New Season Underway

After a couple weeks off it's nice to be back into the routine of weekly league play. We have two new players this season, Grace and Adam, and we're looking for a third player. We have a rule on our team: in order to play on our team you must be a regular at Sophie's. In my opinion, this "hiring from within" has held us back a little bit because some of the best players I know never come to Sophie's.

That being said, we're fortunate to have Grace and Adam on board. Their personalities are a welcome addition to our team. I can tell Grace is still adjusting to the competitiveness of the APA, the adrenaline. I've tried to stress the effectiveness of playing safeties, and she seems to have taken to that idea. Last week, as a 2, she came very close to beating a 5. I suspect she's due for a big win any week now. She's got a bit of a North Carolina drawl and a lot of "isms." Once, she and I were having a discussion about an overly talkative woman, about whom Grace remarked "Yeah, she can talk the dog off a meat wagon."

Adam, who hails from Massachusetts, used to come into Sophie's more frequently two years ago, when I was just starting to play a lot. One time I saw him run 10 or so games in a row with a huge bandage on the index finger of his bridge hand. But he hasn't been around much until a few weeks ago, when he and I played and I couldn't beat him at all. So I pitched the idea of him joining the team and fortunately he accepted. He played a crucial role for us last week by knocking off a 5 in two straight games. His win tied the match (we had been down 0-2) and sent us to the rubber match, which we narrowly won. It was our first win of the season, and our first home match to boot. Here's to new talent and fresh starts. Thanks to this up-and-coming photographer for surreptitiously snapping this photo of me giving a quick coach to Grace last week.