THE CHAMPION'S FORUM

2009 Master Champion - Adam Meyer

It was Monday February 23rd, 2008. I had already made up my mind that I was not coming to California to play in the Masters Tournament. I did not want to spend the money to fly out to LAX and more importantly, the recovery period of flying to LAX from Philadelphia and then returning to Philadelphia after a short weekend would kill me! Two weeks prior I was in Daytona Beach so I had already briefly been away from the cold weather. While I was in Daytona Beach my brother and I made a couple of friends. One of the people we where hanging out with worked for US Airways. On Monday evening the 23rd of February I was speaking with last years Champion Perry. He started talking about how I should try and find a way out there. All of a sudden I remembered my taxes where not done yet, and my CPA is located in Southern California. I made mention that maybe I might be able to find a good deal to get out to California after all!

The very next day I started to check out flights. I found a few Non-Stop flights on guess where? US Air. I texted my friend and asked if Non-Stop truly meant Non-Stop. She replied to me and said yes there are no touchdowns. Truly a Non-Stop Flight! She said maybe I can get you on with a Buddy Pass which would cut my price down dramatically. Only bad news is you’ll have to travel Standby-by. I immediately reached out to my California CPA and wanted to see if there where any appointments open for Friday the 27th of February. Fortunately there were open appointments. I made sure that I could miss work on Friday and most of Thursday, and made shit happen!

I landed in California on Thursday 2-26-08 with hopes of great weather and not screwing up on my appointment time with my CPA.  Pass the Pigs was the furthest thought from my mind. I knew I also had to pick up Perry from the LAX Friday morning. I picked up Perry, had some lunch and made my CPA appointment later in the afternoon and hung out with some good friends Friday night in the lovely Newport Beach and came back to LA later that evening. A special thanks to Mark Rago for his hospitality and the usage of his automobile!

THE DAY OF THE PIGS

I went to the Pigs on Saturday early afternoon at the lovely hotel in Hollywood that Gary Williams so graciously put together. Gary did an awesome job with coordinating this event. Everyone involved did. There is a lot of coordinating involved through this event. I give high praise to everyone involved! My head was still not in the game. All I could think of leading up to the Pigs Masters is how I could blow this day off without upsetting anyone. I mean it was 80 something degrees outside, and I am about to spend a day in a hotel with a bunch of dudes! Was not my dream of how the trip would be?

We tipped off the event a bit after 2:30pm. My strategy was to not dive in head first. If I am going to have a chance of winning on this Saturday, I need to keep my eyes open and see who is on a HOT Streak and who was not!  I know everyone there definitely had Mad Pig Skills. I started off playing people that might not be on that particular Hot Streak. So it began, and I started off 6-0. I then did not want to rush into the next match. I wanted to take my sweet time all day. Which I definitely did! Another part of my strategy this year was, I passed the pigs more often than usual. Most of the time I have these high expectations of getting to 20 plus on the opening rolls. I lowered my expectations and it helped me out to win more than usual. I did plenty of officiating to kill time. Each time I was ready to play I slowly faced my next opponent. I kept on winning. There where 3 people that did help contribute to my 11 losses. Rich, Bill and John Coscia. I was very relieved to see them not make it through to the playoffs. If I forgot to mention someone else that beat me, it was not deliberate, I honestly forget!

Due to my amazing record of 19 and 11, I had a first round bye. I then had the pleasure of knocking off my good friend and former Master Champion Perry Day to make it to the Final Round/Championship. My opponent was Autograph Mike. I had fortunately defeated him earlier in the afternoon. Mike was one of the original Members of this League. I did not take him lightly, especially since his wife kicked my butt back in the Madness Tournament this previous summer on my opening game.

We faced off and just like my Madness Championship in the summer of 2007 it was one big blur. I somehow won, however it was a fight. I am very happy that I was able to win a Masters. I am also happy I did not blow off the tournament and lay on the beach all day. I fortunately had great weather Sunday. I most definitely took advantage of it.

SINCERELY,

ADAM MEYER

MASTERS CHAMPION OF THE NATIONAL PASS THE PIGS LEAGUE.