We have another chilly evening for this edition of All*Star Thursday but thing heated up fast. Fearless Lou was first on the scene, staking out the turf around the Manhole that serves as our anchor point. Even though I too arrived early, my appeal to the Board regarding special dispensation due to work related absence was denied–I will be Double Yella upon my return. Other attendees included Roger M., Bradford, Rob, Kevin, Jesse, the Ageless Trevor Brown, Teddy O. and Chrissy, the Meadow Muse too. The Mighty Quinn made an guest appearance with Joey H. wearing the Yella Jersey.

My time as observer was limited because I had the honor of getting the first Jam with Teddy Ballgame and my attention was focused on our Jam. Gotta say a couple/few things about this man. First (second and third), the guy is just a BEAST!!!. We started to play and he never &^$&^%$& stopped! He wore me out, and Fearless Lou who busted us after about 40 minutes was vanquished as well.

His passion, talent and endurance is just incredible, especially given that he deigns to play with players of whatever skill level and is always encouraging to his partners. I hit a rare (for me ) gitis, threw 10 consecutive lefty strikes, and hit some footbrushes that I never even attempted before due to the tremendous flow. Those of you that have seen or played with Ted play know that to list the combos and co-ops he creates is almost impossible. I can say that he hit an insane roll combination, into brush combo, and nailed a big air gitis on the run that I still am replaying in my minds eye. Once Fearless Lou joined us We had several O’Malley brush co-ops, and Ted did the craziest slap/brush/pass to Lou of a counter UD overhand throw from me that left me laughing out loud because I felt it coming and it happened just as I visualized.

The Last Jammers standing (other than TO) were Rob and Joey, (who wore the Yella Jersey) and they showed once again that their flow is among the finest you will ever see. With all due respect to all of the tremendous talent among our JOTN brethren (and sistren), I have nicknamed Joey “The Oracle” because his flow and disc knowledge some across as so completely Zen. The those guys finished with a very heinous brushing co-op with coming up with a gigantic Phlaud seal that damn near grew tusks.

The evening ended with a small gathering to break in Rob’s (very nice brown leather) couch and a viewing of some vintage Jams–the semi’s from the 1980 World’s. I don’t know all of the names though they included Coloradicals, Jeff Felberbaum, Krae Van Sickle, Donny Rhodes, and a slew of others whose names I recognized but I can’t recount now as I must get to work. Suffice to say that the level of play was wonderful to see and those guys set standards that all of us still strive to match. Oooooh I love this stuff.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Paul