This week we are focusing the newsletter on common courtesy. Lately, we have been experiencing a higher number of complaints about things that just make us shake our head. 99.9% of the people who join the APA pool league do it because they want to have fun, meet people, play competitive pool and improve their game.
The problem is that some of the people who join for those very reasons forget about this at some point, and start making league play unenjoyable for everyone around them. We do have a team manual and we have rules that govern our league. And it says in the manual to play within the spirit of the rules! It is expected that when you join this league, you try to win games at the pool table rather than through the rule book. You are expected to think about why the rules are what they are and to enforce them only for what is intended.
What kind of sucks is that we sometimes have to rule in favor of someone playing rule book, because gee whiz, it’s a rule and we aren’t doing our jobs if we aren’t enforcing the rules as they are written. But, there is nothing in there that says we have to like it, nor should the team that the rule is being enforced against. Yes, play is supposed to be continuous, but waiting 5 minutes for a player who is running late is common courtesy. It creates camaraderie among players and teams and makes for a much more enjoyable evening for everyone. If you would rather take the forfeit, that’s certainly your prerogative, but remember that “what goes around comes around”. By winning games from the chair instead of at the table, you have just created a perception about you and your team that this team will not only remember from this day forward, but will probably warn every other team in the league to make sure you don’t violate a precious rule in the manual, because this team will be all over it. And just because a team pulled the ole continuous play rule on you doesn’t mean that you should therefore use it against the team you are playing next week. This is not the type of mood we want spreading through the league like a plague. If you want to spread something, spread fun. Let the little things bounce off of you. If someone forgot to tell you they were adding a player before start time, let them add the player if it doesn’t change your strategy for the night. If someone needs to do a make up because they can’t get all 5 players there, try to accommodate them. Your team might be the team needing special favors next time. And if you are that team that does not extend special favors, don’t expect them in return. Oh, and don’t plan on anyone sharing their fun with you, because you basically said in not so many words that you have a different agenda.
We don’t know what has created this attitude lately that rails against common courtesy, but we would love nothing more than to be rid of it. It can’t be the $100 prize money someone stands to win at the end of the session. $100 is nice, but if you are playing solely to win $100 and tossing common courtesy to the wayside to do it, you are playing for all the wrong reasons.
You can generally tell who the most fun people are. That’s because they are playing practically every night. Why? Because they are fun. When you are fun, everyone wants you on their team. If people tried just a little bit harder to be a little nicer to their opponents on league night, just maybe the little ticky tacky stuff can be reduced enough to not affect everyone’s night of fun. If someone on your roster is behaving so rudely that it is affecting the other team, feel free to drop the player from your team. That one player tends to create a perception of everyone else on the team.
If you do run across a protest or a dispute in your league match, please do not sign the score sheet. In fact, you should always pay close attention to what you are signing. Do not sign an incompletely filled out sheet. When you sign your name to something on the score sheet, you are signing off that you agree with everything on the sheet. If you think a team violated a rule and the score should be overturned, don’t sign either sheet. Submit it to the league office for review. It is not too late to protest if you have signed the sheet. You just need to submit the protest before we receive the signed sheet.
Blast checks will start going out next week. If the check is to be made out to someone other than the team captain of the Summer Session roster, please contact the league office. Blast schedules have been posted to the web site and rosters will be posted soon.
Have a great week and Shoot Pool Good!