The Meaning of it all?

The subject line goes more towards the kickball portion of this post. But first:

And that era is over.

Breaking news across the Yankees world: Joe Torre will not return as the Yankees manager. It's sad because it's the end of an era but it was done the right way. He was offered a contract and declined. He was not fired. He was not not asked back (double negative = MONEY). He simply turned down the job and now we can all move forward.

Big questions remain, like will Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada return now that Torre is gone? A-Rod? Pettitte?

This is probably my favorite part of the baseball season. I love all the off season chatter about free agents going here or there, big signing, no signings, all the rumors and the eventual blockbuster moves. All that drama is a lot of fun.

From the end of an era to the rise of another:

Tonight, the force that is QP Live takes on a team new to kickball. They will not win. I say this confidently, but I cannot guarantee it. Why? Because my plan is to be absolutely hammered going into this game. The game is at 8. Free happy hour sponsored by my work starts at 5. QP Live = very excited. I haven't been able to go out on the firm tab in a true happy hour setting in a little while and I missed it dearly. I'm not going to make up for it all at once, but I am going to get my adult beverage in both hands on. Cause that's how I roll (son).

So there is a high probability that I will fall over on the mound tonight. There is also a decent probability that I will get hit by a bus or car as I ride my bike to the game from happy hour. I'm assuming that should this happen, I'll be good and liquored up and not really feel any of that, so I'm not sweating it too much.

In other kickball developments, after out 8-0 victory of Scoregasm last week, it appears that we are starting to get more recognition around the league. I guess that's pretty cool..but it also adds a lot of pressure. Basically, as this recognition grows, our level of play must also grow...at least that's how I think. I don't want to be like g-Dub basketball in the 2005-06 season that went undefeated all year and got ranked as high as #3 in the country because when they lost, they plummeted in the polls because people knew they didn't deserve it.

With our kickball team, we've never balled with the top dogs, so what is required to pull this off? I'm just assuming that if we lose any game at all, we will get the tag that we were overrated and then I'll flip the fuck out and no one needs that...especially because it's kickball. Another result of the current recognition is that other players from other good teams want to play with us. This is great because it will only make us better, but at what point have we gone too far? Basically, with the talent we currently have and the talent we're debating adding I think our goal becomes winning the national tournament in Vegas rather than showing up and playing well. While that would be excellent, at what point have we gone too far? Will our team be nothing more than a collection of players without any true allegiance to each other? Or will our team still resemble the original team that played the first season we played back when we were QP Live and Me: The Untold Story.

Perhaps The Untold Story was the story yet written and that is what is unfolding before us. Perhaps The Untold Story is the journey before us on our quest to achieve kickball greatness while preserving our internal being at the same time. I guess I didn't know then, but that team name was perhaps the smartest thing I ever did...well that and not eating what I thought was a chocolate on the floor when I was 12 that turned out to be a bloated tick. That has to be pretty high on the smart list. I mean, it looked a lot like a chocolate and I picked it up and debated it but it looked a little shady. Then I tossed it back on the ground and it started walking...so good decision overall.

True story. Told Story.