Rain

The Rockaway Beach Volleyball League threatened Joe DiMaggio’s legendary hitting streak but the streak is over. Rain and lightning shut down operations on Wednesday night for the first time in ages. Unfortunately, players had to stay home from Riis Park and find other activities to keep them busy. And many of those activities did not conclude with a cold adult beverage. How disappointing! There is one more Wednesday and a Saturday to go and then it’s all over. Is that really possible? Say it ain’t so, Joe. Due to the rainout, the Beach and Moon Divisions will replay the schedule of 8/2 next week and skip the final week’s scheduled position night. All other divisions will play the schedule of 8/9 to finish the regular season.

Tim Murphy (formerly The Big Guy, currently the Big Disabled List) noted that his protégé Dickie Flanagan (formerly and currently Cement Shoes) seems to be stealing all his best one-liners. But TBG is okay with that since he stole all his best lines from Milton Berle and Henny Youngman, who stole their best lines from W.C. Fields and Groucho Marx, who stole their best lines from Pseudolus and Thisbe, who were begat from Nipsy Isaiah and Red Jehovah. That’s the way it goes in the funnyman business. One day, “Russell Westbrook” might be stealing punch lines from his very own uncle. Wait and see. The Love Train carrying Your Name Could Be Here hit a speed bump with the rainout but they plan to bump, set and spike with love and happiness right until the last game of the year. On Wednesday night no teams failed to return their nets since no teams took out any nets. That’s a start. The Bungalow Bar had to cancel the after-party at their place so the rainout did not affect them. Players deeply missed the annual bash with DJ Teddy spinning discs and talking trash. Next Wednesday will be the 2017 regular season finale both on and off the courts. The volleyball action on the courts will decide playoff positioning and the party action at the Belle Harbor Yacht Club will decide nothing, except who can have the best time. Every year this is the biggest and best celebration of the season. 8/9 should be no different. See you at BHYC.

The RBVL 2017 Playoffs will be played by all divisions on Saturday, August 12^that 10:30 a.m. sharp. 10:30 is both the start time and the forfeit time for game #1. Nets will be available for set up and practice at 9:30 a.m. and must be up by 10 a.m. Just as a reminder, when the matchup is 1 vs. 8, the 8 seed is the home team and responsible for setting up the net. So the lower seeds are stuck putting up the nets. It’s good to be the King (higher seed)! All matches are best of 5 games to 21 points – win by two points and no cap. Round 1 - 10:30 a.m.: 1^st place vs. 8^th place, 2^nd place vs. 7^th place, 3^rd place vs. 6^th place and 4^th place vs. 5^th place. Round 2 - 12:00 p.m.: 3^rd/6^th winner vs. 2^nd/7th winner and 4^th/5^th winner vs. 1^st/8^th winner. Round 3 - 2:00 p.m.: CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES. The Beach and Moon Divisions have slightly different schedules in that the top two teams in those divisions have a first round bye. In their round 1, 3^rd place plays 6^th place and 4^th place plays 5^th place. In round 2, the 3^rd/6^th winner plays the 2^nd place team and the 4^th/5^th winner plays the 1^st place team. Round 3 is the Championship. For the playoffs, all teams must bring enough black garbage bags to take care of all of their garbage. The bags should be placed at the flagpole. Absolutely no bottles are allowed. If you get a fine we will not be issued a permit for next season. All nets must be off the beach by 5 PM at the latest.

It is getting darker earlier and earlier. Picking up your net early and setting up early are still really good ideas. The first team on the schedule is the away team and is responsible for returning the net to the POD, where Steve is waiting for you. Bring it back as soon as your match finishes. Check the bag for the ball and all other equipment. Wait until it has been marked “Returned” and then go on your merry way. Maria Elena Perez of the Wave met lots of people in the RBVL and compiled some quotes: "Our parents have a team and now we have one. It's like it was passed down from generation to generation," Victoria Ramos, Co-Captain of IFMA. "When we signed up, there was one more spot left for the team. We didn't have a name, so we just blurted out the name IFMA. It stuck ever since," Vanessa Ramos, Co-Captain of IFMA "We've been playing together for 10 years. We're like a family coming together to play a sport we all enjoy," Captain Natalie De Sanctis, White Horse Tavern Beach Posse "It's a lot of fun and very competitive. We want that championship sweatshirt and hopefully this will be our year," Rick Keim, Captain of Breezy Point Lumber. "We're proud to be one of the original teams that has been doing this for 28 years. We spend the whole week working, but this is a night for ourselves to have fun and spend some time with a good group of people," Bugsy Goldberg, Captain of It's All Good

Friday 7/28 was the Gray Beard’s Family Fun Run and a near record 495 runners showed up at SFDS for the annual event. All ages of runners participated and awards were given out in numerous age group divisions with Patrick Goldberg winning the Fastest Overall and Caroline Gifford winning the Fastest Female. When Bugsy was calling out the many winners, Murph noted that he called more family names than Trump does at a presidential cabinet meeting. Go Goldberg! Danny McCarthy, dad of Casino Auto Emergency Girl Alana, won his age bracket as did El Presidente, Steve Gifford. Bay Ridge’s Best Tuesday Night Band, Gearth, Wind and Fireman, performed well but had to work harder because it was a Friday night. Hot dogs and burgers were the perfect summer evening fare; no one in this crowd was looking for shrimp scampi or escargot. Captains are reminded that they can have items entered in the weekly Wave article by e-mailing Joe at jmcgivney2@nyc.rr.com by 11 PM on Wednesday night. Just send a sentence or two to be printed. Maria Perez is a reporter/photographer from the Wave and she will be taking pictures at the beach each week. Make her feel welcome at our Wednesday night extravaganza. I’m sure you’ll agree; pictures are nice. If you have any questions along the way please contact Steve Gifford via e-mail at irvman331@verizon.net.

See you on the beach!