– Before I get going, I’d like to clear the air a bit over what happened last week. As everyone should know, we forfeited the game because only six players showed up. Six. That pissed me off. What frustrated me the most was that I didn’t receive any notice from a few players that they weren’t going to make the game. If only six players were going to make it, we all could have saved the trouble of driving to Concord. Many of us left work early to make the game. I was forced to miss a pretty important company function that evening. And for what? To show up and forfeit a game. I don’t ask for much; all I ask for is a heads up if you won’t make the game. A phone call, an email. Shit, tell a coworker. That is the worst part. The majority of this team works for one company. Three players last week from this company were no-shows (players who didn’t let me or anyone else know that they would not make the game). As a result, we forfeited. Why didn’t anyone make a phone call or send an email? I take this as a sign of disrespect, and rightfully so. And I really let it loose. With the other five players as witnesses, I rampaged on-and-on over this last week. (The game summary from last week’s forfeiture includes a portion of this, although, written as a humorous third-party recapitulation.) I started first with the thought of kicking two players off the team — Wright Cole and Kevin Ghalambor, both who were two consecutive no-shows. Then I considered suspending them indefinitely. Then I thought about fining them. Then I wavered on whether or not to put it up to a team vote. In the end, I did nothing, and I am fine with that. However, as the Superbas move forward, I’d like to make one thing clear, I don’t handle disrespect well. In fact, I don’t handle it at all. As a great man from a great land said a great long time ago, “Go fuck yourself and the raft you floated in on. I’ve got better things than to spend time with you.” (Know who said that? Jesus.)

– With that said, I’m starting a new list, the “No-Shows List.” Ghalambor has been a no-show the last three weeks. Evans the last two weeks. Gray last week. Johnson this week. And Cole the previous two weeks. (Once again, I don’t mind if you are not going to make it, but do the team a favor, and let someone know you won’t make the game. It’s pretty simple. In fact, even a retard could do it. Well, maybe not Ghalambor.)

– I understand disrespect is a huge part of company life at rhymes-with-benjeo. They breed it. (That is where I learned mine from.) But why the hell didn’t Gray, Cole or Ghalambor answer their phones? Or return the calls? And some of those calls were placed from a company phone, that of an associate. You’d think these guys would answer the phone from one of their company’s associates. Then again, the disrespect thing.

– I thought about taking the high road, but then reconsidered. Following last night’s game, a few teammates who were there for the forfeiture and my lengthy curse-filled rant openly wondered why I didn’t comment. And now I have.

– On to better topics… We are developing a new, secondary logo. Ideas?

– Someone mentioned new jerseys. Maybe next year. I’m down with everything except pinstripes.

– We will have a new defensive lineup next game.

– Grace is kicking ass. He has become the force we always knew he had in him. When Grace narrows his focus onto an attainable goal, he can do great things.

-Jeff