The old ballgame

back in 2001, i had a pretty rough month in May.
Two trips to the ER, within weeks of each other...

one such trip, the second one, really, was because of an incident during a softball game. I was playing right field, and it was during a night game. A pop-fly was coming round that and i basically had it. well, except for the fact that i was possibly impatient, or just wondering, where the hell is the ball? so, although i had the glove waiting, i wondered where is the ball. i move the glove, WHAM... softball gets my lip, i'm bleeding, and the temporary tooth tht was there in place of the tooth i'd lost 2 weeks prior got knocked out. Go figure. didn't hurt anything else, teethwise...just that one tooth. that was my last game for awhile.

2 yrs later, the team needed someone to fill in. i got my cleats and glove out of retirement a few games, and actually did alright. i'm not a power-hitter, so i won't fool myself swinging for the fences. what i DO like to do is aim for the holes in the defense, get on base, and advance runners if possible. And for the most part, i'm pretty consistent when it comes to getting on base.
during this stint, i was on first, RRowland was up to bat, and he can hit decent, but i run much faster. well, he hit the ball around shortstop and 2nd, and i'm making my way to second. Rob was prolly gonna get thrown out so I basically slid into second. Note: I've played soccer more than anything in my life, so when I slide, it's basically to slide tackle. So, I slid towards 2nd, and the 2nd baseman tried to get a throw off to 1st, but I'd gotten him good enough that he never got to make that throw. Not so much a dirty tactic, it was a clean slide. Rob was safe :)

Enter 2/28/06. We didn't have class this Tuesday so I'd volunteered to play. The usual comments about, "oh, he's going to hurt himself again", etc etc came up. I roll with the jibs, but you know...I'd only been hurt once, and I wasn't the oly trip to the ER. Jim's gotten hurt several times, and he also took stitches. Randy ran to the backfield to catch a ball, and ran into the fence. Only thing is, he didn't run towards the fence that would bend, he ran into the pole. Falco was waiting for a grounder on 1st. It took a funny hop and pegged him on the forehead. Stacey got on on the ankle on a mean grounder. (and Jim might deny this, but he's been injured way more times than anyone else). That said, I had to stop by Walmart to pick up some gear. Made it in time to get a few throws and a little stretching.

Let's see, who was there to play? Player, Skip, Rob R., Michelle, Stacey, Rob K., Jim, Terry (female), Erin, Donna, and Me. Stace had asked e to play catcher, and I was like...doh! i once took a check-swing to the forehead when i played catcher...that's why i moved to right field.

Well, luckily, the Umpire said i could pretty much stand beside him and nowhere near the batter. awesome. that i can do. so, yeah, i played catcher and it was cool. During bat, i got on base both times, so i can't complain. In one of the last innings, though, there was a scare. Terry and Jim were going for the same ball and I thought they knew where the other was... nope. They collided, took each other out. I think it still counted that Terry caught the ball...not sure, but the game was still in play. Rob R. picked up the ball, and it either got relayed, or he threw it himself, but it went left to our side of the dugout. I went to get the ball just in case, thinking, who in their mind would run towards home, right?

The big 3rd baseman from the other team was chugging towards home, and i was like, aw crap. So I braced the ball inside my glove, and waited til he got closer to the plate and pretty much stood up to him, took a bit of a hit, but held onto the ball. Yep. he was out at the plate. :) Jim would have been proud, but he missed it. :)

Ah well. We didn't win the game, but, ha ha, "we were all winners".