put me in, coach

i'm ready to play!

today!

soo.... yesterday. umm, yeah. we had our first softball game last night. i was super dooper dreading it because of the heat, but when we got to the field, it wasn't that horrible. AND, for the record, well... everything needs to be recorded:

so we joined a financial services softball league this year ("we" = my company). we're a young company (average age is potentially lower than 30) and innovative and we like to have fun. i'm on the charitable contributions committee which is sponsoring the team (because our committee is kind of also the "social" committee - our main goal (while volunteering and donating) is to get employees involved) and so i've kind of been helping get people amped to join the team. our first game was supposed to be in may. there are 8 teams in our league (or maybe 10?) and our games rotate nights - one night it might be on tuesday and the next week it might be thursday and the week after friday. so its pretty inconsistent, BUT we have at least 20 people who signed up to play, so we never thought it would be an issue getting people to the games (we need 10 players).

i think i've mentioned this before, but we have not played a SINGLE game this year. we have had 4 or 5 rainouts, one game where we had to forfeit because we didn't have enough people (4 of whom are in my team and we were all in vermont for an off-site event) and one game we got all geared up to play and found out the day of the game that the league hadn't reserved our field for that day, so we didn't actually have a game. so its almost the end of summer and we have never played. last night was our first game and we actually played!

and here is how we did... you have to have at least 2 women on the team and you can have 10 people in the outfield. its slow pitch softball and i'm not sure how competitive the league is. we are not a competitive firm. we had 5 women last night at the game. and 5 men. in fact, two of our players CAME to the game FROM vacation - like, they LEFT their vacation just to come ot the game because we weren't going to have enough players otherwise. this was kind of a shock, but maybe not since it IS a "holiday" week... so, anyway, 5 women, one of whom is me (i have NEVER EVER played softball before - up until mid-may i had never thrown a ball and up until 2 weeks ago i had never swung a bat (and even then it was a "cricket" bat (and would you guess that i am ACTUALLY pretty GOOD at cricket??))). so that is just a summary of our team. we get to the field and there are about 12 30-year old, in-shape, fit men on the other team. one girl. since they ddin't have enough girls, we were given at least one out per inning to "even it out." (i'm trying not to think aobut the implication that, of course, a WOMAN will get an OUT - whatever.)

i was super worried about not being able to throw the ball. so we practice beforehand and i caught a ton of balls! AND i threw them back to my partner. i was pretty damn good.

so we start. the other team bats first. i'm the catcher. after the 3rd player, there was a play at home base and i forgot to get the ball that was thrown at me. oops. i was worried about being run over by the runner. so, that was my first mistake. after that, the pitcher kept running in to home to help me out. kind of embarrassing, but whatever. we put most of our "good" players in the in-field because its slow-pitch softball, i guess. the assumption is that all the plays are in the in-field? anyway, the plays were not. ALL of the batters hit to the WAY out-field. in fact, they might've hit to the OTHER field. after the first 9 batters, we got our first (default) out. then another 9 batters - 2nd default out. if you're keeping score, this means, YES, EVERY player scored. not necessarily a home run, but they hit home plate. after another 2 or 3 players, we caught a pop-fly to get our 3rd out. great start to the game. yes, it is easily 20-0.

so w'ere up to bat and i was batting 5 or 6. we had 4 hitters and 3 outs. no runs. we officially suck.

we switched up our players to put the better players in the outfield and they put me in right field. we got considerably better after that, but they still scored a few runs on us every inning. when it was my turn to bat, i hit the ball but did not make it to first before they got me out. oh well. i think i was the 2nd out and right after me was the 3rd. no scoring.

after that, the other team switched to batting left-handed. AND they would only run 2 bases at a time. err - jog. they would only jog two bases at a time. they DEF stopped playing as aggressively and enjoyed their beers (of which we had none). i think they mercy-ruled us after the 5th inning. no one knows the score. 30+ to nothing. it was really fun, but man, we sucked.

i went home and made dinner which included chopping up some red peppers. i cleaned up the kitchen, ate dinner while watching the big c and then took a shower. after my shower i took my contacts out and BURNED my eyes. i have no idea how. obviously it was the peppers, but i dont understand - i have NEVER had issues with regular peppers before. i ended up taking the other contact out with a tissue because i was afraid of hurting the other eye.

so... all in all, weird day. crappy game. went back to the office afterward. burned my eye. and super hot out.

i'll get better, though, right??