Subbuteo Night in America

Some of you know, I've taken up a new hobby. It's called Subbuteo, or Table Soccer. To quote the brochure entitled "What the Heck is Subbuteo?": "Subbuteo is a game of miniature soccer. it is played on a miniature pitch with miniature plastic men mounted on a rounded plastic base. These figures are flicked around the field with one's index finger to pass or shoot the ball, and to put the figures into position. The game was first invented and popularized in England in the early to mid 1900's. It has since spread in popularity throughout Europe and the rest of the world, although still relatively unknown in the US. The name itself comes from a bird of prety, the Hobby, whose scientific name is Falco Subbuteo. " ... I assume that the guy who originally marketed the game wanted to call it 'the hobby' and was told that was an unwise option. I don't know.

Anyway, my friend Chris and I tried to get into the game over 10 years ago, and bought some sets of old school figures, got out his OLD cloth pitch, put it on his dining room table and tried to play. We couldn't figure out the rules, or even how to make the figures do what we wanted. Long story short, we put the sets in the closet and they gathered dust for over 10 years. Fast forward to late 2006, Chris is going through his game closet, found his old subbuteo stuff and rekindled his interest. Willing to give it another shot, I also got back into it. Now, with the internet, a lot more information was available. Lo and behold, we found that the technology has come a long way (sounds odd, I know) ... the bases are more solid and have a lower center of gravity. They slide along the pitch (field) better, and give the player more control. This was just what we needed to assure that our newfound interest stayed keen. So, we dropped some bucks, got new sets of bases, and some new player figures. Chris was smart and bought pre-painted teams. I opted to go with blank players and paint them myself.
This is my primary 'kit' (soccer speak for uniform) ... on the left is the main jersey, based on Eintracht Frankfurt's 06/07 home jersey. On the right is the goalkeeper. The real jersey is supposed to have two very broad black vertical stripes on the front and back. But after failing miserably to paint them a) straight and b) symmetric, I decided I liked the jerseys better before I painted the stripes, so I repainted it to solid red. Now, I think it looks like a Starfleet uniform.

This is my second kit. Some of you know for my fondness for rugby shirts, particularly of the navy blue and yellow variety. This was my attempt at hand painting a rugby shirt. I still haven't painted the skin tone for the hands and faces yet. The goal keeper on the right's jersey is solid navy blue, with yellow shorts.

This is my third kit. It's the German National Team's uniform, from (I believe) the 1990 World Cup. I didn't paint this one... it was one of the original sets I bought. I pulled them out of the old bases and put them in the new bases I bought.

I went to the Container Store and bought a plastic craft case to keep my teams and accessories in. I decided that it wasn't going to cut it as far as protecting them, so I got some foam that had been sitting in the garage for a couple years and finally did something useful with it, and cut out little niches so the men wouldn't jumble around the case, and were protected.

The top is my keeper. Below is my first kit, below that, my third kit, and the second kit is sort of jumbled up in the upper right section. They're the newest one, so their locker room isn't finished yet.

In addition to finding new bases to buy, Chris found a group who plays in our area once a month. It's called the Bedford Premier League, with members all over North Texas, and one who lives in Austin and makes the drive every month. Chris went to their December meeting and played a few friendly games. I made it to the January meeting and also played a few friendly games. It was decided that Chris and I would join the league for this meeting, and played our first league games tonight.
Here's Keith and Chris playing a league game. Keith is the #5 ranked player in the country.

After we're done playing our league games, we all compete in a shootout tournament.

Chris and Toby in the shootout tournament.

Keith, although an Englishman, has chosen to use kits that are the UT American college football national champion from last year. In this round of the shootout against Scott, he decided to use Vince Young to take his shots. I guess he was inspired to use an American football tactic to defend against Scott's shot. Here he is, hunkering down into a three point stance to fend off the shot.

Chris has spent quite a bit of time building playing tables. He's made two:


On the left, the first pitch he made... the second is on the right.

Liverpool, Hicks, and the end of the world as we know it

Have you heard that Tom Hicks wants to buy a 50% interest in Liverpool? Wasn't it just a couple years ago that he was trying to sell either the Stars or the Rangers because owning a professional sports franchise is a money-losing proposition (his words)? Which is bullshit... owning a semi-successful sports franchise today is a license to print money.

Doesn't he continually whine and complain about having a high payroll for the Rangers? Even though we're in the 8th biggest media market in the country, and the payroll is significantly lower than the likes of the NY, Chicago and west coast teams... this is the reason that he gives for not going out and signing the big name pitchers that the Rangers need to even be competitive in the weakest division in baseball, much less be a playoff team.

If he's unable to field a competitive team with the Rangers, which has one of the most loyal, forgiving fan bases in all of professional sports, that's one thing. The fans still go to the games and aren't really vocal in their complaints and ciriticisms. But I have to think that the Liverpool fans will literally call for his head if he gives the same sort of half-assed effort for them that he does for the Rangers. Liverpool is one of the premier teams in the WORLD ... in one of the biggest leagues in the world... of a worldwide sport. Not just the third ranked team (of 4) in the weakest division in a sport that is clearly on the decline. He can revel in in profiteering without big spending with ease here in Arlington. In Liverpool, he won't have that luxury. I think he's in for a rude awakening. Liverpool will be like the Yankees, Cowboys, and Lakers combined, in terms of media and fan expectations. They will not be kind to him if he takes the 'profits first, team be damned' stance that he's taken with the Stars and Rangers here the last several years.

While I don't want to see Liverpool fail, I really hope that if Hicks DOES acquire half ownership, he gets the rude awakening that he deserves. He's half-assed sports ownership in Texas for far too long. He's a HUGE part of the reason that I don't care about baseball anymore. I used to be a rabid baseball fan in general, and an extremely loyal Rangers fan. But over the last 10 years, I've realized that Hicks doesn't care about winning. He cares about profitablility - and this is why I don't go to Ranger games anymore, why I don't buy Ranger merchandise, or watch them on TV. I decided a few years ago that I will no longer contribute to Ranger profitability, if they don't care about putting a winning team on the field.

I feel sorry for the Liverpool fans. I hope he doesn't buy the team.