Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

We went to see the hometown crew, the Bleeding Heartland Flatliners, in their match with Louisville this Saturday nite, what a hoot. I know 3 members of the team, X Libras, Truly F Obvious, and Unicoroner, but had never made it to a match.

The match was held at the Sportsplex on West Second St., what an enormous building. We arrived on time, but the parking lot was filled and we had to park at Twin Lakes. Now I expected this to be the rough and ready tattoo and piercing crew, and they were there, but the mix was much broader. To my surprise the first two people I ran into while parking were Michael Hoff and John Fernandez. so I knew something was going. Later I learned that a leading jammer (don’t ask) and soccer star, is related to Steve Fergeson. So the home town crowd was there in full force, the people you see in Bloomington in the summer are the real homers.

Tony Brewer was one of the three announcers, and he explained the rules before the start, but it went over my head, I guess, because once the match started, I couldn’t stop laughing, I just did not understand what was going on, but it was fast and furious, with each two minute “race” starting just half a minute after the end of the previous one, with a new batch of rollergirls off the bench, and new blocker and jammer. (Blockers are self-explanatory, but the Jammers are the one that the team tries to put out front (they start back from the crowd.) Here is a video of a lap or two, you can hear the crowd and feel the bumps. The gym was rocking for 2.5 hours, they even had a halftime show (with $2.00 beer!)

This event is recommended to one and all, there were plenty of families with kids, oldsters, youngster, and everyone in between. This is bread and circuses for the homies, with a very feminist feel to it, quite the show, I felt proud to be a Hoosier, when I could finally stop laughing.

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