MLB AL MVP Mookie Betts Credits Frisbee Throwing for His Swing

Boston Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts was just named 2018 Most Valuable Player in the American League. He hit a major league-leading .346 with 32 homers, 80 RBIs and 30 stolen bases as the leadoff hitter for the World Champion Red Sox. The 2018 season was Mookie's 5th Major League Baseball season. Betts throws (the baseball) and hits right-handed.

According to this Boston Globe article, "Mookie Betts is diving into J.D. Martinez's bag of tricks":

When [Red Sox teammate] J.D. Martinez first started bringing his big bag of toys into the clubhouse...his teammates didn't know what to make of it.

At a glance, it appeared to be a gym bag full of Phys Ed equipment: a red heavy-duty dodgeball, Frisbees for disc golf, and almost everything else anyone would need for a family field day. It looked like he had raided a Play It Again Sports, but everything in the bag was a tool he used to refine his swing. 

The Frisbees caught Betts's eye. When he threw one, he realized how closely the motion resembled the one he used to swing a bat. 

Betts: "You just throw it, and it kind of simulates the swing."

[h/t Evan Lepler]

Toronto Max Power Logo Redesign

Mixed ultimate team Max Power out of Toronto upgraded their jersey designs with a bat flip to their hometown MLB team.

Here's a closer look at our sweet @PAUC2015 jerseys, designed by @24stars. There will be a few available to trade! pic.twitter.com/1baWYgYZPa

— Max Power Ultimate (@MaxPowerUlti) November 11, 2015

Here's a side-by-side comparison of the Toronto flatball vs baseball logos:

[Expertly designed by Genevieve Daigle]

RIP Yogi Berra (1925 - 2015)

Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra passed away on Tuesday at the age of 90. What an amazing life! A couple of his Yogi-isms:

via

AUDL Improvements 2013

The AUDL 2013 season is over. Just like in 2012, it's time to reflect on ways for the second year of this semi-pro Ultimate league to improve next season (2014) when there are 4-8 expansion teams expected to join.

Marketing. Promotions for the post-season's final 3 games were really good; except, where was that type of hype for the previous 98 games?? Also, expand UXtv's coverage league-wide to capture all games, and showcase your product of professional Ultimate to a wider audience. One immediate impact the AUDL Network/UXtv will have is an improved promo for next season. Your weekly text previews were buried on your website and would benefit by adding logos to boost team identity. AUDL team logos were better, but there's still room for improvement.

Add a video recap of weekend games. The 'Top 10 AUDL plays' were good, although I'm not a fan of the pixelated recordings. Weekly recaps via Skyd Magazine were concise, yet regularly lacked actual game highlights. Combining these two ventures (recap + top plays) would be welcomed. This great sport is not meant to be captured with sucky low quality video. READ: Use hi-def!

Encourage more sponsorship on jerseys. The jerseys are an open canvas & a walking billboard. Team branding is important, but there is enough material to splash some corporate logos on those uniforms. Consider increasing the size of the AUDL logo on the sleeve to plug the league.

More detailed standings. The standings were much improved from last year. The game-by-game results chart was a nice visual, until it was removed from the website in early July. Posting league leaders in assists and goals thrown/caught was a positive. Make it mandatory for all AUDL teams to post league standings on their homepage.

Timing. The 48-minute game drags on too long; consider reducing each quarter by 1-2 minutes. The season is a bit extended; consider limiting to 12-14 regular season games. The play-in game before the conference championship made the post-season extra special. Still baffled at your concurrent promotion of UXtv during the play-in game, though.

Update websites regularly. Again, an outdated website portrays a poor image to potential fans (& sponsors). Websites like Dragons, Hammerheads, Revolution, Wildfire & Mechanix that utilize the AUDL website template have similar layout and, thus, aid navigation. In my opinion, any AUDL team found not updating their website should be banished from your "professional" sports league. LOOKING AT YOU, DC BREEZE!

Track Integrity Rules. This rule is supposed to be a distinguishing feature of our sport. By not recording its application, it becomes less special.

THE Ultimate jersey. Team are relying on the sublimated jerseys which is still just a fancy T-shirt. If the shirts are not going to have a distinctive feature about them, then at least consider establishing design guidelines for the shirts (e.g. size of type; logo sizing, location of team name). For what it's worth, wrapping the design around the side of shirts looks gawky.

Add field players. Add one more for 8 players to be on the line. I know, 7 is so traditional, but the adaptive AUDL game now has timed quarters and refs. The additional field space could easily handle 16 players for this action-packed sport.

Modify end zones. It makes sense to want to use the existing football field dimensions. The problems are the AUDL end zones are twice as big as the football EZ's, and 20 yards is just too much space to defend. Consider using the existing 10-yard endzones like you are using the current sidelines.

NOTE: I'm first & foremost a fan of Ultimate. I attended multiple AUDL games in DC and followed the 2013 season. These suggestions are meant as constructive feedback to support the sport.

MLU Improvements

Back in August 2012, I posted a batch of improvements for the original professional Ultimate league. The same criteria is used to evaluate Major League Ultimate.

Marketing. Promos had a consistent look/feel about them & were supplemented with the help of UltiPhotos. Most team logos received a high grade.

Contact more sports channels than just ESPN. Congrats on being featured on SportsCenter's Top10 multiple times, and full games replayed on The Comcast Network (TCN). Watching the live games & the archived games via YouTube is very convenient.

Add a video recap of weekend games. The full game videos look great in hi-def; though, a more condensed version of game recaps would have been superb. Plays of the Week act as good exposure for the league, and thus, the sport.

More sponsorship on jerseys. Sure, each team had a sponsor on their kits. However, the sponsors dominated the jerseys and may have hurt team branding. Is it the DC Current or the DC Waveborn??

Detailed standings. Standings were easily viewable on the MLU homepage & on each team's website. Furthermore, the player stats (points, goals, assists, throws, completions, catches, defense, stall, drop, bookend, Callahan, Greatest) were a nice feature to track on a per-game basis and throughout the season. Also, Injury Reports were, umm, very specific.

Track "Spirit of Sportsmanship" Rule. Unfortunately, no such data were kept. Tracking occurrences of players & coaches patting their heart with their right hand would be a boost to SOTG preservationists.

Interview preparation. Most MLU mentions published quotes from MLU executives which limited any player gaffes. Still unclear is why a player gag order was limited to one media source (Ultiworld), but not another (The Washington Post)? BOO!

Timing. Ten (10) weeks of season seemed just about right, plus the post-season finely straddles the Club season.

Update websites regularly. New content and game updates were posted on an impressively consistent basis.

Define THE Ultimate jersey. Well done. The 3/4 sleeve is the distinct feature for MLU's pro Ultimate team jersey. Of note, jersey replicas were not offered for sale. For what it's worth, the shorts look way too baggy for these trim athletes.

Add field players. Consider adding one more for 8 players to be on the line. True, 7 is so traditional, but the quick MLU game could benefit from more defense with 16 total players for this action-packed sport.

Modify end zones. I'm all for use the existing football field dimensions. The problem area is the MLU endzones which are twice as big as the designated football endzones. Twenty (20) yards is a lot of space to defend against, plus it looks strange on the video when a player "scores" before the endzone. Use the existing 10 yards of designated endzones just like you are using the current sidelines.

Now for some MLU-specific feedback:
Announce Beneficiaries. The intention of "spreading the wealth, one outstanding play at a time" was supplanted with "RT this amazing play #SCTop10" please. State which organizations - especially Ultimate-related entities - that benefited from the weekly player bonuses; otherwise, the goodwill appears as lip service. While you're at it, proudly publish the donation amount for how much MLUcares.

Limit Player Absences. Not counting player injuries, there seemed to be a lot of "Approved Absences". This type of information is disappointing to learn 1-2 days before a game. Remember: when you sell game tickets, you're retailing sports entertainment. And, watching a game without its star player(s) loses its luster.

MLULive: The video quality is quality and the $0 price tag can't be beat.There's room for improvement in the game announcing, especially the awkwardness of sideline reporting. Besides adding more cameras, the wide angle camera perspective should be in the direction of those in attendance; otherwise, it appears that no one is in attendance at the games (EXAMPLE: Fans vs NO Fans).

Congratulations on completing your inaugural season, MLU! Looking forward to 2014.

NOTE: I'm first & foremost a fan of Ultimate. I attended multiple MLU games (in DC, SF & Philly) and followed the 2013 season. These suggestions are meant as constructive feedback to aid the sport.

Ultimate as an ESPN Sport

Back in August 2012, I read a tweet that prompted me to quantify Ultimate as sport.

.@jeffsnader hmmm, I ranked Ultimate in the Top 15 of Sports Difficulty w a total = 60. [RE: sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/spo…]
— Sludge Ultimate (@sludgebrown) August 23, 2012

For all the ways to describe Ultimate (soccer-esque, basketball-ish, tennis-like, quasi-football, with a flying disc), this ESPN "Ultimate Degree of Difficulty Grid" helped me break down the Ultimate sport. Again, Ultimate is *NOT* on the ESPN list.

After that tweet, I thought about how to conduct a similar evaluation of Ultimate as a sport. I have lots of ideas, so my first step was to see if my concept was even feasible. I contacted Ultiworld after meeting him in the fall, and Charlie validated my idea. I also asked UltiCards & they excitedly responded with a blog post about it.

ESPN's approach was they identified 10 categories, or skills, that go into athleticism, and then asked their 8 panelists to assign a number from 1 to 10 to the demands each sport makes of each of those 10 skills. The Top-10 ESPN Sports are: (1) Boxing, (2) Ice Hockey, (3) Football, (4) Basketball, (5) Wrestling, (6) Martial Arts, (7) Tennis, (8) Gymnastics, (9) Baseball/Softball, (10) Soccer.

I then developed a survey to capture the 10 areas for sport evaluation, plus some demographic data. The survey launched with the help of a lovely coder who allowed many 'just-1-more-edit' updates.

Finally in March 2013, I surveyed a range of Subject Matter Experts (SME) within the Ultimate field (i.e., trainers, teams, players, pro leagues, instructors, media, etc.) asking their objective opinion. Immediately after asking the SMEs, you may have noticed some comments [Skyd, Ultimate Rob, ultimateproblems] about this very query -- Where would/should Ultimate rank in the ESPN Sports list?

Since then, interestingly, USA Ultimate announced their deal with ESPN. Now that the SMEs have had their say, the survey will soon be is open for YOU to weigh in.

Look for the survey to be opened very soon now. Survey results about Ultimate is expected to be shared here & on Ultiworld in the near future.


Giving credit due where credit is deserved...thanks again to Jeff Snader for influencing this effort.

Ultimate Perfection

Hey, TURNOVERS HAPPEN in the game of Ultimate.

"To improve is to change; 
to be perfect is to change often." 
-- Winston Churchill

Ultimate Frisbee Participation [SGMA]

Ultimate Frisbee may not (yet) be the most popular sport, though it had more people playing in 2011 - a trend similar for the past four years.

From the SGMA 2012 Sports, Fitness, and Leisure Activities Participation Report [per RRCA]:

The top three most popular team sports are basketball (24.8 million participants), outdoor soccer (13.7 million participants), and baseball (13.6 million participants). Of the 24 team sports listed, only three of them have had participation gains in the last year – ultimate Frisbee, lacrosse, and gymnastics.
On the other hand, 9 of them have had participation gains over the last four years – lacrosse (+41.8%), rugby (+37.7%), ultimate Frisbee (+20.5%), gymnastics (+18.6%), ice hockey (+15.8%), beach volleyball (+14.8%), indoor soccer (+9.3%), fast-pitch softball (+2.3%), and field hockey (+1.8%).

Uh 1, Uh 2, Ultimate

Opening Day approaches for the ex-Olympic sport and the basis for Ultibase. Makes me think about the familiar 7th inning stretch song...Ultimate style...
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Stake me out an Ultimate field,

There will soon be a crowd.

Buy me some cleats and disc - that’s all!

I don't care if I never break force.

Let me run, catch, throw, for my team,

If they don't win it's SOTG.

For it's ‘T’ in ten, you're stalled out,

At the old frisbee game.

Did You Know...? The well known baseball song, "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" was written by Jack Norworth in 1908 and later set to some music by Albert Von Tilzer. Neither Norworth or Tilzer had ever been to a baseball game at the time the song was written, yet it is one of the most widely sung songs in America in the early 20th century.

Perfect Game

Overrated: The 8 Underrated Icons That Should Knock Out The Most Overrated Things Ever [HuffPo 8.2.10]

Baseball has been removed from the Olympics, simply because its popularity isn’t global enough. Fair enough. So what’s an all-American team sport that deserves a place in the Games, one whose world series really brings many nations together?...

How about Ultimate Disc, a fast-growing sport that has 4.9 million serious players in the U.S., and attracts international teams to the world championship (held most recently in Prague)? This is a real sport, with a complex set of rules – not simply a bunch of hippies throwing a Frisbee around the beach (though that’s how it originated). Like the Frisbee itself, the game originated in California, suggesting that it’s even more American than baseball (which was based on the British game of “base ball”, heaven forbid). It’s highly skilled, and requires real fitness. I’ve played baseball and I’ve played Ultimate, and I know which one I like best! It’s time this was taken seriously.

Olympic

Ultimate was not part of the sports vying for a spot into the 2016 Olympics:

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Baseball made its pitch for reinstatement in the Olympics on Friday, one the seven sports fighting for two spots on the program for the 2016 Summer Games.

Softball, golf, karate, rugby, roller sports and squash also made hour-long, closed-door presentations to the IOC program commission.

Disc (capital G) Golf begs for acceptance via the Olympic Disc Golf online petition with compelling arguments:
>The sport has grown like a weed in the past 10 years.

> Disc golf is a game of focus, skill, exercise & it is fit for all ages.

> Disc Golf has its own app via iTunes, dude.

Ultimate Past Time

The MLB Playoffs are in full swing, so what better way to honor America's past time than to hybridize it with Ultimate.

Rules of Ultibase
> Teams of 4-6.
> Played on a baseball diamond.
> 3 outs, change sides, all normal baseball rules apply (force outs, fly balls, etc).

The differences…
Pitching: There is no pitcher, only a batter.
Batting: One foot on home plate, disc in hand, throwing the disc into the field of play is the equivalent of hitting it. Throw whatever throw you want.
Running: You can’t start running (from base to base or leave home plate) until the disc hits fair territory.
Foul balls: Along with the normal foul territory, the foul territory extends into the infield. With diamonds with infield grass, the grass is foul. With diamonds w/o infield grass, a line should drawn in the dirt where the grass would be (~5 or so feet in from the imaginary line that goes from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd).

With more than 6 players, multiple smaller teams can be made (i.e. 3 teams of 3, 4 teams of 3), with more than one team in the field together (not more than 6 players in the field at one time), and possibly a team waiting to bat.
{Source: Unknown}

Read Red

Click image to read full comic strip...

Mr. Cannon demonstrates his demented comic genius featuring ted johnson & ted's son. Where would someone get this sort of reckless reuse idea?

Ready to Lace 'em Up

Mother's Day has passed, tho you can't stop the maternal instinct aftershocks. W I R E D gives a How-To: Lace Your Shoes (Dec '07):

Before you tie 'em, you have to lace 'em.

A smart stringing strategy can actually improve your game, sportswise and otherwise...

Runner's stitch. Are your dogs yapping after a jog? This method alleviates pressure points inside the sneaker to give your pups some breathing room. Start with a horizontal lace across the bottom eyelets. Go straight up and emerge from the second set, cross over to the third, and go up to the fourth. Repeat.