Mike Vaccaro

Mike Vaccaro

Sports

The winning team New York deserves … plays Ultimate

So you’re a baseball fan in the Big Town, and your choices are this: a slow swim at sea level with the Yankees, waiting for more ankles to crackle and hammies to pop; or a rattling train ride to nowhere with the Mets, who look like they may somehow score 50 runs more than their opponents and win 10 games fewer …

You’re a football fan, and they’re about to open the padlocks on training camp sites, and you find yourself talking to yourself a lot, talking yourself into Geno Smith, talking yourself into the Giants’ new and improved offensive line, talking yourself out of the dueling 8-8s that are inevitably careening our way …

You’re a Knicks fan and you’re exhausted. You’re a Nets fan and you’re disgusted. You’re a Rangers fan, and you can’t believe a month has passed since Ryan McDonough clinked one off the post in OT in L.A. …

“We know the responsibility we have,” Matt Stevens says.

He laughs, but it’s true: If you are a sports fan in the Big Town, and you’ve grown a little weary of the relentless mediocrity that has crept into our city, there is an outlier wearing a “NEW YORK” jersey that will be playing an actual honest-to-goodness playoff game Saturday night within the city’s borders, and they are worth your time and your attention.

A home game at Coney Island’s MCU ParkaVoceBehindTheLens

“It is the best city in the United States,” Ben Ivers says, “and it’s a privilege to represent New York City in such an important game.”

Stevens and Ivers are key members of the New York Empire, the local entry in the American Ultimate Disc League, and Saturday night they will host the Chicago Wildfire in quarterfinal playoff game at Randall’s Island Field 10, and for 10 bucks you can watch a team wearing the city’s vestments try to put Second City back in its place, and if you want to think about scoffing at that and making Frisbee jokes and Doritos jokes, let me ask you this:

When’s the last time the Jets hosted a playoff game?

aVoceBehindTheLens
The Mets?

“Honestly, one of the best things about playing in this league, and on this team, is that when people come to the games, it’s fun for us to watch just how much fun they always seem to have,” says Ivers, 25, an Indianapolis native and Indiana University alum who now calls Stamford home and has a day job as a marketing consultant.

They all have day jobs. Stevens, also 25, who lives in Greenwich, is a real estate and construction manager for properties from New York to Albany, which pays the bills. But on Wednesdays, when they practice, and on weekends, when they play for real, they are part of the Empire, and they take on teams such as the DC Breeze and the Philadelphia Dragons and their nemesis, the Toronto Rush (through whom they’ll inevitably have to go if they want to be champions).

They don’t do this entirely for the love of the game.

“But you won’t see any of us playing Ultimate full-time, either,” Ivers said, “although, God, I wish I could.”

The players each have equity in their respective teams, and the amount they get paid every week is largely dependent upon how many folks they can attract to the game. Some of them make as much as $100 per game, which is around what Jacoby Ellsbury earned in the time it took you to read this sentence.

“But look,” says Stevens, who first took up the game while he was a student at Miami of Ohio. “We love what we do. And I think that comes across.”

The New York EmpireaVoceBehindTheLens

Some of the Empire are locals, like Stevens, some have been drawn to the area, like Ivers, some simply come and live together in the city and work odd jobs and live for the weekends, when they get to play what really is the ultimate – pardon the pun – team sport.

“We don’t have a superstar,” Stevens said. “Just a lot of guys who cover each other and take pride in playing the game well.”

He paused.

“And take pride in playing for New York.”

How many times have you wanted to hear a Met say that, or a Jet, or a Knick … and, you know, mean it?