The Dolphins of Ancona

Ancona at night from my bedroom window.
This reporter was in attendance at Torette stadium on the night of Saturday, 29 June, 2010 to witness the American Football game featuring the Dolphins of Ancona versus the Giants of Balzano. I will leave the specifics of the match to the experts. I will leave the musings of the match to me. I went with Giordano and Valentina, both who had never before seen the American Football, and it was a lot like watching a football game with my mother. Complete (and in my mother’s case, willful) ignorance of the game. Trying to explain the intricacies, the on-field ballet of the game was futile. They couldn’t follow the movement of the ball, nor understand why everyone stood around after every play, or decipher why players kept shuttling on and off the field. Forget about explaining offsides or the scoring system. And right as the concept of four downs to move the ball 10 yards (meters?) there was an on-side kick. An on-side kick!?! I give up! The fevered screams for “Acqua! Acqua!” at each break did serve-up never ending amusement and giggles.

The field, doing double duty for the night, was an astro turf soccer pitch and the yard lines were painted to fit the available space meaning they were suspiciously close in some areas and strangely distant in others. The goal posts were sticks tied to the sides of the soccer goals. Time was kept by the head referee with regular updates shouted to the sidelines and there was no scoreboard. We didn’t even know Ancona was staging a late-game comeback until we overheard a Dolphin on the sidelines mention it to a teammate. My middle-school team regularly outdrew the crowd that had gathered for the game, but what they lacked in numbers they made up for in cool dis-interest tempered by bouts of fierce encouragement in the form of well intentioned chants of “Offense Go!” or “Defense Go!” and there were suitable displays of outrage over the perceived incompetence of the obviously biased referees. It was all authentically American and totally Italian. A suitable metaphor for my life here these past nine months.

With seven seconds left in regulation, Ancona had tied the score and were debating going for a field goal from about 32 yards to win or playing it safe for over-time. The American quarterback was in the face of his Italian kicker and yelled a few times, “Can you MAKE it, SI or NO?!” A visibly intimidated and shaken kicker hesitantly and with no sign of confidence replied, “Yes, I think so, yes.” The kick was true if a few yards short and a Bolzano player (their American running back) caught the ball and returned it to the opposite 2 yard line before a sideline tackle by Ancona’s quarterback (and maybe the only other player on the field besides the ball carrier who knew the ball was still live) forced the OT.


American Football in Ancona.

The stands and fans. Bolzano on the right; Ancona on the left.

Group calisthenics led-off the second-half for both teams.

The picture is in focus. The players are actually blurry in real life.

As for the results:

Vittoria in OT per i Giants, onore ad Ancona
Dolphins Ancona - Giants Bolzano: 63-64 OT
Spettacolo in scena ad Ancona dove si assiste alla prima gara in over time dall'inizio della stagione con i Giants che vincono in extremis trasformando da 2 punti con una corsa di Greene. Doveva essere una vittoria scontata quella di Bolzano e, invece, i Dolphins sono scesi in campo con onore e orgoglio facendo la più bella gara della stagione. Putroppo non è bastato e, come è accaduto la scorsa settimana contro i Rhinos, il team di Argeo Tisma è riuscito a superare gli avversari col sangue freddo e il coraggio di una trasformazione da 2 punti. Nel corso del tempo regolamentare la gara era finita 56-56.

Wednesday was a holiday - Festa della Repubblica - the day Italians celebrate becoming a Repubic (except for the Lega Nord who never wanted to be a Republic - like Virginia) and kicking the king into exile except the king is back now and his son is a singer and television personality who recently competed on Italy's Ballando con le stele. I’d never complain about a day-off from work. It’s bad luck. But I can’t stand holidays in the middle of the week. They’re disruptive and the next day at work is always terrible. It’s impossible to really go anywhere or do anything. And if the weather is bad, it’s even worse. A not that much better person than I would ignore all of that and more and cook-up something fabulous. And they’d blog about it and everyone would be suitably impressed. All I can say is I slept late, I had lunch, I went for a run and then I went out for dinner. And the only reason I share that is so you will be just as disappointed in me as I was in myself. I let the horrible day-off in the middle of the week get me down.

But the good news is that on the running front, my back fat has stopped itching while I’m running. It feels great. Or rather, it doesn’t feel itchy which feels great. My theory is either the fat has compressed into a non-itching equilibrium or has leaked into my butt. I still sweat like Patrick Ewing but now I do it at more than a walking pace.

On a slightly less anatomical note, only 67 words after apologizing for squandering the opportunity that was my Wednesday day-off, I rebound with news that for this weekend I was faced with the decision of going to the MotoGP race in Tuscany at the Mugello track or taking the train to Florence. What is a boy to do? We all agree there are no wrong answers here right? Unless it’s wrong choosing between this or this. I’ll let you know next week what I decided.

Have a nice weekend everyone.