Of course, the Steamers now have new uniforms thanks to team manager Craig Miller who went out and purchased them himself.  We now have matching shirts, shorts, and for $3, socks.  A little concern was raised at the Arsenal logo.  It's not like teams need any more reasons to unload on us. Still thanks to Craig for making us look good even when we don't!

Before the game, team sub-master, Jim Ott and Jason Sartori were having the usual Steamer pregame conversations about strategy - things like - "Let's go over that deal about using your hands one more time" - stuff like that. So anyway in the midst of the conversation Jason suggests what we might do "especially if we build up a lead on them".  Jason didn't play last fall due to injury and apparently it affected his memory as well!

Tom White, the newest Steamer, demonstrated the theological proof that  there is no purgatory when he got sent to the Steamers for - actually nothing!  Marcos just gave him away.  You gotta figure that there is no purgatory if God can do things like that to a person.  I don't know what Tom did but he's working it out now!  Tom is like most other Steamers except that he is fast and skilled.  Another Tom joined the Steamers; Tom Bitter.  Tom is also like most other Steamers except that . . . no, he's pretty much like the rest of us!  Actually this was Tom's first game ever and he did fine, which doesn't bode well for his future as a Steamer.  Rick Loeffelholz (good DBQ name) a former Hempstead player, at least he was on the team anyway, and a church mate of Ott also joined for his first game.  And then Leo came over from the Saints so he can have fun again.  With these and all the old Steamers, we had 8 subs most of the game.  If Rob Crowe would have played we would have had nine and Ott sat out all but the first five minutes with what's being described as "shin splints".  John Eby came late in the first half having already been named "man of the match" in his daughter's U11 game earlier in the day (or is it U12 now?).  In other words, there were 11 guys on the sidelines and that doesn't include Chuck Isenhart who came to watch and is still holding out for a renegotiated contract.  All these subs made for tricky rotations and probably fewer minutes than some would have liked, but all in all it was a good effort.

Conversations of the game:

After Hagi had gooned his eighth or ninth guy the conversation turned to what we could do about it - we realized that we have lawyers on the team (Tom Bitter, Chad Cox) so we could sue him; we have psychologists on the team (Jim Ott, Sarah Henkels) so we could give him counseling after the law suit; and if the stress proved too much, Tim Martin is a cardiologist just in case.
 
Just before the second Steamer goal: Tom White from the sideline to Craig Miller who has just made the same challenge for a headball one might expect from a pylon, "Craig, jump up and challenge for those." (Tom's still getting to know his teammates!) Miller: "I did jump; I'm an old white guy; my cleats cleared the grass!"
 

Steamers have just gone up 2-1.
Tim Martin "It looks like we're a different team out there."
Ott "That's because the team you remember is over here on the bench."
 
Immediately following the game
Unidentified Steamer: "Someone lost in the first game so we're not in last place!"
 
The good news is that the tie gives the boys lots of optimism for the new season.  The bad news is that it gives the boys lots of optimism for the new season.  Still with new players and plenty of subs, the Steamers promise to at least be interesting for parts of games - and they do have matching uniforms!