DARTS ARE LIKE RACE HORSES

Jamie Donovan is a strapping Irish guy who works at a Midtown bar. He must be 6'3 or more, but you'd never think of him as a dart player. Pool player, Yes! Dart player, No! He's actually a recovering pool player. One day at his pub in Harlem, someone challenged him and his friend to a game of darts. He had no idea what he was doing, but shot a nearly perfect game. From that point on, he was hooked.

But, this story isn't really about Jamie, it's more about the game of darts or should I say, the names of the teams of people who play darts in leagues across the city. Like pool, bars recruit people who want to organize teams to shoot darts. They compete against each other for the opportunity to win prizes and bragging rights.



Jamie wanted to show off how well his team was doing, so he presented me with a sheet of rankings. He's on an "A" team. The better you are, the higher the rating, all the way down to a "C", the least experienced and quite frankly, the worst players.



The names of the teams kind of caught me off guard. They reminded me of race horse names. His current team is the FUBARS. Not very exciting. His former team was the "The Arrowmen." They dissolved and formed the "The Arrowmen Resurrected." Now, the team is known as the "The Arrowmen Return," a completely new team that wanted to boast about their roots, but with a completely new set of faces. Jamie doesn't play for them anymore.

Back to the list. I was amazed at how much these teams sounded like race horses, but at the same time, captured the sport of darts very cleverly.



Poison Dart Frogs, Point Whores, Dart bags, Britney's Spears (my favorite), Starving Dartists, Flight Club (get it, in the air, flight). Then there were a few that were just off the wall and sounded more like the horses: Throw Like A Girl, Psychotic Eskimos and the team that didn't care about playing Darts, but just wanted to drink, "Makers Mark." But, then again, even that name had an association of sorts to Darts.

James says the first few games he played before joining a league were all about money. Five dollars here. 20-dollars there. $100 bucks for a game or two.



Now, he could care less about the money and he no longer gambles on darts. He's on a team now...and whether you like it or not, the RUBARS (again I don't get it) are number one.