Was at the public park courts tonight for a match, somehow got into an argument

[Moveforwardalways]

So I'm meeting up with a friend to play a match at our local public park tennis courts. We meet at the agreed upon time and as we are getting out of the car, we see that both courts are unoccupied, so we take a minute to catch up, no rush. Then, as we are walking to the court, this guy comes streaking out of nowhere, running onto the court in an exasperated mess carrying two empty water bottles and no tennis gear. He looks like he might be a secretary or personal assistant for an executive, trying to set up for his boss to get there later. Or maybe he was disposing of some old water bottles in the court trash can. Who knows. Then he runs off the court back to his car. We assume he is going back to get chips and sandwiches and whatnot for his boss's tennis picnic, but since his boss isn't here yet, we figure the court isn't officially saved. And why would he care? There are two open courts, no big deal right? Well this guy comes back with his boss's tennis bag and all hell breaks loose. He seemed desperate to reserve this one court as if his job depended on it, even though there was another open one right next to it. We tried to reason with him, saying hey man, empty water bottles don't reserve courts, even if there are two of them. He was so livid we offered to tip him or cover his mileage back to work, which made him even more infuriated. We even offered to help him move his water bottles to the other open court beside us. Then he grabbed his bottles and it got heated. He is going on about "don't you know the USTA code about empty water bottles reserving courts" and we are like "hey man, we are going to start our match now, so thanks for stopping by". Guy eventually played on the court beside us, giving us the evil eye the whole time. Very awkward.

 

[MathGeek]

Life is too short for either the drama or the parodies.

If all the courts are occupied, there are several other options within 15 minutes of where we usually play.

Some have older courts next door that are not as well maintained, with the gates unlocked that I have NEVER seen used.

I'd rather play on a less well maintained court than argue with folks over a spot on the nicest ones.

 

[Turbo-87]

I wonder how many people will take this story seriously?

 

[RetroSpin]

So why didn't you just use the other court? Maybe I missed something.

We learned in an earlier epic thread that one guy cannot hold a court, the exception being if he is a black guy with a bunch of thug friends.

 

[Big_Dangerous]

So I'm meeting up with a friend to play a match at our local public park tennis courts. We meet at the agreed upon time and as we are getting out of the car, we see that both courts are unoccupied, so we take a minute to catch up, no rush. Then, as we are walking to the court, this guy comes streaking out of nowhere, running onto the court in an exasperated mess carrying two empty water bottles and no tennis gear. He looks like he might be a secretary or personal assistant for an executive, trying to set up for his boss to get there later. Or maybe he was disposing of some old water bottles in the court trash can. Who knows. Then he runs off the court back to his car. We assume he is going back to get chips and sandwiches and whatnot for his boss's tennis picnic, but since his boss isn't here yet, we figure the court isn't officially saved. And why would he care? There are two open courts, no big deal right? Well this guy comes back with his boss's tennis bag and all hell breaks loose. He seemed desperate to reserve this one court as if his job depended on it, even though there was another open one right next to it. We tried to reason with him, saying hey man, empty water bottles don't reserve courts, even if there are two of them. He was so livid we offered to tip him or cover his mileage back to work, which made him even more infuriated. We even offered to help him move his water bottles to the other open court beside us. Then he grabbed his bottles and it got heated. He is going on about "don't you know the USTA code about empty water bottles reserving courts" and we are like "hey man, we are going to start our match now, so thanks for stopping by". Guy eventually played on the court beside us, giving us the evil eye the whole time. Very awkward.

Why didn't you just play on the other court next to his? What's the difference if you're on Court 1 or 2? I never understood these people that are like hell bent on playing on a specific court, when adjacent courts are free and it's the exact same surface, net, etc... Those people really bother me sometimes.

I would have asked to see a reservation though. And I would have been like, "look if you weren't actually on the courts prior to us, and you had no reservation for either court, then you can't come bolting out of your car trying to save a specific court, that's ridiculous. Either get on the courts to save one, or pay whatever the fee is and reserve a court for 60 minutes, 90 minutes, etc."

"Those are the ****ing rules!"

 

[Deleted member 23235]

So I'm meeting up with a friend to play a match at our local public park tennis courts. We meet at the agreed upon time and as we are getting out of the car, we see that both courts are unoccupied, so we take a minute to catch up, no rush. Then, as we are walking to the court, this guy comes streaking out of nowhere, running onto the court in an exasperated mess carrying two empty water bottles and no tennis gear. He looks like he might be a secretary or personal assistant for an executive, trying to set up for his boss to get there later. Or maybe he was disposing of some old water bottles in the court trash can. Who knows. Then he runs off the court back to his car. We assume he is going back to get chips and sandwiches and whatnot for his boss's tennis picnic, but since his boss isn't here yet, we figure the court isn't officially saved. And why would he care? There are two open courts, no big deal right? Well this guy comes back with his boss's tennis bag and all hell breaks loose. He seemed desperate to reserve this one court as if his job depended on it, even though there was another open one right next to it. We tried to reason with him, saying hey man, empty water bottles don't reserve courts, even if there are two of them. He was so livid we offered to tip him or cover his mileage back to work, which made him even more infuriated. We even offered to help him move his water bottles to the other open court beside us. Then he grabbed his bottles and it got heated. He is going on about "don't you know the USTA code about empty water bottles reserving courts" and we are like "hey man, we are going to start our match now, so thanks for stopping by". Guy eventually played on the court beside us, giving us the evil eye the whole time. Very awkward.

lol, nice parody.
We should sell official monogrammed ttw water bottles... in bright red letters "Reserved for <fill in initials>".
Perhaps we could even add a small clock on it, to indicate the time the bottles were left, maybe even print "rules" ie. "bottle reservations are good for 60m, or time it takes to get gear from car - whichever is longer".
We can then plant a chip, build an iphone app, that allows folks to see all "bottle reservations" in the area... no more arguing, just check your app. (ironically the app will show all busy courts, but the courts will actually be empty, as most folks will be at their car)

 

[sureshs]

Then, as we are walking to the court, this guy comes streaking out of nowhere, running onto the court

Did you report him to the police?

 

[Turbo-87]

lol, nice parody.
We should sell official monogrammed ttw water bottles... in bright red letters "Reserved for <fill in initials>".
Perhaps we could even add a small clock on it, to indicate the time the bottles were left, maybe even print "rules" ie. "bottle reservations are good for 60m, or time it takes to get gear from car - whichever is longer".
We can then plant a chip, build an iphone app, that allows folks to see all "bottle reservations" in the area... no more arguing, just check your app. (ironically the app will show all busy courts, but the courts will actually be empty, as most folks will be at their car)

The water bottle could have " ... and you can take that to your momma's house" Sorry, just a reference to an epic tennis argument thread last summer. I would SO love to see a compilation of tennis argument drama.

 

[Booger]

Nice aware thread

 

[NTRPolice]

You have encountered a "Court Mayor" in the wild. These creatures tend to treat public facilities as if it's their own private court. They always get this court on Wednesdays, from 6pm to exhaustion and, it must be this court even if there are 4 empty courts directly adjacent to this one.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

You have encountered a "Court Mayor" in the wild. These creatures tend to treat public facilities as if it's their own private court. They always get this court on Wednesdays, from 6pm to exhaustion and, it must be this court even if there are 4 empty courts directly adjacent to this one.

lol, I'm stealing that one.
I've run into a couple before. They are surprisingly quite territorial. One guy tried to reserve TWO courts for his regular doubles match... (he got there an hour before and just sat on his chair to hold the court). reserving one court in this fashion is fine (but questionable), but two? no other courts were available at the time. Additionally, he often leaves (on a public court) a beat up old chair (didn't know it was *his*), so when I put my stuff on it (there are no benches), he dumps everything on the floor without saying a word, and takes the chair. I was incredulous.

 

[the green god]

 

[stapletonj]

get to the court first, take "his" beat up old chair and throw it in the nearest trash can, items left on tennis courts are obviously abandoned and are fair game to be either turned in to lost and found or put in the trash by whoever walks on the court next. When someone is acting like a "Richard", sometimes the best method is to treat them like a "Richard" (although it is not the most Christian way to handle it).

 

[beltsman]

ITT: losers that are too decrepit and slow to get from their car to the court, with a complete lack of reading comprehension to boot.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

get to the court first, take "his" beat up old chair and throw it in the nearest trash can, items left on tennis courts are obviously abandoned and are fair game to be either turned in to lost and found or put in the trash by whoever walks on the court next. When someone is acting like a "Richard", sometimes the best method is to treat them like a "Richard" (although it is not the most Christian way to handle it).

What kind of "Richard"?
- Richard III
- Richie Rich
- Richard Gasquet
- Richard Nixon

...oh, that kind of "Richard".

 

[comeback]

Richard Head

 

[Turbo-87]

Richard Head

Believe it or not, I met an IT consultant a few years ago that had that given name. I have no idea what his parents were thinking. When introducing himself, I think he subconsciously looked to see if you did the Peter Griffin "haha."

 

[movdqa]

Good thing that this was just over a tennis court and not a parking spot in wintry Boston:

• In 2013, South Boston saw two notable parking space violence incidents in less than a week. First, someone used a nail gun to vandalize the car that took his shoveled-out parking space. Later, a 32-year-old man knocked out a 61-year-old man in an old fashioned brawl over a spot on East Eighth Street.
• In 2014, a 64-year-old Brookline woman “went berserk” on another female driver when she parked in an open space on Beacon Street. Joan Finkelstein was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for kicking the other woman, disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct after she allegedly reached into the car of the other driver to attack her. In a separate incident in Revere, a SWAT team responded to a man shooting multiple gunshots in the air during a parking dispute on Fenno Street at 1 a.m.

• The winter of 2015 did not produce an outbreak of street justice, but it still created some more memorable parking disputes. On the same Sunday in Somerville, a woman allegedly attempted to drive over another woman during an altercation over a parking space on Bonair Street, and a man attacked a plow driver with a shovel for pushing snow into his parking spot. Later that year, a 35-year-old Cambridge man was arrested after allegedly threatened a man with not one but two machetes during an argument over a parking space on Cambridge Street. In October, a Boston woman was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Stoughton woman during a dispute over a parking space at the South Shore Plaza.
  
  
  http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2016/01/26/snow-parking-violence-boston/

 

[movdqa]

You have encountered a "Court Mayor" in the wild. These creatures tend to treat public facilities as if it's their own private court. They always get this court on Wednesdays, from 6pm to exhaustion and, it must be this court even if there are 4 empty courts directly adjacent to this one.

Majeure.

I almost always see the term in regards to commodity markets.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Good thing that this was just over a tennis court and not a parking spot in wintry Boston:

• In 2013, South Boston saw two notable parking space violence incidents in less than a week. First, someone used a nail gun to vandalize the car that took his shoveled-out parking space. Later, a 32-year-old man knocked out a 61-year-old man in an old fashioned brawl over a spot on East Eighth Street.
• In 2014, a 64-year-old Brookline woman “went berserk” on another female driver when she parked in an open space on Beacon Street. Joan Finkelstein was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for kicking the other woman, disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct after she allegedly reached into the car of the other driver to attack her. In a separate incident in Revere, a SWAT team responded to a man shooting multiple gunshots in the air during a parking dispute on Fenno Street at 1 a.m.

• The winter of 2015 did not produce an outbreak of street justice, but it still created some more memorable parking disputes. On the same Sunday in Somerville, a woman allegedly attempted to drive over another woman during an altercation over a parking space on Bonair Street, and a man attacked a plow driver with a shovel for pushing snow into his parking spot. Later that year, a 35-year-old Cambridge man was arrested after allegedly threatened a man with not one but two machetes during an argument over a parking space on Cambridge Street. In October, a Boston woman was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Stoughton woman during a dispute over a parking space at the South Shore Plaza.
  
  
  http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2016/01/26/snow-parking-violence-boston/

To be fair, it's because they probably violated this little-known-to-non-boston-folks rule: http://www.wbur.org/news/2015/01/28/space-savers-boston
as a NY'er I'd have violated this rule,... but now I know

 

[movdqa]

To be fair, it's because they probably violated this little-known-to-non-boston-folks rule: http://www.wbur.org/news/2015/01/28/space-savers-boston
as a NY'er I'd have violated this rule,... but now I know

Maybe some folks believe that there's a space-saver rule in tennis, with water bottles or fold-up chairs.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Maybe some folks believe that there's a space-saver rule in tennis, with water bottles or fold-up chairs.

There is a tennis-court-space-saver rule... but only after snow falls
Seriously though, in CT, after snow, some folks are out shovelling the tennis courts... and it's "understood" that everyone knows who shovelled it, and who's entitled to using it.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Maybe some folks believe that there's a space-saver rule in tennis, with water bottles or fold-up chairs.

I think anyone leaving a penguin on a tennis court, should be entitled to reserving it,... for a few minutes anyway.

 

[NTRPolice]

I think anyone leaving a penguin on a tennis court, should be entitled to reserving it,... for a few minutes anyway.

I would also acknowledge a penguin statue as a legitimate placeholder.

I think it would be a good social experiment. If someone were to actually do this, i'd be curious to see how many people would move it so they could play. Put the penguin on the court and put up a sign that says "Reserved: Center for Penguin Migrational Studies"

 

[comeback]

Believe it or not, I met an IT consultant a few years ago that had that given name. I have no idea what his parents were thinking. When introducing himself, I think he subconsciously looked to see if you did the Peter Griffin "haha."

When i worked in the corporate world we used to annonymously leave return phone call messages on newbies desks to callback Richard Head , Richard Wadd or Richard Weed etc

 

[Turbo-87]

When i worked in the corporate world we used to annonymously leave return phone call messages on newbies desks to callback Richard Head , Richard Wadd or Richard Weed etc

You forgot Hugh Jass, Amanda Hugginkiss and Benjamin Dover

 

[Big_Dangerous]

Richard Head

Lol, would to meet these people

Mike Hunt
Anita Cox
Ben Dover
Harry Balzner
Of course anyone named Benoit, for obvious reasons

Fun story: In high school there were two kids in class, one's last name was cox, and the other was cumming. The teacher decided to call role in alphabetical order with the last names. You can imagine how hard we laughed when he said cox and then cumming in succession.

 

[Big_Dangerous]

Good thing that this was just over a tennis court and not a parking spot in wintry Boston:

• In 2013, South Boston saw two notable parking space violence incidents in less than a week. First, someone used a nail gun to vandalize the car that took his shoveled-out parking space. Later, a 32-year-old man knocked out a 61-year-old man in an old fashioned brawl over a spot on East Eighth Street.
• In 2014, a 64-year-old Brookline woman “went berserk” on another female driver when she parked in an open space on Beacon Street. Joan Finkelstein was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon for kicking the other woman, disturbing the peace, and disorderly conduct after she allegedly reached into the car of the other driver to attack her. In a separate incident in Revere, a SWAT team responded to a man shooting multiple gunshots in the air during a parking dispute on Fenno Street at 1 a.m.

• The winter of 2015 did not produce an outbreak of street justice, but it still created some more memorable parking disputes. On the same Sunday in Somerville, a woman allegedly attempted to drive over another woman during an altercation over a parking space on Bonair Street, and a man attacked a plow driver with a shovel for pushing snow into his parking spot. Later that year, a 35-year-old Cambridge man was arrested after allegedly threatened a man with not one but two machetes during an argument over a parking space on Cambridge Street. In October, a Boston woman was arrested for allegedly assaulting a Stoughton woman during a dispute over a parking space at the South Shore Plaza.
  
  
  http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2016/01/26/snow-parking-violence-boston/

Well didn't some kids shoot this other kid's dad over a baseball hat.. I heard that story a couple weeks ago on SportsCenter that 3 kids were picking on this one kid, and they took his hat. So the boy went to his dad and his dad confronted the kids just to get the hat back, and they shot him. Over a ****ing hat?!

Edit: Found the article

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...ing-brooklyn-dad-stolen-hat-article-1.2758341

 

[Cindysphinx]

There's too much drama in men's tennis.

 

[sureshs]

Lol, would to meet these people

Mike Hunt
Anita Cox
Ben Dover
Harry Balzner
Of course anyone named Benoit, for obvious reasons

Fun story: In high school there were two kids in class, one's last name was cox, and the other was cumming. The teacher decided to call role in alphabetical order with the last names. You can imagine how hard we laughed when he said cox and then cumming in succession.

The unintended pun was funnier!

 

[mmk]

Lol, would to meet these people

Mike Hunt
Anita Cox
Ben Dover
Harry Balzner
Of course anyone named Benoit, for obvious reasons

Fun story: In high school there were two kids in class, one's last name was cox, and the other was cumming. The teacher decided to call role in alphabetical order with the last names. You can imagine how hard we laughed when he said cox and then cumming in succession.

When I was in high school there was a kid at the other end of the block named Harry Self. And a couple of years ago we had a guy at work whose last name was Dill, and his work was taken over by a guy whose last name was Do. My boss decided to put together a presentation with showing who was working on what, and being the kind of guy he is, put Dill-Do for their efforts.

 

[Dakota C]

So I'm meeting up with a friend to play a match at our local public park tennis courts. We meet at the agreed upon time and as we are getting out of the car, we see that both courts are unoccupied, so we take a minute to catch up, no rush. Then, as we are walking to the court, this guy comes streaking out of nowhere, running onto the court in an exasperated mess carrying two empty water bottles and no tennis gear. He looks like he might be a secretary or personal assistant for an executive, trying to set up for his boss to get there later. Or maybe he was disposing of some old water bottles in the court trash can. Who knows. Then he runs off the court back to his car. We assume he is going back to get chips and sandwiches and whatnot for his boss's tennis picnic, but since his boss isn't here yet, we figure the court isn't officially saved. And why would he care? There are two open courts, no big deal right? Well this guy comes back with his boss's tennis bag and all hell breaks loose. He seemed desperate to reserve this one court as if his job depended on it, even though there was another open one right next to it. We tried to reason with him, saying hey man, empty water bottles don't reserve courts, even if there are two of them. He was so livid we offered to tip him or cover his mileage back to work, which made him even more infuriated. We even offered to help him move his water bottles to the other open court beside us. Then he grabbed his bottles and it got heated. He is going on about "don't you know the USTA code about empty water bottles reserving courts" and we are like "hey man, we are going to start our match now, so thanks for stopping by". Guy eventually played on the court beside us, giving us the evil eye the whole time. Very awkward.

This was great to read, it was easy to visualize and made me laugh.