A tongue-in-cheek look at an emerging sport

“Ultimate:…“Ultimate: The Greatest Sport Ever Invented by Man” By: Pasquale Anthony Leonardo Breakaway Books

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“Ultimate: The Greatest Sport Ever Invented by Man” might have a rather presumptuous title. Really, author Pasquale Anthony Leonardo should have gone for it all: “Ultimate: The Greatest Book in Existence About the Greatest Sport Ever Invented by Man.” The question is, will readers who don’t play Ultimate agree?

Contrary to what anyone might tell you, that second title isn’t too long. You will have a better sense of descriptive titles after reading about this “team flying-disc field-running sport,” also known as a “game-like fun-playing sport activity,” or Ultimate Frisbee. Don’t actually say “Ultimate Frisbee,” though – that would be dorky. Just say “Ultimate.”

Leonardo’s book offers insight into the mysterious community of Ultimate players whom college campuses are supposedly known for.

Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know that Ultimate was an essential part of college life – Pitt is, after all, only listed by Leonardo as a school where “Ultimate doesn’t suck,” as opposed to schools such as Stanford and The University of Colorado, both home to thriving Ultimate scenes. If you’re still feeling guilty, this book will help you make up for lost time.

But don’t get ahead of yourself, either. Just because you read this book about Ultimate doesn’t mean you can walk onto the 120-by-40-yard field and break with Pitt’s best, even if you do know what breaking is (a throw past the defender marking you).

You need years of grueling practice before you reach champ status. Unfortunately, the book breaks down here: It offers little in the way of teaching readers how to play.

Sure, there’s a glossary of terms in the back as well as tips and strategies smattered throughout the chapters. If you’re skilled at calculus, logic or Sudoku, you can piece together how to play the game based on the rules presented.

After watching someone play Ultimate, you might think it’s an easy game to learn, but Leonardo holds otherwise.

While he outlines the mechanics of the game, Leonardo’s true focus is the anthropological study of Ultimate culture. This includes important things like what kinds of players exist (jocks, oddballs, engineers), the spirit of the game, how to hook up with other Ultimate players and how much beer a Frisbee disc can hold.

The most useful sections are on common nicknames and how to play ro-sham-bo, a fancy name for rock-paper-scissors.

Almost the entire book reads with such tongue-in-cheek humor. Does Leonardo really believe that Ultimate is the greatest sport ever invented by man? It’s hard to say. He has been playing since 1988 and previously co-wrote a history about the game in 2005, titled “Ultimate: The First Four Decades.”

In other words, he seems pretty ardent about the sport in real life. The explanations presented of the game and its history are mostly factual, such as the timeline.

However, since it would be unfair to compare “Ultimate” to an instruction manual, any inconsistencies here aren’t a big problem.

What is a problem, though, is that Leonardo doesn’t take the humor far enough. The “Ultimate” reader gets the impression that a few funny jokes started the whole book, and everything else was a tag-along. That, and a lot of the humor, goes over the heads of non-participants in Ultimate culture.

This seems likely, given all the lingo that flies across the pages and the proliferation of “you had to be there” jokes.

That’s a shame, because the book seems geared toward newcomers: There’s a question and answer section and a thorough presentation of the Ultimate party hierarchy.

But the informative paragraphs lack this humorous punch. The casual reader might be better served by stealing “Ultimate” from a friend’s bookshelf, yet readers who are familiar with the Ultimate scene will appreciate the book more fully.

If you’re interested enough to pick up a copy, then you probably won’t need the title to persuade you that Ultimate is the best sport invented by man.