Weeks 6 & 7

  I apologize for not reporting last week, but due to the drunkenness of the reporter, he couldn’t remember the scores. The scores from week 6 were as follows:

  Bloomington  5     -      White Bear 2
  Canes 18               -       Ancient Rangers 0
  Kickers  9               -       Rangers2  3
  Kickers2   2           -      Silverbacks  1

  For week seven, the scores are as follows:

  Kickers  6               -       White Bear  1
  Canes  4                -      Silverbacks  1
  Bloomington  5       -       Rangers2  2
  Kickers2   5             -       Ancient Rangers 0  FORFEIT

  For those of you who noticed the word forfeit above, the situation is as follows, if you will indulge me in a little history lesson:

  Several years ago, before the creation of Ancient Rangers, the team was just called Rangers. We had two players on the team who were so violent, and obscene on the soccer field that we actually went to the length of telling them that wouldn’t be welcome on the team in the following season.  Their names were Emir and Hussein.  After enduring their threats and harangues upon hearing the news, we assumed it was a dead issue.  However, upon growing older and forming the Ancient Rangers, to play in the MRSL O-30 league, we ran into these same players on a team by the name of HOMA.

  We found it impossible, through five years in that league to play this team without somebody being brutally injured, usually at the hands of one of the above-mentioned players.  The HOMA team consistently led the league in cards and suspensions, and was threatened with expulsion form the MRSL, though it never happened. However, Hussein is the man who tried to attack a man with a hammer after a game against Internationals, and has threatened various people, including myself, every time things haven’t gone the way he wanted over the years.   We fled that league, and joined the MRSL Wednesday night recreational league, which was founded with considerable help and input from me.  That blissful scenario lasted 2 years, at which time these same players began showing up in this league.

  Exasperated in our attempts to find a place to play, without fear of injury, over zealousness, and hyper-competitiveness, I founded the O-40 league.  This came about at the urging of Harry Tietz, who approached me with a desire for the older Kickers to have place to play, and another team, run by Ron Hostad, that was ready to sign up.  I agreed to coordinate the league, on the grounds that a few rules of my design would be agreed upon.  They included, ban for life on any player who attacks another player or referee, no slide tackling, and that Emir and Hussein would never be allowed to, play in this league.  These rules were unanimously agreed upon, as everybody expressed a desire to be able to play in a safe environment, as dictated by the age group we were in.  The fourth team ended up being the Canes.  The first two years of the league were just fine, and then it started to deteriorate. While some of the teams brought back the same players, year after years, some jettisoned their older players and replaced them with younger, more aggressive players, in their desire to win.  As the league grew, and expanded to it’s present level of eight teams, the competition became fiercer, less recreational, and more violent.  The aim of the league was no longer recreation, but conquest.

  It was into this scenario, that Hussein turned up last year playing for Mike McCormack’s Kickers2 team.  Even though they were well aware of the ban on this particular player, they started sneaking him to games where the opposition wasn’t likely to know who he was. Then when I left to Chicago on a work related trip for five weeks last year, he played against our team, and one of the guys recognized him.  When told he shouldn’t be playing, by both our team and Günter Schilling, who began running the league last year, he again became offensive and threatening and was allowed to play, This game never would have happened had I been there, but I wasn’t.

  Tonight, we showed up to play, and there he was suiting up to play against us.  I asked him what he was doing here, as he’s not allowed in our league, and he threatened me with everything from “kicking my ass” to “killing me”. I made it clear that we would not participate in any game in which he played.  When team manager Mike McCormack showed up, and was apprised of the situation, his response was that he could go home and drink beer. It was at this point that the Rangers called off the game, fully expecting to go home uninjured and with a forfeit victory in hand due to Kickers2’s use of an illegal player.

  However, in talking to Günter, later, he informs me that at the pre-season captains meeting, where we were not represented, the rule against these two players was rescinded. We are still seeking confirmation of that, as no one I talked to recalls this ever happening. The bottom line is that, neither of our teams will participate in any game in which either of the two above named individuals plays.  We agreed to accept a 5-0-forfeit loss, because we are in last place, and not going anywhere anyways, but I will expect that, and every other victory this team has posted to be forfeited if we can find no one who was present at that meeting to verify that these restrictions were relaxed.  It is my personal belief that so many people are afraid to stand up to this man, out of fear of his violent nature that this situation may never go away. With that in mind, we will be leaving the league, which I created, at the end of this season, and starting a new endeavor next year.

   Sorry to be such a bummer, but next week Ancient Rangers plays Rangers2, so I’ll much more like my old self.

Thanks, Ranger Bob