Ocean Division:
The top players faced off, with S&G playing well but falling short against
defending champs, Freedhand’s, 18-22-19. The Sugar Bowl won another tight
battle against Mark’s Maintenance in four games with two going to extra time.
That set up a championship, which might have been the best in league history.
Both teams played at a level you might recognize from watching the AVP on TV,
making digs, blocks and spikes the pros would be proud of. The Sugar Bowl
took the first two games, 16 and 19 and it looked like the Freedhand’s dynasty
might be over. But the champs dug deep and came back to win games three
and four, 17 and 19. One game remained for the prestigious Ocean Division
title! The youths of the Bowl jumped out to an early 11-3 lead and held
off the veterans 21-15 to take home their first championship. Everyone on
the court excelled but no one more so than the women of both squads. Their
setting was a thing of beauty on each and every volley. Because all of the
day’s activity had finished, virtually the entire league circled the main court
to witness this great sporting spectacle. And no one was disappointed.
New-comer Frank Ganun had several critical blocks against Freedhand’s and was an
integral part of his victorious team. When Rocky D. loaned Frank to the
Sugar Bowl in the off-season he figured he’d be a big help to them and he was
right. But now he has invoked his Rule 5 Waiver Recall to take him back
onto Casino Towing for 2010. When told of this development, Frank replied,
“Rocky who? Casino what? I’ve never heard of either of them.”
This one may go to the courts for a decision.
Ocean Breeze Division:
Round one saw the Big Mahooshkas and Jameson’s advance into the semi-finals,
sending 212 Bravest and Casino Towing to the showers. The Mahooshkas
stayed hot and edged Coppersmith’s in a barn-burner in the fifth game by a 21-18
tally. Jameson’s could not sustain their momentum and dropped their
semi-final 1-3 to regular season leaders, the Flip Cup All Stars, who shook
their late season funk to get back on form. A late night celebration for
Liz Murphy’s birthday contributed to some first game blues for the youngsters
falling behind 0-9 in game one,
but the All Stars came through under the guidance of John “The Elder” Sica.
They continued to roll on all cylinders and finished off the Mahooshkas in four.
One play summed up the day for Flip Cup – Mike Sica ran 20 feet off the court to
retrieve a wildly blocked ball and brought it back into play to brother Brian
who made an impossible angle set across court where dad John was waiting to tap
it down into the open court. The boys ran a mile between them and dad got
the point and the glory. Isn’t that the way it should be in all families?
The Mahooshkas were worn after their grueling match with Coppersmiths, and the
never say die play like the one described above and others by Kenny Kearns and
Mike Gambino keeping everything alive, was deflating. Katey, Trish and Liz
were rock solid on their sets, serves, and back play. Liz’s birthday party continued on Saturday until it turned into a victory
celebration at the Sica Tiki Bar, lasting into the wee hours of the morning.
Wave Division: Four
games were needed in each match as Brooklyn Windows and Doors, Sand Spikers and
Wharf Rats all advanced over Connolly’s, Healy’s Rat Pack and Safe Sets and the
Federation even needed a fifth game to eliminate the Wave/King’s Pharmacy 21-18.
In round two, both matches went the distance with the Sand Spikers holding off
the Warf Rats and Brooklyn Windows coming from two games down to beat the
Federation. The expected dramatic fight between the top two in the Wave
fizzled as the gang from Brooklyn swept 17-12-18. Team MVP Berna-SET
Higgins fed ball after ball to her hitters and the Brooklyn Windows and Doors
squad spanked them for point after point on the way to the title. It took
this budding young star to deliver their first championship to charter league
members Jimmy Mack and Cubby. (Louie and Jeannie think it had more to do
with Cubby’s 15 years of Shark training.) Original league scribe, Coach,
noted that Cubby could now cross “Winning RBVL title” off of his bucket list.
Next up on the list – climbing Mt Everest! Then, facing off across the net
against Rocky for the first time in 21 years and roofing one of his spike
attempts for a clean winner. And finally, “Having a frozen drink at
Connolly’s while wearing RBVL Championship sweatshirt.” That one should
get crossed off of the list on 8/28 or 8/29 after the Awards Dinner.
Hopefully, Cubby and Jimmy will show up to accept their sweatshirts unlike the
year they won the Perfect Attendance award and were absent when the award was
given out. Also, Kerry Douglass becomes the second person in RBVL history
to win both the Adult Musical Chairs competition and a league championship in
the same year. She matches the feat of Laura “The Knee” Phister who
previously turned the trick with Connolly’s.
Beach Division: Once again
the venerable Beach House went out in the first round when they lost in the
fifth game to arch-rivals, the Land Sharks 21-17. They joined the Miley
Home Improvement Posse, Ocean’s 12 and It’s All Good Tees, who made their usual
early playoff exit. When Green (formerly Cement) Shoes was spotted on his
way for a swim in the ocean with TBG (The Big Goldberg) and TFBG (The Former Big
Guy) at 11:00 AM, he was asked, “What’s up?” He replied, “We got knocked
out already and if we hurry we can get home in time to watch “The View.”
Once again, It’s All Good led the parade into the Perimeter of Ignominy (POI),
that special place for all of the teams that failed to live up to their
competitive expectations. Top seed, the Bay House Babes took out the
Sharks 3-0 and second seed, JG Electric, squeaked by Carvel/Blue Bungalow 21-15
in the fifth setting up another 1-2 contest for all the marbles. This one
did not disappoint the spectators as the see-saw battle finally tilted toward
the Babes 21-13 for a 3-2 win. Commissioner Patty was rewarded for all her
hard work (and 8 service winners) with only her second championship sweatshirt
in 21 years.
Boardwalk Division: The
RBVL’s most evenly matched division showed why in the first round. It took
five games before the Snotty Yachties prevailed over Boarders Surf Shop 21-18,
before the Breakaways downed the Blackwater Cheese Fries 21-14 and before 3rd and
Long NYC beat the Bayview Barracudas 21-18. Kerry Hills had the easiest
time, knocking off the Irish Circle in four. In the semis, 3rd and
Long NYC and the Snotty Yachties dispatched the Breakaways and Kerry Hills in
five and four games respectively. The final could have gone either way but
3rd and Long prevailed
21-19, 18-21, 21-18 and 23-21. After seeing the Snotty Yachties men go
shirtless, the Social Yachties have proposed a new RBVL rule: No men over 40
should be allowed to take off their shirts. “Please leave the shirts on,
fellas.”
Sun Division: All
four top teams advanced to the semi-finals, knocking out Team Margarita, the Odd
Couples, Sands Point PT and Summer Winds. In round two, Sets on the Beach
swept A Night Out and Average Joes needed five to squash the Harbor Light,
setting up a final pitting two new rivals. The Sets won this round in four
games but keep an eye on these two for years to come. Hats off to the
Sands Point PT owner and sponsor who came down to support his team in the
playoffs; not many owners do that. Of course, legendary sponsor, Frank
Abbracciamento, still takes the cake with the time he sent a tuxedo-clad,
white-gloved waiter to the beach on 86th St.
carrying 12 Heinekens on a serving tray right to the team during a first-game
timeout. Needless to say, the team went on to victory. Also, hats
off to Tommy Tunes who helped save the day musically by supplying extra speakers
for DJ Ryan. And what a great job by Carol, carrying 3 large bags of ice
on her back while bicycling to Riis Park from Breezy Point. Rocky was nice
enough to wave to her as he passed her on the road in his empty pick-up truck.
I guess it looked like she needed the exercise. By the way, those were
tears of pain on Carol’s face not tears of joy.
Moon Division:
Apparently, the regular season RBVL standings meant a lot as five divisions had
the top two squads meet in the finals and two divisions had the first and third
teams square off. However, the Moon Division produced a stunning upset in
the first round with the first-place team, LeGreann, falling to the last-place
team, Bad News Bears, in three straight. 2nd and
3rd place finishers, Simon
Says Sea Bar and Robin Shapiro Realty Island also exited early along with the
Suns of Beaches. That left the title up for grabs as the Coral Reefers
spanked Bar 13 NYC and the Bad News Bears edged the Bungalow Bar-anhas in
overtime of the fifth game 22-20. The Bears could not complete their
miracle run and lost 0-3 to the Coral Reefers, who became the lowest seed to win
a title (6th place).
Inspectors checked the Reefers for PED’s after they dominated everyone 9-0 on
the day, after finishing 25-28 during the regular season. Only traces of
barley, hops and yeast showed up on the tests and all are legal and approved
substances in the RBVL.
Star Division: Everything
went pretty much according to form. Regular season champ, Last Call,
Atlantic Service Sand Storm, EZ Company and the Beach Orphans all moved on with
victories in round one with the first two going the minimum and the last two
going four games. In round two, the Sand Storm edged EZ Co. 23-21 in
another OT fifth game, while Last Call thumped the Beach Orphans 3-0. The
Sand Storm won the title in another OT game 23-21 in an exciting finale.
The Social Yachties did not win the playoffs but they did win the title of Most
Sociable Yacht Club Team and that was what they were really shooting for anyway.
The good news – the Rockaway Breakers won their first playoff game ever, the bad
news – the Rockaway Breakers won only one playoff game and were ousted, the even
worse news – Dancing Vinny was turning cartwheels on the beach while Rusty was
nowhere to be found. Advantage Bar-anhas!
Even the two teams that
failed to make the playoffs enjoyed themselves with a grudge match. The
Harbor Light Brooklyn Transplants and their arch-rivals, Rathbones had a bigger
score to settle between themselves for yearlong bragging rights. The
results - Rathbones took all five games, with three of the games going
to overtime 23- 21, 24-22 and 22-20. Let the trash-talking begin.
Dix Hills Derek thoroughly enjoyed being back for the day with Brian and his old
crew and he just might have won the award for best-dressed with his paisley,
collared, epaulet-studded collared shirt. (“Spalding, fetch me a spot of
tea.”) It looked like the visitor of the year award was going to Linda
McGivney’s mom, Helen Bonade, who came up for the festivities from Tamarac,
Florida but she was nosed out by Colleen McHale’s cousin, John McNeill who hails
from County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Good on you, John (and Helen, too);
we hope to see you in 2010. You’ll always have friends stateside within
the RBVL. Was it a coincidence that the top two division champs had mostly
20-somethings on their teams with one father figure each? I don’t think
so. Is there a better way to celebrate your birthday than the way Regina
Carey did, spending it on the beach with 1,000 of her close friends in the RBVL?
I don’t think so. Plans have already begun for the 2010 season.
First Brother, Mike, suggests that next year every team show their AARP cards at
the start of a match and that’s how many points you start with. For
example, Flip Cup – zero points, It’s All Good – 8 points. That would even
things up a bit.
Patty and Denise and the
men of the RBVL committee would like to say, “Thank you” to all the well-wishers
for their kind words, hugs and kisses on Saturday and all along the way.
And thanks to all who helped out on "Playoff Saturday", particularly Sam Green,
Kevin Cregan and Alex Moule who ref’d, tracked scores, updated the scoreboard
and basically did a little bit of everything. And a special thanks goes to
two young ladies who worked all year with their mom’s and did an amazing amount
of work, Caroline Brunner and Lauren Moule. Well done! Patty and
everyone else in Rockaway are getting a bit verklempt just thinking about the
season coming to end. Here are a couple of quotes that sum up the RBVL
experience: From Jay Butler’s crew, “This is the greatest thing I have
ever done in my life.” And from Alice’s daughter EJ, "What you guys do for
Rockaway is magical." Just because the league is officially over doesn’t
mean that the volleyball games must stop. It looks like the weekly Monday
night pick-up games at Steve’s 127th St.
stadium will expand to Wednesday nights as well. We hope to see many of you on
the beach at 127th St. on
Mondays or Wednesdays or both.
As you know by now, the
date has been set for the annual RBVL Awards Dinner and that date is Friday,
August 28th. This year we will be going to Jameson’s on 129th St.
from 7:30 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. The cost is $40 per person in advance by 8/24
to Patty @ 550 B. 133 St. or $50 per person at the door. The price
includes an open bar, bottled beer, buffet dinner and music by DJ Bobby Joseph.
As you know, Jameson’s is a relatively small restaurant and space is limited.
First come, first served! If you want to make sure you are included, get
your money to Patty ASAP. Dress casual and wear your best Hawaiian shirt;
it should be a blast once again. Now for your weekly reminder and
countdown – there are zero more weeks left in the regular season and zero more
weeks of playoffs. The last big RBVL event of 2009 is the Awards Dinner.
Then comes Fall, school, Winter, cold weather, snow, stalled cars, train delays,
the Super Bowl, Ground Hog Day, Spring, Easter, NY Mets opening day, Memorial
Day and, before you know it, RBVL opening day on June 2nd and
the 2010 playoffs on August 14th. As always, if you have any
questions please call Patty at 917-613-0908. (Be sure to call between 10
AM and 9 PM. Remember, Patty has a life outside of VB, too.) Or just
check our website at www.rbvl.com.
You'll find the answers to most of your questions there, not to mention pretty
pictures and funny stories. See you on the beach (but not for league games), around the neighborhood and on the dance floor at Jameson’s!
