Behavior. I don't know what it is... probably a combination of things - the holiday season, nearing playoffs, whatever - but there's been an uptick in reasonably serious sportsmanship related issues reported to me. Two from last night alone (that I'm aware of so far). I really do my best to deal with these matters fairly and privately... but if we need to have a public hanging to get the point across that poor sportsmanship is not tolerated in this league, then we'll have a public hanging. It's a metaphor, people... relax (I know some of you are cheering and naming names right now).

The bottom line is this: I know you all like to play. I know it's competition and it's serious (more so for some than others). I also know that not everyone is going to get along perfectly when we're dealing with a group of a few hundred people. Everyone has a different situation, but you all know yourselves. You may have a touch of denial at times... but deep down, you know yourselves and you know right from wrong - if you have found that things get out of hand after six beers... maybe try to survive a league night with only five beers. Or maybe add some actual solid food to that six beer meal. If certain people "trigger" you - either get over it, or avoid them, or put a smiley face on and act professional around them... bottom line is your behavior is on you. As most of you know, I do the best I can to dig to the root cause of a situation - but that does NOT excuse inappropriate "reactions" or retributions. If you need to step outside (by yourself to get a breath of fresh air), do it.

Team Captains... team mates... let's all work together to keep your team mates / friends under control. As I mentioned above, we are coming up to the end of the session, which means playoffs and TriCups are coming up soon. Is it a fair assumption that you'd like to play with a full team in those playoffs and TriCups? Team mates don't let team mates get suspended. And I don't mean to "cover" for them - I mean to be involved and do what you can to prevent the situations in the first place. "Covering" for a team mate is not appreciated, does not help the overall situation and will also be duly noted. Yes, I have made notes about people who have lied to me in an attempt to cover for a team mate. I've also made notes about people who told the truth, even though it was about a team mate. I very much appreciate and respect the latter.

I'm going long here, so I'll wrap it up. I'm sure some of you didn't even make it this far. I appreciate those of you who have. Share your Reader's Digest version of this with your short attention span friends. I would very much like to keep everyone playing, but I absolutely do not have an obligation to do so. I can and will suspend or eject people from the league if necessary. You've been warned - in some cases, more than once.