From our statistician, Dale:

Hi all,

Another season is in the books, including a great end of season party hosted by Tinu and Nipa. Thank you! Trophies were awarded to many, almost all well deserved. Once again, controversy lingered over a questionable Bozo of the Year (BOTY) award. I’m convinced that someone will step up next year and be more deserving of this great (dis)honor.

By almost every measure, this year resulted in the highest Frizzbee attendance in our 31 year history. We broke 6 team records, and set some interesting individual records as well.

First, the team records:

a. Although we did not break the record for most players per game (34, set in 2002), we had the second-highest (33 on July 23), third-highest (32 on August 6) and fifth-highest three times (27 on July 2, July 30, and Aug 27). Three out of five of those games (including both 30+ games) were at the beach.

2. Naturally, we also crushed the total number of player appearances, breaking last year’s record of 441 with this year’s 522.

3. We had 12 games with 20 or more players, breaking the record of 11 set in 2009. That’s almost half of the 26 games played.

4. We didn’t set the above records by playing a more games (although our 26 games tied for second highest) or by having a ton of super-regular players. We set the attendance records by sheer number of players. Last year, we had an incredible number of 89 different players. This year: 95.

5. Since we’ve been playing for 31 years, one would think we wouldn’t get a lot of new players each year. Last year, we set a record of 41 new players. This year, the statistician and his helpers struggled to come up with names for … 61 new players.

Which of those 5 records are now “unbeatable”? Perhaps all of them. But that’s not all: we had a record number of “regular” players this year: 32. The statistician has a low requirement for this: just 5 games. That was still one game too many for 7 different players this year.

We also broke 2 “streaker” records and came close to a third:

1. Most players playing the first 5 games: 8 (breaking the record of 6 set in 1999 and 2008)

2. Most players playing the first 10 games: 5 (breaking the record of 4 set in 1999)

a. We had 6 players with 10 game streaks, good for second place all time (last year, 7 players did this).

Individual records:

1. Dave raised the bar on the old timer record. He didn’t just up the age by one year, he also upped the attendance well over the required minimum “regular” attendance of 5 games to 15, in case a future statistician decides that more games are required to be a “regular” player.

2. Kevin came oh-so-close to being the second player with a perfect attendance season. One business trip put him at 25/26 games, tied for second-highest number of games all time. But Kevin’s streak of 24 straight games to start the season is an all-time record, beating Biller’s 23 in 1997.

3. Speaking of streaks, Kevin had a streak of 27 straight games, counting 3 from last year. That would have been good enough for a tie for second place all time, but Pete added 12 to his season-ending run of 24 game streak last year, for a total of 36 straight. So we have 2nd and 3rd place streakers. Of course, “Iron Man” Bill’s unbeatable streak of 54 from 1995-98 still stands. Another unbeatable record!

This leads to the…

Frequent Attendance Record Trophy (FART)

There was a tie for highest attendance this year, and both players were present at the season-ending party. Party attendees decided that in the case of a returning champ and a new player, the FART should go to the new player. So, Kevin is the keeper of the FART trophy this year. Congratulations, Kevin!

Honorable mention:

1. Pete has now won or co-won the FART award for the last 3 years in a row.

2. Congrats to the 6 streakers with 10+ games in a row: Kevin, Pete, Dale, Bill, Jeff, and Phil. Sam gets an honorable mention because he showed up hurt on his 10th game in a row but decided not to play.

3. Congrats to the 6 super-regular players with 20+ games: Kevin, Pete, Dale, Bob, Bill and Eric. Only an injury kept Richard from getting 20, but he still played 19.

4. Noah and Kit shared the most games for first-year players with 15.

5. Chris had the biggest jump in attendance: from 3 to 15.

Ignoble no-show loser record:

  ·    I didn’t spend too much time on this, but I think Brian set the record for biggest drop in attendance this year. He had 18 games last year, and was a complete no-show this year. Where are you, Brian?

  ·    John C wasn’t much better, dropping from 12 games last year to zip-nada-zilch-nothing-zero-no show this year. Wha?

As always, here is the list of the (32) regular players this season, with 5 or more games played.

FART winners, since its introduction in 1995: