Another fine Frizzbee season was celebrated last night. A big thanks to Pete and Habi for hosting the end-of-season party, and to Bill for once again bestowing trophies for fine and unusual play. As always, you need to be present to win one of these trophies although no one is certain if the “Slacker” trophy can actually be awarded. Perhaps if the Slacker is kidnapped and brought to the party…

2011 marked our 29th season. For the first time, I counted up the years we’ve been taking attendance, and this year is the 20th year of stats! We have 3 years of stats from the early years, 1985-1987, and then stats for the last 17 years, 1995 through 2011. 20 years of statistics, and yet we were able to set a new, all-time record.

Besides the dubious record for the fewest games ever by the statistician (2 games), the new all-time record set this year was… FIVE rainouts. June and August were the only months where we didn’t have a rainout: we had one in April, May, July, September, and October. The previous record of 4 rainouts was set in 1996 and tied last year in 2010.

We also tied one record that was set during our first year of stats in 1985 and tied in 1996. It’s related to all those rainouts: fewest number of games in a season, 21. That’s 6 fewer games than the record 27 set in 2000 and tied in 2006 and again in 2007. Those 6 games represent a month and a half of extra games. Are we getting soft?

Not so fast. Even though we played only 21 games, we had the second-highest average attendance per game: 15.7 players per game. That beat the previous second place average of 15.3 players per game set in 2007, but is still a ways under the remarkable 16.7 players per game in 1999. Did it seem to everyone that we had such a high average this year? I was amazed when I added the numbers, since the attendance figures didn’t seem that high. But there were 4 games of 20 or more, and the lowest attendance was 11. Often, we have games of 6 or 7 or 8 players, or even less. But this year when we had 5 players on a rainy day, we called off the game and played tip-it instead. Hmm, maybe we are getting soft.

Three players were anything but soft this year, battling hard for the Frequent Attendance Record Trophy. With just 2 weeks to play, 3 players were tied for the attendance lead with 18/19 games played. Imagine 19 games played with 3 players each having missed just one game. And after the season ended with 21 games, two players still had missed just one game. One of those players even managed to play 18 games in a row, becoming only the 5th player ever to play 18 or more games in a row. (Bill, Dusty, Skip, and Walter are the other 4). This same player was also one of those 5 players who showed up on a rainy July 26 even when Bill called the game off. So this year’s FART trophy goes to Pete, with a tip o’ the disc to Bill who also played 20/21 games.

Other notable stats:

• We had 57 different players, the 5th highest number ever.
• Pete and Bill’s .952 (20/21) attendance average tied for the 6th highest.
• Bill extended his incredible FART stats: he has now won or tied for highest attendance 11 of the last 16 years. Nobody else comes close.
• Three players had streaks of 10 or more games: Pete (18), Bob (13), and Bill (12). Pete joins elite company: only Bill, Dusty, Skip, and Walter have played 18 or more games in a row. Not an easy feat.
• Jason and Tony had interesting streaks: once these players joined us, they played every game until the end of the season. Jason was 9/9 and Tony 4/4. Can they keep this streak going through next year? Stay tuned.

Players with 5 or more games played this year (red indicates new player):

	Pete	20
	Bill	20
	Bob	18
	Richard	18
	Jeff	16
	Kurt	16
	Scott	14
	Eric	14
	Jon	14
	Eliot	12
	Tom	11
	Kevin	9
	Tinu	9
	Ara	9
	Dave	9
	Scott (Scooter)	8
	Roger	8
	Chris	6
	Brian	6
	Jason	6
	Mukund	5
	Arnie	5
	Grant	5
	Ted	5