April Showers

Tucson, Arizona receives a shockingly low .30 inches of rain every April.

It probably had its fill on Sunday, when Nils and Bryan made it rain on them hoez, aka Steven and Grant, on some basketball courts in the desert.

Yes, that's right, in a best-of-three series, Plymouth and "The Creezie" (Nils -> Niles -> Niles Crane -> The Crane -> The Creezie) defeated Sojo and Gianni Fots, 2-1. After team Stilns and "Baby Stilns" (Ply, via Steven) took the first game, Sojo's four straight stingers sent it to a third and final contest, when a Crane setshot ended it at 7-4 (the first two games were to 11). Nils, employed the "no rim" policy of draining everything he hit or airballing it, while Plymouth used the turnaround that is only effective when everyone on the court is smaller than he, or in this case, the exact same size. But the star was Niles, who probably scored more than half his team's points in his first appearance on the court since the Hakeem Olajuwon administration. If anything, the 59-year-old, who also grabbed some key rebounds, proved it's not just a physical game. It's mental. Crane-ial, you might say.

After the final game, Sojo was heard to ask Grant, "Don't you love it when we let them win?"

"Yes," G responded. "I just wish this was one of those times."

UPDATE: Well, it just keeps getting better. In the first game of the season for Plymouth's second league team, Do It! (named after the city's Department of Information Techonology & Telecommunications, or DoITT, from which all the other players hail), there was a Barton-like finish featuring none other than yours truly. Down five points with 45 seconds left after what had been a back-and-forth second half, Ply stole an inbounds pass and got a layup to cut it to 3. Thereupon we begin fouling, getting to the 1-and-1 threshold with about 25 seconds left; attempting to get our seventh foul, the other team inexplicably tries to break the press and throws the ball to our center, who passes it ahead to our team captain (Louis, this was indeed Josh), who was ice cold all game - naturally, he nails the three while proclaiming "money." Tie game, 10 ticks left, the other team brings it back down the court. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but we managed a steal, and the next thing I knew Ply was racing downcourt, receiving the pass as the referee counted down the time, and releasing the layup at "2... 1..." for the victory. Titsyouverymuch.

Two things should be said: our team and its various iterations have about a 4-36 overall record over the last few years, so we were in the 25th out of 27 divisions in our league. In other words, we stink. But one more, and it's a winning streak. Still making it rain, and not just because the Tralfamadorians are weeping. So it goes.