Back in the day when I was a teenager we played church softball. I have always played in the outfield because, as any Snyder will tell, we hate the infield because of the thought of taking a ball to the chops. We are famous for the mitt down-head turned short hop play. Wusses, perhaps, but our teeth are still intact. Carl did pitch, though, and was very good at it. In church ball we took regions undefeated two years in a row with a perfect regular season. In area championship play, which took in all of the Bay Area in CA we did exceptionally well, too. My shot was always right over the 2nd baseman's head.
Fast forward a couple decades and I am still in the outfield for the same reasons, though my teeth could use a good knocking out! It has been fun running around and diving for balls; I have even caught a number of them. Last night if I had made the catch on a screaming line drive that was tailing away from me I would have been on the ESPN highlight reel. But it hit the tip of my mitt and bounced out. Crap.
The problem I have is I cannot hit to anywhere but left field now days. I don't know why!?! It is very frustrating.
Last night's tournament game was fun and we had a good crowd of spouses and friends cheering us on. Thomas Grover, our only lefty, has been the only person on the team to nail the yellow foul pole. He was able to burn around the bases for a home run. It was great.
But alas, we were ripped off by some extremely crappy calls by an ump who obviously had a great relationship with the other team. (I bet they went and got Slurpees after the game and had a good chuckle!) We ended up losing by 2 runs. We play again tomorrow night for the men's team. Tonight is the co-ed team. We have already lost 1 game, so if we lose tonight we are done. So, I will be sweatin' in the outfield again this evening.
Maybe the Softball Gods will let me hit to center field.
Or not.
They're probably drinking Slurpees and mocking me.
3 comments:
Snyd, thanks for the shout out. I will point out that your outfield mate, Ryan Christensen, is also a lefty.
Here's to right center hitting!
There comes a point in every man's life that he says to himself, "CRAP" because he totally mishit the ball and sucked it up. Maybe we should start a club and the only way in is to have a called third strike or a pop out to the infield. We will call the club, "A League of Their Own." CRAP, that was a girl's movie.
I forgot about Ryan! His loud a raucous nature made me forget him. (Ryan is the quietest guy you'll meet)
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