moment of shock, I ask around what to do? I was hoping someone would say that one of us could play in the other persons place? No such luck. Everyone said I had to find someone in the bar who would play...

There were only casual beginner players there and none of them wanted to play. I didn’t want them to play either. I wanted someone good, but we were out in the middle of nowhere and the tournament was starting in 15 minutes!

Then I remembered a friend had moved to that area (sort of good player). I called him up and begged him to come play. He said yes.

Good, at least we had a fighting chance! However he has not played pool all summer. Also I have not been playing much (doing summer stuff). We would have steamrolled over the other team with the other two excellent players and myself (me not playing so good), but now it was going to be a battle.

My friend arrives just in time to play his first match. He is racking the balls and his hands are shaking! (He has never played league before.) I thought, Oh jeeze, I need to calm him down. (He plays fairly good when relaxed.) So I tell him it does not matter how well he plays, just have fun. I pointed out that we were playing against a fun team. So Just have fun, does not matter if you make any balls or not… He ran the table for his first match, but later did not do so good.

Anyway, we squeaked by and won 2 rounds out of 4.

I thought… well so much for 1st place. There it goes. But at least we had fun and did our best under the circumstances.

And then we had an amazing stroke of good luck….

When I got back home, I talked to a friend and he said the team in 1st place had lost every single match that night!

So my team moved up to 1st place after all. The two out of town players will be happy with this.

But jeeze what a night! I need a tranquilizer or two…

I had to do this once in leagues. Find a stranger at the bar to play for us. But it turned out he was a great shooter and ended up winning all four mathes of his . But another time we couldn't find anyone so each round we had to have a 0 for that empty spot, but this made all of us play our best and still ended up with winning all four rounds Sheesh, that was tough.

 

[Dhakala]

Bad and good luck sometimes happens to the same team in the same night.

I had an APA team with five players. One night, we had to play at a bar that really sucks for pool. Tables are crammed into spaces not big enough by a long shot, and they're in the middle of heavy traffic paths. I despise the place for other reasons, too. So I just wanted to get this one over with and go home.

Two of my boys carpooled. One looked up the address on Mapquest - 12100 E. Alameda Ave. They proceeded to 12100 W. Alameda Ave. - about 18 miles away.

Starting time, 7 pm, comes and my prodigal children call. I told them they would never make it across town in time alive, so they should go home and we'd just forfeit two. I wanted an early exit.

So my two remaining players go up and win. Then the other team captain says he wants to play me, since he's a 6 and hardly ever gets to play because his team is SL-heavy. I say sure. We go back and forth. He falls apart under safeties and I win the match. We can go home now with a 3-2 win.

But in come my prodigal children, ready to play.

"I thought I told you morons to GO HOME," I groaned, anticipating another unwanted hour in that joint.

But lo! Playing their captain meant the other team could not field five players whose skill levels totaled 23 or less. (APA General Rule 29.) So they forfeited all of the night's points to us. We leave 5-0.

I have no idea whether the rule was applied properly in this bizarre situation. But that's how the other team's captain called it, and the LO went along. Who was I to argue?

Weird night.