Tyler Mayforth

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Tag: PlayNOLA

Better With Practice: My Bowling Tale

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On April 1, 2016

In Athletic Achievements, Sports

Bowling has never been my specialty.

Actually, I’m pretty horrendous at it.

A “good” score for me — or a “successful” game — is when I manage to break 110, which doesn’t happen that often. Truthfully, anything above 100 is a cause for celebration. If my score touches 150, it means the spirit of Pete Weber inhabited my body for that game.

Yet when my kickball team decided to join a bowling league through PlayNOLA to keep the good times rolling after kickball ended, I was all for it. After all, it would be with people that are genuinely fun to hang around with and we’re in the same boat.

PlayNOLA held the league at Fulton Alley, a boutique bowling alley in downtown New Orleans. It’s a little pretentious inside and the pins are oddly set on strings, but all in all it was a fun spot to kill a few hours on a Wednesday night.

The league ended this week and “Ebowla” lost in the semifinals. We didn’t even think we’d make the playoffs, so for us to get that far was an accomplishment.

How did I do? Let’s take a look at my scores over the weeks.

Date
Game 1
Game 2
2/17
119
2/24
111
87
3/1
119
3/9
125
117
3/23
98
106
3/30
153
128

All in all, I guess I didn’t bowl too poorly.

  • My average score was 116.3, which sounds about right. If I knocked a few more pins down on March 23, that average would shoot up quite a bit.
  • I broke 120 three times, which should cue a parade.
  • In the quarterfinals of the playoffs, I felt better in a bowling alley and my score (153) could prove that. I didn’t want to leave any open frames and I only think I left one or two, so that’s a positive.

I’ll never be good at bowling, but it’s a fun way to check your ego.

Kickball Recap 5: From Right Field, With Love

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On December 3, 2015

In Kickball

One out stood between us and the third seed in the playoffs.

For us to have any hope at making the championship, that’s the seed we’d need.

Coming into Wednesday, which was the final day of the regular season, we were in sixth place — but as fate would have it, the playNOLA Kickball scheduling gods smiled favorably upon us. Since an earlier game got rained out, we had a doubleheader lined up against the teams in third place and fifth place. Plus, we owned the tiebreaker over the team in fourth, so if we handled business the path was clear for us to jump three spots on the final day.

Well, only two players showed up from “Drunk & Looking To Score,” so we won the game by forfeit and waited around for the second game of the twin bill against “Late Night Pizzas.” The hour gave us valuable time to bond as a team and I must say that “Black Balls” is a solid unit despite being comprised solely of free agents.

Fast forward to the game and it was a back-and-forth affair the entire time.

Our opponent jumped out to a 3-0 lead, then we swung back to tie it up.

We inched ahead 6-3, then our opponent rallied to even the playing field.

Finally we got some separation when it counted (read: top of the seventh inning) and scored four runs to go up 10-6.

We got two outs pretty easily in the bottom half of the frame, but then they pushed across another run to make it 10-7 and had runners on second and third before we could blink. So you could say the pressure was on.

The next kicker drilled a sinking line drive into right-center field, right where I was standing. Knowing I had to keep it in front of me, I charged to nab it off the short hop and fired a throw to first hoping two things: that it wouldn’t bounce off the first baseman’s hands and I’d be able to record the final out. Sure enough, it was a bang-bang play at first and the gracious referee called the runner out.

Game over.

Third place secured.

Celebration commenced.

Bring on the playoffs.

AB H R 1B 2B 3B HR RBI BB
Game Stats 3 2 1 1 0 1 0 2 0
Season Stats 14 9 8 4 3 2 0 6 1

Kickball Recap 4: There is No Glory in Pitching

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On November 5, 2015

In Athletic Achievements, Kickball, New Orleans

As I watched run after run after run after run (you get the idea) cross home plate last night in an eventual 15-2 loss by Big Black Balls, I realized there is no glory in pitching in kickball. The same can probably be said — and is probably said — about pitching in slow-pitch softball.

No matter how hard you try or how much spin you try to put on the ball, it’s going to get crushed. I might have struck out three batters (I’m not even sure how I did that, to be honest), but everything else was belted.

If you want to make a difference in a game where the object is to score as many runs as humanly possible, you get in the outfield. You need to play deeper than you’d think because once that ball bounces over your head, it’s an easy triple or home run for the batter, regardless of speed.

Maybe I’ll pitch again at some point during the season. Until then I’ll settle in at my usual spot at third base or try to work my way in the outfield. I’m much better at chasing down the ball that got murdered than I am turning around to watch it go really, really far.

AB H R 1B 2B 3B HR RBI BB
Game Stats 2 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0
Season Stats 7 6 6 2 3 1 0 4 1

Kickball Recap 2: Crank That 2-0

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On October 22, 2015

In Athletic Achievements, Kickball

Halfway through what turned out to be a 17-5 win for “Big Black Balls,” the team formerly known as “Free Kicks” (Yeah, I don’t know either. We batted around the idea of “Stranger Danger,” which I liked a lot more), “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” by none other than Soulja Boy blared over the Bluetooth speaker set at home plate.

For a moment, everything else — like kickball — became secondary. We just wanted to dance.

For those ‘older’ players like myself on the rosters, we were taken back to our senior years of college or right after we graduated (me). Slightly younger players probably remembered the song from their freshman or sophomore years in college or possibly the senior years in high school. The folks who JUST graduated college were probably in diapers when that song came out back in 2007.

Anyway, after the second verse — which is probably all anybody can hear of that song any longer — we got back to business with me at pitcher (wanted to try my hand at it after playing third base for a while) and someone other than me (of course) at-bat.

Other songs played throughout the night, but none really stood out to where the game came to a halt and everybody either danced or rapped along to the lyrics.

We needed some levity in the game since it was a rout from the start. We led 7-0 after the first inning and 11-0 after the second. We debated on putting up the max number of runs available (35, or seven per inning), but decided against it.

Another good game for the team as we are still undefeated at 2-0.

AB H R 1B 2B 3B HR RBI BB
Game Stats 3 3 2 1 1 1 0 3 0
Season Stats 5 5 5 2 2 1 0 4 1

Getting Ready To Kick(Ball) It In New Orleans

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On October 9, 2015

In Athletic Achievements, Sports

The wait is over.

Prepare yourself, PlayNOLA.

Next week, your fearless blogger (That’s me, in case you don’t know) will hopefully play in his first Adult Kickball League game in New Orleans. I say hopefully, because right now I’m a “free agent.” I’d like to consider myself the LeBron James of Kickball and that hundreds of teams (OK, several of them) are vying for my bazooka-like leg.

I’ve been looking for something to occupy my free time and this could be a perfect thing to do once per week. Plus, it would get my competitive juices flowing again.

So what does this mean for you, my wonderful reader(s)?

Well, I plan on breaking down each of my games from my stat line (probably 0 for 3 with three fly outs based on how my pickup games went) to interactions with my teammates and everywhere in between. Because, why not? It’s something fun to do.

Be on the lookout for this series beginning next Thursday. Games are Wednesdays.

P.S. — Found out I’m on the team called “Free Kicks.” We shall see how it goes.

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