| Notification [x] |
Total posts: 7
Blog URL: http://laxspot.e-lacrosse.com/blogs/b_clays_bonanza_blog_series
By: Brian
Come share the adventure of summer life in Chicago as a young man living in Chi-town working for a gaming manufacturer and playing in the MLL.
Squaring off against my old team, the Rochester Rattlers, on Sunday for our last game of the season. It's going to be a pretty tough game, they have an unbelievable squad of great players. I know, I played with them all last year. I'm interested to see who they decide to play this game knowing that they already clinched a spot in the playoffs. A little note, during playoffs teams are allowed to dress 20 guys as opposed to the regular 18. That being said, I remember be sat last year for the final game after we made the playoffs because they said the game didnt matter and they wanted to try out some other guys to see who they would put as the extra +2 guys on the dress list during the playoffs. I'm not gonna lie, it really makes no difference having those extra two guys. The 6,7th midfielders in the 18 man lineup dont play alot as it is anyway, (they'll maybe have 1 offensive run a quarter and play a wing everynow and then) so wasting time trying to pick the right 8th and 9th midfielder is exactly that......a waste of time.
Got a good feeling about this weekend, we are flying in all the guys for this game, so the sidelines should have a lot of enthusiasm and a great group of motivators. There is definitely going to be a good atmosphere, especially at the last game at home.
On the flip side of things, with all the guys flying in, it will be interesting who we also choose to dress knowing that we wont be making playoffs this year. Do you be fair to guys that have traveled and not dressed that much and give them a run during the final game? Or do you dress some guys that you want to get a better look at in a real game for next season? Or do you stick with the normal lineup?
Obviously I have my own opinions, (which I will not be sharing).
In other news, we recently picked up my college teammate David Mitchell from San Francisco. It would be great if we dressed him this weekend having Mitchell, Pittard, and Myself out there like the good ole days our senior year at Cornell in 2007.
Shanny said it best...."FINALLY!!!" Just got our first win against the LA Riptide this past Sunday. Unbelievable come from behind victory to beat them 17-13. It was hotter than hell out on the field, and about as humid as the amazon. Guys started cramping up toward the end of the game. I remember Brooks saying his calves cramped on one shot he took. Not as bad as Driscoll, both his calves were cramping because of the heat and he had to go off the field for a little bit.
Real proud of my team and the way we battled back from a 7 or 8 goal deficit to win by 4.....especially in the heat. The heat has a way of getting guys to give up, but not today. They dug in and got the job done. Now if we can only get our first road victory against Denver this weekend....would make this a season of "firsts"
It's been a while since I posted anything, ended up not being a hip pointer that I had. Think its more of a bone bruise (probably should have gotten an x-ray or scan of some sort). Been rehabbing 3 times a week trying to get back out on the field and it had gone really well and going to be strapping it up this weekend in our game against San Francisco. Being 2-6 this is a must win game if we would like any possibility of making the playoffs. We need to win out the rest of the season and then have a whole lot of luck with certain people losing some big games.
I am so pumped right now for the weekend, its like I haven't been playing for the past 3 weeks. Just itching to get back out there and rip the duck. Keep you posted on the game.
In our Atlantic City office right now, have a break from training our sales team out here, figured I would drop a line. Flew in on Sunday directly from our game in Denver after losing to the Outlaws with 13 seconds left by a 2 point shot. Got injured during the 2nd quarter with a "hip pointer". Didn't know what that was so I looked it up. About.com says a hip pointer injury is extremely painful, acute injury to the iliac crest of the pelvis. The injury causes bleeding into the abdominal muscles, which attach to the iliac crest. The bone and overlying muscle are often bruised, and the pain can be intense. Pain may be felt when walking, laughing, coughing, or even breathing deeply.
That is a phenomenal description of what it feels like, because I am experiencing pain in every single one of those movements. Dont know how long it will take to heal. I hope Im at least 90% by the weekend. Will have to pad up the area and just play through the pain. What are you going to do?
Gotta get some rest later, check in with you soon.
Thursday afternoon
Got out of work, wanted to get a workout in wasn't sure what I felt like doing. Could always do weights, but realized I was going to Denver this weekend and figured it would serve me a little better to do a sprint workout. Called my college teammate David Mitchell, who lives around the corner from me in Chicago (he plays for San Francisco Dragons....don't ask me why Chicago didn't pick him up) and went over to the fields by Diversey Driving Range right by the lake 2 blocks from my apartment.
Did a couple sideline to sideline suicides followed by some T-drills followed by some agility and "Jerry Rice" drills. 30 minutes later, called it a day, thought about going to lift after, but didnt want to kill myself 2 days before the game. So instead I'm thinking about getting a lift in before I head out to the airport this evening.
Was too tired to do the laundry I needed for the weekend last evening so I dropped it off at the laundromat this morning and picked it up 15 minutes ago. $0.65/lb......can't beat that. They even fold it and pair up my socks too (the worst thing about doing laundry in my opinion.)
Leaving work in a little, try to get that workout in, then off to meet up with Leveille and Gabel to head down to Midway airport for a 7:30pm flight.
PEACE!
i will eat my words, guaranteeing victory for the philly game. scrap that, we got screwed by these refs....again! the d***officials in this league are a joke, and when i have more time you are going to hear my opinion about their lack of competency. with 4 of them on the field, you would think they would be able to see the blatant trip that kyle sweeney caught me with at around the 1 minute mark left in the game. had that been called, we would have had a reset on the shot clock, been man up, been up by a goal or two (i cant even remember), and had a timeout to burn. would have been in the bag.
off to denver this weekend. going to be a great challenge for us. denver friday-sunday then flying directly from denver into philly and driving to atlantic city for work sunday-wednesday. lots of travel lately, but i love it. livin' out the suitcase! booyah! 'til next time.
Welcome to the introduction of the infamous B Clay's Bonanza Blog Series. This blog will include the obvious topics (lacrosse, work, interests, hobbies, and my thoughts of course) and the not so obvious (details on the amazingly "unique" people you can meet while playing a slot machine at Planet Hollywood in good old Las Vegas Nevada). The latter is more of the PG-13 type and will be discussed in further detail once I get a feel for how this community will handle the topic.
That photo is from the Mexico vs. Peru game I attended this past weekend at Soldier Field in Chicago. Over 33,000 people attended the game on a Sunday evening. Had tickets at the midline and the atmosphere was AMAZING! The Mexican fans are some of the coolest people I have ever met in my life. Could not stop smiling from all the energy in the stadium. Mexico won 4-0.
I am sitting here in our Las Vegas office training our Sales people on a new CRM tool that we will be implementing in the very near future. Got an email from my buddy Hirbod Azmi telling me about the Suffern High School Alumni Game that I missed this past weekend. Pretty upset I couldn't go, but obviously had my own lacrosse game to attend to vs. San Francisco Dragons. He also asked me to write the blog that I had promised him I would do a while back. (Whoops!)
It is Thursday afternoon and I still haven't gotten my travel itinerary from the Chicago Machine office. Usually they are very good about getting our itineraries out (they come on Tuesdays typically). They pay for and do all the scheduling for flights and arrangements for transportation to and from our games. It is a 10x better system than what I was used to with the Rochester Rattlers where I would have to schedule my own flights and make arrangements to get to and from the field while only getting reimbursed up to $200 for a flight. Pretty shotty huh?
I just received a text from one of our coaches, Phil Ryan, saying that itineraries will be sent out this afternoon directly from our travel agency. Phil usually has this really sophisticated itinerary that he sends out with everyones flight information and schedule for the weekend along with contact information for the hotel and all the coaches. This is definitely reassuring that I will be getting this schedule for the weekend soon.
As for my thoughts on the game this weekend. I could go into great lengths on how I feel about going into this weekend 1-3. But the abridged version is this:
We are going to win! I absolutely hate losing, especially close games like we have. This weekend we are going to turn things around. We will not let this game slip.
Check the lax score of the Chicago Machine vs. Philadelphia Barrage score on Saturday night.....see if I'm right.
I'll leave you on that note.
My prayers go out to Kieran Murphy. A high school teammate, a college opponent, and a great friend, who had a freak lacrosse accident our in California recently and is in the hospital recovering. Wishing you all the best my friend. Get better soon.
0 comments