League Ups and Downs

I played on my Sunday league yesterday and on this day, we play 6 games each.

I show up a little late, so my captain said, "I knew you were running a little late, so I put you in the hammer spot so you could settle down if you needed to."

Wait, I'm on an all-guys team and you put me in the hill-hill spot?  SAWEET!

I win my first two games and then it I notice it - the whole entire other team is watching me!  "The Girl Player That Plays Good."

Then it hits me, "Oh crap!  This is the place where I dogged a few games because I got embarrassed about a shot!"

And just like that, all the feelings came back.

Sh!t.

I recall distinctly I had been playing well another time at this exact location for league and people started to "notice my play" and then I missed an easy shot for another great out.  After that I was missing a lot of balls.  I finally figured out I was embarrassed about my miss and it affected me  several games later.

And guess what happened?  I over-hit a ball right after remembering that and miss shape, and lose that game!  Ugh.

In the next game, my opponent tells me "this should be an interesting match" because I overheard him talk about my play.  But I was still "nervous" and I missed a shot to avoid a scratch and then lost that game, too.  Dang it!

Now I'm 2-2 instead of 4-0!

Man I was disappointed.

I even texted a friend about it.  "I should be 4-0, but I messed up two games."

As I walk from that 4th game a teammate tells me, "we want you to win, Melinda" or something silly like that, lol.

I know!  haha  Me too!

As I play my 5th game, I'm sitting there minding my own business, trying to play and one of the guys on the other team says to a teammate within earshot, "She plays good."

His teammate replies, "yea, I know."

Then the guy tells her, "but she should have won the two games she lost."

Wait, what??

You are watching me THAT close that you know I lost two games?  AND you noticed also that I should have won?  Just like I felt?

WOW.

Really?

So, win my 5th match.  Whew!  And I figure I can beat the girl on their team next, so I should at least be 4-2 at the end of the day.

As I'm playing my last game, the guy who said that about my losses comes up to my table to get his case.  He sits down instead of just leaving.

"You know, you are the best female pool player I've ever seen."

He's about 50 so I doubt that, but it was still a nice compliment!  But, I bet there are only ten whole other girls on the league so I might be the best he's seen on the league.  Compared to girls in Texas, though, hardly!!

I said "thank you" and then shared back what he had said earlier to his teammate, "I should have won 2 of the games I lost."

"Yea, but that's okay, you still play stellar."

I missed about 4 more times at the table against the other female player (lol), but finally saw an out and ran out for the win to capture my lowly 4-2 score.  Whew, at least it wasn't worse!

And, we didn't even go close to a hill-hill match!

The Envelope Please

On the Omega Billiards Tour, the tour that I run in the DFW-area, the main sponsor and I decided together we wanted to pay out 17-24th places.  It's not much, just $30, but we wanted to give eight additional players SOME money for their efforts.  We figured that some of the players that had a tougher time to get to 16th place and higher would appreciate "getting in the money."

Some players are VERY happy to get $30.  Other players could care less, because they wanted to do better.

It's dependent on the player, obviously, if they appreciate it or not.

At the October Omega event, one of the top players (Amos) had just lost a heart breaker hill-hill match on Saturday night.  He had literally just snapped off the previous stop (his 1st place finish on the tour) and now he is already out of the very next tournament on a Saturday night.

He is all the way across the room, but I grab his $30 little envelope and shyly walk all the way over to Amos.

He's putting up his cues and he's obviously disappointed.

I said, "Hey, I am embarrassed to give you this little amount, but you got in the money."

I felt SO badly because he had just won an event and now I feel like I am rubbing in his face he's only getting $30 and did poorly.

He replies, "I should have made that 8 ball, it's my fault."

I hand him the envelope and he says, "I didn't think I finished high enough to get any money back."

I say proudly, "well, we pay deeper in the field than most tourneys, so 17th -24th place gets a little something back."

He replies, "that's really cool," as he takes the envelope with the whole thirty dollars in it.

I walk away and go back to the tourney table.  He still stands over there, talking to a couple of friends.

One of my friends who is helping me with the tourney, Heather, notices that another player has finished.  She says, "we finally get to pay out the first envelope."

I declared, "well, we already did, I just paid Amos."

She replies, "You did?  Uh, is that right?"

I'm thinking, "well, yea!"

Then I look down at the chart and see I was completely wrong!  I should NOT have paid Amos!  OMG.  I read the chart wrong!

I was mortified as I walked BACK over to Amos.

I pulled him aside and said, "uh, now I REALLY feel bad."

He's just looking at me, "what?"

"I wasn't suppose to pay you, I made a mistake.  Can I have that $30 back?"

OMG....

He laughed and said, "yea, here you go.  I already tossed the envelope but here's the thirty dollars," as he hands me the cash from his pocket.

I felt SO bad - WOW!  So not only did I rub in his face he finished so badly he only got $30, I then had to go BACK and rub it in even more that he wasn't suppose to get ANYTHING.

OMG.... lol.

Fun League Team!

I decided to really put to the test that there is No "I" in Team.

I have mentioned I play on two different Monday night leagues.  One of them is with a men's team that I have been playing on for about two years.  I've come to really cherish the guys.  They are my friends and they have fun!

The name of that team is the Sofa Kings.  And they would joke with me that I was the Sofa Queen, lol.  I was there when they won ACS Texas State last year and helped them win the league playoffs last season.  :)

However, I decided I needed to quit the team.

Why?

To put the team first. 

A few of months ago I had a breakup, and my ex is on that team.  I decided a month or so after that breakup, that it was best for the team if I simply step down and make things easier on everyone else.

So I called the Captain (I felt he deserved a phone call, not a text) to explain my thoughts and difficult decision, and he said he completely understood. 

While I thought this was the right thing to do, not one of those teammates said one thing to me about it.  No one has reached out to me, or thanked for doing the right thing, or not even telling me it was the wrong thing.  I have heard nothing.

I don't need reassurance, but I thought they were my friends, so I admit I'm a little confused I haven't heard from anyone at all.

Anyway.

So, because I still want to qualify with a mixed league where I could possibly still play Scotch Doubles in Vegas for BCA or ACS (state and nationals), I needed to join another team.

I didn't want to play on Mondays - I didn't want to have to worry about where we were playing or who we were playing, so I called our league operator and asked if I could join a Sunday team instead.

And he said yes!

I had several choices for teams.  One team, I like the guys on the team, but one of the players said it wasn't a fun team anymore.

Well, I need to have fun when I play!

And I want to smile more again!!

So, I decided to ask a different team that I knew had fun guys on it.  But obviously, still play strong, lol.  I can't be playing with weak players, lmao.

(I'm serious!, lol)

So, I called one of the guys on that team and left a voicemail about perhaps joining their team, if they had room.  He calls me back and says, "Well, we would love to have you on our team, but we have already met our white person quota."

What? OMG!

Did I pick the right team or what??  They are hysterical!

They welcomed me with open arms and on the first Sunday I played, I had a rack and run and won more games than any of the other guys, lol.  ;)

Fun times AND good pool with a great group of guys!  And lots of smiling!  Love it. :)