My Favorite Pittsburgh Sports League Moment

About five years ago, I started playing sports in the Pittsburgh Sports League and through that social network, I've made many really great friends and have had some wonderful times. Because of the PSL, I've attended some pretty awesome parties, did some cool volunteer work, and was introduced to a great and unique bar called Gooski's. A place I lived next door to as a small child but never set foot in until I started going there with my volleyball teammates after our games on Thursday evenings. Heck, I even became a runner because of some of the friends I made in the league. Me, running. Wow!

But since this a sports blog, I want to share with you my favorite sports moment from the PSL.

I've played flag football, indoor and sand volleyball, and about a year and a half ago, I started bowling in the PSL.

I've had some great moments in all these sports.

There can be only one favorite moment, but there have been many honorable mentions.

First the honorable mentions:

The first one that comes to mind didn't even involve an athletic play. It was me writing about sports. The first sport I ever signed up for in the PSL was flag football, and right around that same time, I answered an ad in craigslist for an online magazine called "The Pittsburgh Dish." They were looking for people to contribute to their site. It was similar to the City Paper but it was exclusively online. When I sent the editor some samples of my writing, she said she didn't think my style suited their site. My samples were a little off the beaten path and she was looking for people to write about events around the Pittsburgh area that they attended.

Well, at that point, I wasn't exactly a social butterfly. After all, that's why I signed up to play sports in the PSL. But then it occurred to me that I could write an article about my experiences and the friends that I made in my short time in the league. I asked her if I could do that, and she said it was an interesting idea. I knew I had to interview my teammates, so I sent them some questions via email. I even interviewed Becky Reitmeyer, the director of the league. I know, doing an interview via email isn't exactly professional, but I'm not a professional. I'm a hack, so I could get away with it. Anyway, the answers were very helpful and I sat down and wrote an article about the PSL. The editor was blown away. She told me that she read articles from "real" reporters that weren't as good.

I was very proud. I thought it was my first step to a freelance writing career but, sadly, that was the only article they ever published for me. I guess she realized how much I sucked at writing.

Moving on, another great moment that comes to mind was my first touchdown in flag football. I went my entire first season without a touchdown, even though I really did have one in the next to last game of the season. I caught a ball low in the endzone, and the official, who was behind the play, said it hit the ground. My teammates, the opponents, and even the other referee came up to me and told me it was a touchdown. But I digress.

The next season, in the first game of a doubleheader, I caught a ball and ran about 15 yards for my first official touchdown. I was so elated I did some sort of weird bird dance right as I crossed the goalline.

Another great moment was winning the recreational volleyball championship the very first season that I played. I signed up for an individual team and it turned out that there were some very good players in the group. I didn't know what I was doing that year, but I'm proud to say that I played the best that I could possibly play in the playoffs, at least at that point. I even had my first ever block in the semi-finals. It was a one-handed block, but hey, style points don't matter.

Another great moment in volleyball was winning a first round playoff match as a sixth seed last year. It wasn't our greatest year but for whatever reason, we got it all together for that match and swept the 3rd seed, 2-0. I overheard a player on the other team say over and over again, "It's a sixth seed, guys, Come on!" Pretty sweet.

Another pretty cool moment was another touchdown that wasn't.

We were playing in the last game of the year in my third flag football season, and we were down by 6 points with less than a minute to go. My brother-in-law, who signed up to play that season, told me to do an out into the endzone. I did that, but I wasn't open. I started running all the way across to the other side of the endzone, and he lofted a pass in my direction. I was wide-open and caught the ball. I took two steps and went to celebrate and the ball fell out of my hands and hit the ground. I turned around and the ref was signaling no touchdown. To this day, I know that was a touchdown, but since there isn't instant replay in the PSL, it couldn't be reversed. There really should be instant replay in the Pittsburgh Sports League. But it's ok, because I get more kudos from that play than any other play I've ever had in any PSL sporting event.

Another great moment for me occurred in bowling. I hadn't bowled in years, really, but for some reason, I decided to join a bowling team for the hell of it. My first week, I really didn't impress. I don't remember the exact scores that I had, but they couldn't have been much above 100. But the first game of the second week, I was on fire. The Steelers were playing the Chargers in the playoffs and I was so full of adrenaline that I managed to bowl a 151. To this day, I don't know how I did that. That number stood as my top score for a very long time until I kind of figured out what I was doing and got a little better.

Another great bowling moment came earlier this year. It was the last match of the season, and we were playing these guys that were really loud and animated. They had a really high average and were kind of cocky. They won the first game and started off hot the second game. Someone on their team yelled, "Our slogan for this game should be: 700 or bust!" Oh brother. Well, we bowled really well that game but they were making a comeback towards the end. I was the last bowler for my team and with the pressure on, I bowled back-to-back strikes in the 10th frame. Since I don't bowl too many strikes, that was pretty sweet and it was just enough to win that game.

Back to football, a few years ago, we were playing a game out at Magee field in Greenfield. We were down by 21 points in the second half but came all the way back. We scored a touchdown in the last minute and decided to go for one point to tie the game. My uncle, another family member who plays flag football with me, was the quarterback for the play. I wasn't really expecting the pass, but sure enough, he spotted me at the the last second and drilled it low and I reached down to catch it. It was just like "The Drive" touchdown pass that John Elway threw in the AFC Championship game, except this was co-ed flag football. Same/difference. Anywho, I got my clock cleaned by someone right after I caught the ball.

I'm sure you probably know who Randy Pausch is. He was the CMU professor known for the "Last Lecture" that he gave while battling pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, he died in the Summer of 2008. I was surprised to find out that Randy Pausch played flag football in the PSL.

In his honor, the PSL started the "Randy Pausch Flag Football tournament" in the Fall of 2008 with all proceeds going to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. The rules for the tournament were a little different than the PSL flag football league. It was a double-elimination tournament and it wasn't co-ed. There were 5 on 5 men's and women's divisions.

Since I'm a receiver, I tend to whine and cry about not catching the football 85 times a game. In our last co-ed game a couple of weeks prior to the tournament, I left in a huff because I was angry because I thought I wasn't being used properly. It didn't matter that I was a 5'9, slow, unathletic idiot, I wanted the ball, damn it! For whatever reason, I've never had much luck scoring touchdowns in flag football. Maybe it's because I'm old and slow, I don't know. But on this day, I caught three. I was so happy and had a great time. And in the interest of not being a selfish jerk, my team played great and we made it all the way to the semi-finals.

We started about 9am in the morning and didn't get done until almost 6pm. Randy must have been smiling down on everyone that day because it was the most fun I've ever had playing sports, and that's not even my favorite moment!

My favorite moment:

My favorite moment occurred last year while playing in the second annual "Randy Pausch Tournament." We had lost the first game pretty badly and were down in the second game by two touchdowns. Somehow, we came back and tied it when my brother-in-law hit my uncle with a touchdown pass in the final moments of regulation.

The game went into overtime. The rules were similar to college football. Each team got two cracks at the endzone from the 12 yard line. The other team had the first shot and couldn't score. It was our turn. I hadn't caught a pass the entire day. I actually had to hike the ball thru my legs a good majority of the game; something I hadn't done my whole life. The defense had a designated blitzer on each play which often forced the quarterack to roll out one way or the other. Since it was hard for me to see my brother-in-law after I hiked the ball, I would often guess which way he was going to roll out. If the blitzer came from my right, I would run out to my left for a pass and vice versa. On our first offensive play of overtime, I ran out to my left and made eye contact with my brother-in-law, he hit me in stride and I ran the last five or six yards into the endzone. I could hear my brother-in-law screaming, "Get there, T!" "Get there, T!" I was so excited that I jumped up into my uncle's arms and I know he wasn't expecting that.

Anyway, most people who play sports have that one moment where they score the winning touchdown or hit the game-winning homerun, but for most people, it usually happens in little league or high school. For me it happened at the age of 37. I caught the game-winning touchdown in overtime. Wow. I mean, it wasn't a great play, and if the quarterback didn't hit me in stride, I might not have made it into the endzone. But for me, it was special.

There you have it. My favorite Pittsburgh Sports League moment. I've had a lot of fun in that league over the years and I look forward to many more fun times.