Last night, I attended our slo-pitch league's annual banquet. My team, Raging Storm, plays in the RSPA and I joined five teammates in representing the division one champs.
Here's a little recap of the event, which included lots of music, drink, dinner and awards at the Westwood Banquet Hall in good 'ol Rexdale.
A Brief History Lesson
The RSPA is an Etobicoke / Mississauga slo-pitch league with several divisions for recreational ball and intermediate ball, and one division for the best of the best they call Competitive. The teams are placed in divisions according to their on-field ability. In Intermediate, for example, there are several divisions, with Int-1 being the best of the teams not in Comp and then there's Int-2, Int-3, etc. We just won Int-1, making us the best team not in the single Competitive division.
The RSPA has gotten so big, there are now two nights for this annual banquet. The weaker divisions were supposed to attend last night and the higher divisions were to attend next Saturday. We got an exception and attended last night with the less talented teams.
My Flashback
We all agreed to show up at 8pm, just before dinner. I joked I'd be there at 7:53, and that's exactly when I showed up. A half hour later I was still the only person at the Raging Storm table, nursing my cranberry juice and listening to AC~DC's "Back in Black" blaring out of the speakers. It was just like the high school dances I attended!
The Boos
I gave that little history lesson so you had some perspective. We were by far the best division champion in attendance, so when it was time to acknowledge the champions and distribute the awards, we were called first. Marc and I were actually scoring some pastries when they announced the Int-1 champion Raging Storm, but nobody could miss what happened next. The entire hall booed us. They booed us heavily, even though we had never played a team there.
You may assume, as we did, that every divisional champion would be booed. This didn't happen. All other divisional champs were cheered. Why did they boo us? Did our reputation precede us? Was it because we were announced as champions of the strongest Intermediate division?
The Tower
At one point, with people hitting the dance floor, I decided to build a tower. I got cocky, and introduced a platter to the tower, and the tower fell, knocking a full glass of cranberry juice onto Jordy's lap.
It was perfect.
The Sweater
As predicted, they gave us sweaters. This was our grand prize for winning the division. They're nice sweaters, but they're sweaters.
Oh yeah, they also bumped us up to the esteemed Comp division, which may be more of a curse than a blessing. Still, I'd rather go 0-16 in the toughest division than 16-0 in the 2nd toughest division. It was a great year, and even the cheesy banquet didn't totally suck. Here's the obligatory photoset.
