Play Ball!!

Finally...After minutes and minutes of negotiating and at least one confrontation with the league president, I finally convinced the board of governing bodies to let both GBC teams to play in the same lower division. I was in the mind set that after all three teams lost all three qualifying games by combined point margin of 45 to 14 and one team had to be disbanded due to lack of players, I felt it was in the best interest to BEG!!!
My thinking is this.... if we have both teams in the same division and we play each other three times. One of the GBC teams will win a game. We are even guaranteed three victories by a GBC labeled team. Which team you ask? You will have to come out and see who is the most dominating "C" division team
That dates to mark on your softball calender will be June 19, July 17 and August 14. All of those dates should be filled with the following
1.a twin who loves to skip
2.a youth leader who will probably strike out at least once(6'4"male) yea I know!
3. A youth leader who is an alternates alternate.. might just show everyone the really big hole she has in her glove...I've seen it.Its like a doggy door.
4.A youth leader who has some crazy power to left, left, left field. After the opposing teams sees her hit they do a Shift so far to the left they have 4 left fielders and 3 third base players.
5. 6 first time players.
6. A really large bodybuilder of a man who loves to watch a routine fly ball fly over his head and then proceed to make like a snow angel out in center field and wishes no one saw him. At 6'4" pushing 240lbs.....We saw him...

If the sight of that doesn't bring people out to see us then nothing will..

See you at the park!!!

CJB

Back in session

I am glad to say that GBC is back in full effect, back in the groove, back in the saddle, just back in the gym where we belong.I must say, it took some time, but we got it together as team. Actually 2 teams. We do have some new faces on the court as well as the same ol' ones that we are used to.Have you ever got stuck in a "rut" if you will, as getting used to not changing anything or hanging out with the same GREAT crowds.Try to invite someone to an "anything" sports event , no matter how small and no matter how rookie-ish the talent.( I just made up a new word)and see what type of response you will get....Never a "no , I don't have the time" or "no, I don't want to watch nonathletic kids or old people running around trying to look like they can play"

On the contrary. I have asked 5 friends of mine that I have gotten to know at my daughters school if they would like to join our team... their response was an Overoutstanding(new word) YES, Thanks for asking....Thanks for asking? That's all it took?That was as easy as Not asking.
I want to start asking more.I want to start sharing more of our "friendship meter". Yes we all have a friendship meter.I think mine was frozen at "I have enough friends and I don't want anymore"side of the meter.That is just me.I have always been a, I am satisfied with what I have type of guy. which can be very boring to most people.I am going to Try to get out of MY old rut and stop being a backseat fan of life. There are way to many great Christians out there to keep to yourself like I have been doing most of MY life...God knows I am not getting any younger.

God knows we all need to share in his fellowship with each other, we just need to stop trying to keep him to ourselves....

Try it..I would love to have 3 or 4 teams next Volleyball season.All GBC needs to do is ASK!!!

Christian friends needed
Joe

Final Countdown

Oh what a great 80s one hit wonder of a song."The Final Countdown"There were so many of those "greatest hit" bands back between 1982 and 1989.How many can you name?Never mind. I forget that probably 93.5% of either volleyball team wasn't even born yet.How depressing.At least we Have Ms W. on the team who might know some of those greatest hits back then.Then again,probably not...ANYWAYS,That song came on, not on the radio or not even on "Where are they now" on VH1.I saw a girl play that little diddy using her musical talent to play it with her trumpet.The only problem is that she didn't have a trumpet,she played it with her mouth acting as a trumpet..Sounded pretty good actually.I can burp the sound of a Lion snoring but the opportunity hasn't come yet, but when it does I'll be ready.. Now that that, is out of the way I can slide into the fact that we are finally down to both teams "Final' match.We will finish off the season this "Final"Saturday at 3pm and 6pm team 1 and 2 respectfully.And I am looking at the "Final"Big picture..Even though team 2 has more wins than we do.(team 1)they have on record, posted 7 games won to our 1 game.here is where my Philosophy kicks in...
They won 6 of those games by forfeit..the other team didn't show..SO, with that in my hip pocket I see that we are both with ONE victory .Follow me now,as I continue to reach.
I propose a challenge, that who ever wins the most REAL games will get to pick the prize of the season.....That's right,Where are we going to eat pizza on S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y. NIGHT!!Do I hear another 80s tune?Some one help me.That might even be out of my generation.I better ask MRS.S for clarification.After all, she is 3 months older than I and was raised in a different era..

SO, I want to thank everyone who came out and played this year for our "1st in a long time volleyball season."I hope we all can come back in the spring and strive for maybe even winning a match..Who knows , one of the teams might even win this Saturday......We will at least enjoy some PIZZA.

PS..I love my GBC family..
JOE

Thankful anyone?

Have you ever wondered why we are officially thankful only once a year? Is there such a thing as being too thankful? Do you ever take the simplest of of the sense's for granted?Why must we be reminded of being thankful only when we see someone with no legs,no arms, blind,missing a finger.Does it take seeing someone who has been badly burned beyond recognition to realize that could be me? I know , We are thankful when we see a homeless person who needs some money to eat but realize that, you know what, if I give him some money he will probably not use it for food anyway and that is the reason to look away when we are in our CAR.
I'm sure there are at least 1 or 2 more reasons that I could be thankful for if I were to really dig deep.
The news is a great way of triggering our thankful button.Like this evening I was watching the sports on our local channels and came across one of the anchors who was celebrating his 10 year anniversary of doing the triathlon,but the story wasn't about him it was about a kid who came up to the anchor and congratulated him at the finish line.pretty simple,right?Only the young boy at the time had no legs above the knee..Both of them! he was wearing prosthetic legs and was not as ashamed of them.he could have been wearing pants, I'm sure, but why?( That was the first insecure thought that came to my Thankless head)
Once again the news at first was to celebrate the anchor finishing the race then the young man came into the picture.Being a journalist I'm sure he wanted to follow up on the young lad who by now is 21 and sure enough, he found the young MAN finishing up his own triathlon.The anchor walked up to the Man,shook his hand and thanked him.
The triathlon was I believe 140miles total, of swimming,bicycling,and a full 26mile marathon.Didn't quite get to the finish of the news.I had better things to do.

TO THANK GOD FOR EVERYTHING THAT I DO HAVE!!!!!

Joe

AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!

That is how I feel right now.Not in a negative AAAAHHHHH. but in a jubilant scream of excitement AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!.I was beginning to think I would never post again..I was getting ready to start planning our next adventure of a snowboarding trip to the local Mt's,and find out who was the next "Great Tomato, or Red, actually I think hes called the Flying Tomato"That would be the famous Shawn White.Pro shredder.
See, I had this great idea of trying to motivate myself into thinking that I will only post if both of our teams win at least one game on the same day.I didn't want to say anything negative about either squad,like one of the teams went a perfect 0-12 for the first half of the season.Or the other team went 4-8 with the help of one team not showing up and that gave them 3 wins..No, no, no, I didn't want to say any of that.er,,But finally, We both won on the same day and now i can post away AAAAAHHHHHH!!!
I didn't realize how rusty we were,those who played before,O.K. I was really rusty.I haven't played since one of our members moved a few miles to KANSAS CITY!! but I wont mention any names.Actually I think Ive already forgotten "his" and "her" and "little hers" name..I think "little her" is taller than I am now and she only 11.Any ways..we were all rusty.The ones who were new to the "bigger white ball game "found it a little harder to hit when you don't use a bat or glove .Then we have MS Debbie, who defiantly hasn't forgot how to serve.WOW she has this semi,overhead,tomahawk serve that will get them at least 5 to 6 points every time.and her rookie son,lets call him, Scott. After a few pointers he is becoming quite the server in his own right.being a lefty and a pitcher in the "really small white ball sport" he has become the 3to 4 point in a row little mini me of his mom.Not quite the skills of the slammer but coming along quite nicely.
I have to say,the most improved by far has to be Victory.After showing her how to play in the basic 1-5 where she is the full time setter, she has become a great player and she was the reason both teams won last Saturday. So come on out a watch the few remaining games we have left and we are just practicing ready for spring V-Ball.After the 4 games we have left we will then discuss , no not Snowboarding but PIZZA!! AAAAHHHH!!!!

Joe

Volley anyone?

Here we are, ready to embark on another quest to show our dominating force of skills on the volleyball court...( That is what I wanted to say) However, I will just start off by praising God that we were able to floor 2 teams of somewhat athletic ability.Our skills range from 1st time seeing what a volleyball looks like, to maybe seeing one once every 2 to 3 years. But I am very happy of the turnout and interest we had. I am really pleased with the youth of GBC who are playing. A lot of them are 1st time players who I had to encourage, err persuade, push, no that's not it. I think I might have used the term 'PIZZA' to get some to play. However the tactic, it worked. It was really great to see some of the girls on the team are very competitive. I won't mention any twin names. Even a little girl who I had to try and convince the "Volleyball Board" to let her play because she was only 11(SEP28th.. Happy Birthday Little girl. Daddy Loves you) Sorry, I digress... She is becoming quite the athlete.

Pray for our 2nd team that we have. It will mainly be 3 GBC members and 4 to 5 different visitors that have been coming or I know through friends. Whatever the case, I want this to be a successful ministry dedicated solely on Praising God and fellowship with Gods people.

Come on out and watch both teams play on Saturday afternoons. We will both be playing at Grace United Methodist in the Long Beach. 7th, to Junipero left, then go to 3rd St. Bring a fan. I don't call it the dungeon for nothing.

See you guys in the gym!!
"In God I trust" Joe N