Wednesday, April 9, 2014

THE CAPTAIN AND THE FROG
Be careful who you team up with
                                 




On a bright spring day a self-rate frog came hopping up to a small stream.  As he prepared to enter the stream a scorpion dressed as a captain approached him.  “I noticed you have very strong legs as you hopped this way, not to mention a big forehand and a wicked American twist serve.  How about you give me a ride to the other side of the stream where my team is playing and you can join us?  I think you’d fit in nicely.  Since I can’t swim and need the strongest of frogs to carry me to my destination, you can swim across and I’ll ride on your back.”  The frog considered the offer but was wary.  “I was an 18 super a few years ago and am starting to play tennis seriously again but I’ve been warned to be careful of who I fall in with.”

”You have nothing to fear from me," said the scorpion.  “True, I’ve had some scrapes with players who have left me in the past but you won’t leave me.  You'll love it here.  You even look good enough that I will play you with me in big matches.”  Still the frog was weary.  But the scorpion did seem to have a lot of other frogs and they did look pretty good playing on the other side of the stream.  “How do I know that if I agree to give you a ride you won’t decide to sting me?” asked the frog.  The scorpion smiled, “why would I do that?  If I stung you it's true that you might die but I would sink as well.  No smart captain would turn on one of his own frogs.”

Still weary, the young frog did have to admit that this made a lot of sense.  The scorpion would have to be crazy to sting me.  We would both sink and drown.  And if other frogs found out about it they would reconsider ever giving him a ride again.  Finally he told the scorpion to hop on and he started out across the stream.  About half way across the frog reconsidered his decision and told the scorpion he had decided to play elsewhere.  The scorpion began stinging him furiously until the frog was on the verge of death.  “Why would you do this?” asked the frog, “now we will surely both die.”  With a broad smile his passenger replied, “because I’m a scorpion.  It’s what I do.” 

The scorpion then climbed back onto the shore as a promising new frog hopped up.


54 comments:

  1. That describes a few captains,

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    1. Four or five came to mind as I was reading it. Just because you start with some of these guys they act you are property.

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    2. More than four or five. Anybody any good that leaves a captain gets trashed.

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  2. No one ever knows the whole story. And no one is perfect. But do some homework before you jump on any team. Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware.

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  3. I have great respect for most captains. Thankless job that takes a lot of work. I did for a half season had great players who would play when needed and it was still a pain in the ass. It is and will always be a captains league. The best players want to just be told when and where to play. Some only want to play best matches some think they are better than they are and some just want to be on a winning team. The league has 3 levels teams that just play for fun, teams that want to make playoffs and teams that want to try nationals. The captain pretty much determines which of those 3 will happen. The best ones have the inate ability to know when to play themselves and when to sit out. Easier said then done.

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    1. Many captains just want their buddies to play. F you aren't one of their buds, forget about it. Some captains will win at all costs and throw their friends to the side. It makes me want to quit league.

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  4. All true on one team or another. As a captain I try and tell people what kind of team it will be this season - making a deep run and will do what's necessary, good but not great & everyone plays, or have fun and drink beer. What kills me are the guys who desperately want on the best teams even though they will be at the bottom of the roster, then want to play all the time anyway. You got on the wrong team and you knew it, give the captain a break and stop nagging for playing time or join a different team.

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    1. Like that will happen. The worst players are the one that can win most of their matches but no way they can win in a big match. They think they are better and always have an excuse why they lost all those important matches.

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  5. First of all I have yet to meet the tennis player that in singles didnt have an excuse when they lost, and in doubles didnt blame there partners play for the reason they lost. Its never the fact that they were just not as good as the opponents. That's just tennis at the usta level.

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    1. You need to expand your circle of playing partners. I have met many USTA League players over a long period of time who are gracious in losses, blaming only themselves. All you are doing is projecting your immature reaction to losses on everyone else who plays. Grow up and join the adult world.

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  6. You have to choose your captains. Most don't know what the hell they are doing. Even the ones that win just want to play a select few guys.

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  7. Not a lot of posts on this topic but they are all oddly about tennis. I guess after he-who-shall-not-be-named lost last weekend he stopped posting about himself?

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  8. I wouldn't be too hard on the captains. Really don't think any of this happens without them. My favorites are the ones who captain teams so they'll have a team to play on that will actually play them. And they get to play with the best player so they might win. It's like coaching the little league team so your own kid can pitch.

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    1. Our kids must have played on the same team

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  9. What I really don't get is captains who trash players or players who trash captains and they think no one is going to find out about it. Bad mouthing someone just shows the rest of the team how they are going to be treated. No class.

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    1. Play for some of these captains and it gets understandable. The worst are Nationals or Bust captains.

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    2. I thought those captains were in Houston. We have a lot of Sectionals or Bust Captains here.

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    3. If you're captain tells you he's running a nationals or bust team I'd ask him how many times he's taken a team to nationals. There are less than 10 guys in Dallas that really know how to get a team to nationals. And that's at all levels combined. 99% of them don't know how to get to sectionals with a map.

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    4. That is crazy!!! Getting to Sectionals and Nationals is easy. All you have to do is win 3 of 5 lines every single match you play. If you do this you will get to Cities, Sectionals, Nationals and become National Champion. Very simple way to do it.

      Well, there is the hard part of actually winning the 3 lines every match, but who wants to let the details get in the way.

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    5. Actually all you have to do is have Mike Kelly as one of your players and then you only need to win 2 of the other lines since Mike puts you up 1-0 w/out ever having to play. Some people might even say you are up 2-0 if Mike is playing next to another court b/c the other court will be too annoyed by Mike to win their match.

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    6. His recent loss aside, you can ask Pickett what Kelly can do for a Nats run. At tri-level we was undefeated at cities, sectionals and 6-0 at nationals. Does make it easier.

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    7. Why don't you play him between 2 other lines and boom, you have three lines because he wins and the other two lines are so annoyed they can't play. Instant National Champs.

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  10. I'm going to do it. I'm going to derail this thread. Ready?

    Mike Kelly

    BOOM!!!!!!

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    1. Hard to derail a thread that never got on track.

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    2. Let's admit it. Kelly lost so he stopped posting. Canyon Creek won so they stopped posting. That's 90% of the blog.

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    3. I never thought I would say this but I wish Kelly would have beaten Canyon Creek. Makes this place more interestng. Kelly's self love blog masturbation and Canyon Creeks self loathing blog and Kelly infatuation makes this place more active. Here is to Alan putting another team together to put Canyon Creek down and keep them mad. I think CC is in that after the orgasm refractory time, they shot their load and went to sleep.

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  11. Match of the year is today at Southlake tennis center. In FW? Pickett and Rossouw square off. Anybody heard anything?

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    1. Rossouw will roll.

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    2. I'd take that bet but I already know they lost

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    3. How can Roosouw have 25 guys on his roster and can't get 8 guys to play? He has Baker lose again to someone he should kill. Guess he IIa just getting the players ratings down for playoffs.

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    4. Baker lost to Ericsson? Really? Baker trying to get back to 4.0?

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    5. Rossouw will be throwing him off his team soon.

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    6. This is Baker and Ericsson is a nice player. I'm coming off rotator cuff and torn bicept tendon surgery and still cannot serve or hit overheads. So dont ever accuse me of tanking or trying to manipulate a score. I'm by no means up to speed with my game since the surgery and gave it everything I had so "F" off!!!

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  12. My captian is the frog and 70% of my teammates are scorpions. 5 years and we have never made the playoffs, not even q.t.

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    1. My captain is a stupid scorpion. He thinks he has frogs but they are really toads. He thinks they are good but most aren't.

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  13. who's praising Kelly for Tri-level. My understanding was that Keith Clark and his 3.5s were the bedrock of the team, never dropping a line.

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    1. Wrong. Every match at nationals was a 2-1 win and Kelly/Moore went 6-0

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  14. My team has 2-3 very good frogs leave after each season. The captain pisses them off when he tells them they will have limited playing time because he has promised playing time out to our friends. My team sucks but I get to play so it's worth it.

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    1. League is about having fun and playing tennis. Everyone should get equal playing time. I think the DTA should make a rule that everyone played the same number of times. Captains can police that too.

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    2. We could use the same rules as T ball. Everyone plays and gets a at bat. Then we could have participation ribbons. And no playoffs so no one feels left out.

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  15. I would've been wary of the scorpion when he told me I had nice legs.

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  16. The league would be better if every team recieved trophies and had their picture in the newsletter. That would stop all the tanking non-sense.

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  17. Great topic!!! My crack smokin scorpion captain thinks he is a frog.

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    1. He captains so he can play. No one else would put him in the lineup.

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  18. It's your new administration at work. Expect more rules, more forms and more BS that make it harder on captains and players but easier on the DTA.

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  19. It was mainly intended for ladies USTA where they have both a Thursday and a Saturday option at the same USTA level. However, it also applies to teams at two different levels in case they both advance to the playoffs.
    It is a DTA rule so it doesn't affect Ft. Worth.

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  20. So before the season starts you have to decide a primary team? And how do you punish a team if some player doesn't fill out a form on time when the captain didn't know he was signing up for another team. The whole thing wasn't considered very well. A declaration a week or two before the playoffs would have been fine and the captains would have known enough information to manage it.

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  21. Nice run for Dallas 9.0 mixed in Nats! 2nd place, way to represent over weekend!

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  22. Yeah, what if some frog decides he picked the douchebag scorpion before the season and the frog would rather hop for a non-douchebag scorpion after getting to know the scorpion's better better. I bet this is a Klamecki brainchild.

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  23. Klamecki Scorpion would definitely worry about the frog jumping to a non-douchebag scorpion. You may be on to something.

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  24. my sense rossouw and his cohort tried to police everyone and have shot themselves in foot. He has teams in dallas and fw and he will need to declare. Looks like fw playoffs in mid june. 5teams vying for 4 playoff spots with only one likely qualifier. Dallas will likely have 2 qualifiers. Reiman tridib rossouw gleneagles vy for 2 spots. He could be on outside looking in with his be in every league strategy.

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  25. Just got off the phone with TX Section and the DTA. Here is what I was told by both regarding Declarations.

    The Declaration form is only if you are playing on more than one team in Dallas. Whether that is 1 team in 4.0 and 4.5, or for the ladies who play on multiple teams for the same NTRP rating. So, if you only play on one Dallas team, then this Declaration page has nothing to do with you even if you play on a Forth Worth or other city team. The old rule about if you play for your Dallas team in Cities and they go to Sectionals, Dallas tries to force you to play on the Dallas team is still in effect. The DTA stated if your Dallas team makes it to Sectionals and you play on another team, the DTA will file a Grievance with Todd and the Section will have to make the determination. The TX Section, Tasha, told me the Section allows the City to make these types of rules and will usually back up the City Association when that happens; however, since you are not completing a form I don't know how that process will work.

    So, no need to worry about the form unless you are playing on multiple teams in Dallas. No need to worry about Dallas/Ft. Worth unless both teams make Sectionals, but this rule has been in place for awhile. Dallas tries to use you playing in Dallas cities as a declaration. Maybe someone has run into this issue and can state what happens if your Dallas team makes it to Sectionals, but you decide to play for some other team. I don't know how that works.

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  26. I thought you had to declare just prior to either cities championship. If you fail to declare then they use your time stamp for joining either team and 1st time stamp claims ownership.

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