Merciless Tigers

Merciless Tigers FC

At last, meet your amateur rec-league soccer team, The Merciless Tigers FC of Cincinnati, OH, pictured above in their “indoor” configuration. Snafus with two outdoor leagues have left them stuck indoors for the time being, though there’s still hope they might lace up their cleats this season. A co-ed indoor team is also in the works. In the meantime, they’re holding down third place (of 9 teams) in the Blue Division of the indoor league, after a 7-5 win Monday night (a double-brace for Pat and a hat trick for Steve H.). Allez les tigres sans pitié!

2SB/MT soccer jerseys: last chance

MTsew.jpg

As mentioned last week, pre-orders of the Merciless Tigers FC/ 2strokebuzz soccer jerseys were much higher than anticipated. All pre-orders have now shipped, and it turns out we have only four shirts left, size XL only (they run a bit small, but not ridiculously so). We created a numbered limited edition of 50, 22 of which went to the team, and these are the last four available, ever. They’re high-quality high-tech jerseys with a silkscreened 2sb logo on the front, silkscreened number on the back, and an embroidered MTFC patch lovingly sewn on by Vina’s mom (left). Does Arsenal’s grandma sew their patches on? We bet not! All orders include a certificate of authenticity and an extra patch for your shorts or rally jacket. Support 2sb and the Tigers, snatch one up while they last. (JERSEYS ARE NOW SOLD OUT, thanks for your support!) The team received them for this weekend’s match, photos and news coming soon. Thanks very much, Busia and everyone who pre-ordered. Keep an eye out for an all-new 2sb t-shirt, coming soon.

Merciless Tigers: Good and bad news

Merciless Tigers FC Jersey

The good news: after a UPS snafu, we got our Merciless Tigers FC/2strokebuzz jersey patches yesterday, and we’re in the process of sewing them on the jerseys, so jerseys will ship this weekend. And they look really, really, great. The team (and you) will love them.

The bad news: They’re sold out. Our pre-order pricing was so successful, the slackers who waited to pay full price won’t get one. There may be a few left after I sort through the orders again, check back early next week, I’ll post if/when they’re available, which is a good reason as any to subscribe to 2sb RSS. And next time, order quickly! (new 2sb merchandise coming very soon). Thanks again to everyone who ordered, more news about the team soon.

2sb jerseys in!

10787.JPGWe got the Merciless Tigers/2strokebuzz soccer jerseys in, a little earlier than expected, and they’re much nicer than i expected, so preorder for sure, I’m definitely going to jack the price up on Thursday. They’re a little different than I illustrated them, but better, the silver trim on the neck also goes around the edge of the sleeves, and the mesh (the dark grey area in the drawing is mesh) actually crosses under the front and back of the shirt, “mesh” sounds dumb, I know, but trust me, it’s cool. The screenprinting is very nicely done, too, and they’re not cut as small/tight as I’d feared. I’ll post a photo ASAP. The bad news is the Merciless Tigers FC patches (left, click to enlarge) aren’t going to arrive until next Monday, and then we have to sew them on. So the finished shirts should ship on or around the 20th. Thanks for all your support.

UPDATE: I’m keeping them at the presale price until Friday, at which time I’ll post some photos and you’ll realize how cool they are and wish you’d ordered one earlier. And MTFC played their first match last week (naked, I suppose), a 3-nil win over Macedonians after a fight broke out in the second half and the game was forfeited. Oh, yeah.

Merciless Tigers 2sb jersey preorder

Merciless Tigers Jersey

2strokebuzz is proud to announce our sponsorship of the 2007-08 Merciless Tigers Football Club. The Tigers are the 2strokebuzz of Cincinnati rec-league soccer; they’re getting kinda old and they play a little sloppy, but they’re proud, entertaining and fun to drink with. We’ll feature Tigers news, profiles, match reports, and maybe come up with a few terrace chants, and in turn, they’ll advertise 2strokebuzz to the world, or at least anyone in a public park in the Cincinnati suburbs at 9am Saturdays.

What this means for you is that you can finally buy a 2sb soccer jersey and help not only your favorite scooter site, but also your new favorite amateur football team. We’ve ordered only 50 jerseys, the team will have first dibs, leaving the rest up for sale here. The jerseys are black hi-tech synthetic colorfast fabric with silver trim at the neck and a breathable mesh section under the arms and down the sides. They feature an embroidered Merciless Tigers patch (featuring the Tigers’ mascot “Tuff Gnarl”) on the left chest, the 2strokebuzz logo silkscreened in white on the center, and the number printed in white on the back.

The jerseys will be delivered in mid-September, but we’re offering them for presale now at an earlybird price. For a mere $38, you can be among the first (and very few) to own this fashionable piece of scootering, soccer, and drinking history. We can’t promise any specific numbers (and single-digits are traditionally worn by the team) but we’ll try to accommodate your request. The preorder deadline is September 12, two weeks from today, then the price goes up-up-up. Preorders also get an extra “Tuff Gnarl” patch for your shorts, jacket, or sweatshirt. Order 2 or more jerseys and get free shipping. Remember, only 50 are being made, so only 25-30 jerseys are available to 2sb readers.

SHIRTS ARE SOLD OUT, thanks for your support!
Meet the team!

Thanks for your support!

Chicago rides/events

  • From Dan Epstein: “If the weather doesn’t suck and your luck holds out on Friday the 13th, let’s meet for a shortish ride this Saturday, 14 April. Meet at Atomix, 1957 West Chicago, near Damen, at 9:30 AM.” The weather doesn’t look too promising, but there’s hope.
  • There will be a Slaughterhouse Rally planning meeting at The Globe on Irving Park Ave., this Wednesday (April 18, 2007) at 8pm. If you’re planning to attend the City of Chicago Scooterist Roundtable next month, try to come Wednesday, I’m meeting Charles Roesner earlier next week and I’ll hopefully have more information so we can prepare for the meeting.
  • Hell’s Fairies’ “Spring Roll,” their first ride of ’07, is Sunday, April 29th at 11am. (more info).
  • Scooterist and ChiTown Siren Michelle Booth is organizing a ride around the Siren’s May 6 match, “Quadrophilia.” Save the date and watch for more details, but the current plan is a mods v. rockers ride to the Cobra Lounge (Ashland and Grand) then a “party bus” to the bout (in Calumet City) and back. If you’re interested, email Kathy.

News particles, February 10, 2007

More news from the past week:

  • Kymco Canada is teaming up with Motoress to attract more Canadian women to scootering. Both parties seem to think the way to attract women to scootering is to glam it up, which is their prerogative, but that tack seems a little superficial and patronizing to me.
  • A few stories covering Italy’s soccer ban cited the famous May, 2001 incident where Atalanta supporters snuck a Lambretta into the San Siro and dropped it off the balcony onto AC Milan fans. Yeah, that’s not very good security.
  • Scooter backlash and vandalism is out of control at the University of Florida, scooterists blame the lack of scooter-specific parking.
  • Speaking of Florida and smashed scooters, even Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy aren’t safe, their bike was smashed up while they ate (and copiously made out) in a Miami restaurant.

The Chicago Cycle World International Motorcycle Show is this weekend, stories and photos coming soon.

Zidane, McBride, Larsson reject Fire offers

Eager to mimic the Galaxy’s Beckham coup, the Chicago Fire have been turned down by two aging European superstars and the pride of Arlington Heights, IL. The team vowed to instead find a highly-rated hispanic or polish player to appeal to their core fans. The only thing more embarassing than signing Zidane is being rejected by Zidane. Why do I get the feeling this will end with Teddy Sheringham being dragged out of retirement? Sigh. (Thanks, Andrew.)

Cheer up, Peter Reid…

This one’s for M5, complaining about the recent lack of football news on 2sb: Sunderland’s 19-year-old goalkeeper, Ben Alnwick, hit a teenage girl on a Piaggio scooter with his Range Rover yesterday morning. Alnwick was questioned and released, the girl went to the hospital on a stretcher. Amazingly, among the witnesses was Graham Poll, who presented the scooterist with a yellow card for her blatant dive.

Big Ben loses more respect

FOX Sports reports that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not get involved in any safety advocacy campaigns, instead, he will make excuses (“my helmet was in the basement!”) whine about how hard it is to “live life under a microscope” and let people “make their own decisions.” My decision is to abandon my 30+ years of Pittsburgh Steelers fandom because their quarterback is no better than your average gun-toting, date-raping NFL felon.

Garelli’s Gilardino bet pays off

A few weeks ago, 2sb poked fun at Garelli’s decision to hire Alberto Gilardino as a spokesperson, especially in light of Suzuki bringing in Alessandro Del Piero as “Mr. Burgman. Now that the Cup is over, we are eating our words, Gilardino played more minutes, and roughly equalled Del Piero’s stats. Assuming (surely) Del Piero cost Suzuki a good deal more than Garelli paid Gilardino, Garelli got quite a bargain. (We ignore the fact that Del Piero is a worldwide household name and we’d never heard of Gilardino before June):

GILARDINO Alberto (GARELLI)

MP MinP GF PG A SOG S FRE YC RC FS
5 304 1 0 1 6 8 0 0 0 9

DEL PIERO Alessandro (SUZUKI)

MP MinP GF PG A SOG S FRE YC RC FS
5 172 1 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 5