Go Strikers!! WOOOOO!!!
SO MUCH FUN, and not even in the sarcastic sense.
My softball game was not rained out, thank you Universe, so we got to play our first game tonight. I was totally pumped. The manager did an alphabetical thing for line-up, so I batted near the beginning but sat on the bench for fielding to start (we had 15 people show up to play!)
We lost, and we lost spectacularly. Some of you may remember my last experience with softball (although we did eventually suck less). Three years later and I'm looking at another season of common-sense-defying loss on the ballfield.
Want to hear the final score? Are you ready? Because this includes the other team offering us a pity last inning, after it was abundantly clear to blind people three towns over that we were going to lose. And also we convinced a few of them to bat leftie in the last inning, just to be sporting. And also this includes them having only three outfielders and no second-base player. Ready?
The final score was THIRTY-TWO to FOUR.
We managed to lose by a full twenty-eight runs. Ouch. Granted, I firmly believe they are in the wrong league. There are two adult rec leagues in Madison - one for "skilled" and one for "unskilled", and we are clearly in the "unskilled" league. These people must get their jollies by trampling over the "unskilled" in this world. We were unbelievably outmatched. Their pitcher was throwing freaking curveballs in slow pitch softball. The guy had a bizarre backspin in his release that really threw us off.
It did not help that we repeatedly dropped balls and missed flies and bobbled catches and walked many of their batters. On the walking thing, though, if you ask me, some of them should have been swinging, goddamn it. Yes, our pitcher is not the greatest. You can still hit those pitches. Most people could. You're just being dickheads now. It's clear you're going to win (Sir, I believe this is your third time to bat this inning). Stop standing there and purposely getting walked. Why are you even here? Seriously? This is fun for you, walking around the bases? Swing the damn bat.
As far as feeling depressed about losing so ridiculously (our scorekeeper had to ask the umpire for advice - he ran out of room for recording their runs and our errors), we broke through the barrier by the fourth inning. By that point, we were cheering wildly at anything we managed not to fuck up. Our batter didn't swing at a terrible pitch? WOOOOOO!!! Go Andy!!!!! Good eye!!!!!!!
Someone actually hit the ball and got on base? WOOOOOO!!! WE GOT ON BASE!!!! Our pitcher gets someone to swing and they don't hit? WOOOOOO!!! Etc.
If there were an award for team spirit, we'd be world champions. When the ump tried to call the game after four innings and the other team agreed to let us keep playing, we all cheered happily. "Beat us some more!" I yelled excitedly as I ran toward second base. We just wanted to play, and most of us hadn't even checked the score in several innings. It was so bad it didn't matter anymore.
On a personal note, I absolutely rocked. Somehow, the Alphabetical Gods appointed me to bat clean-up (pressure!), but the first three batters managed to get out, so I was actually up first in the second inning. A small, shameful part of me was glad when the third batter flied out, so I wouldn't have the pressure of being the third out ( I have a talent for this). But guess what? I had an awesome hit! Pow! Sweet spot! Placed perfectly between shortstop and left center field. I knew it was a base hit as soon as I started running. Yeah!
And I managed to get home as our first run (and what later turned out to be 25% of our total runs scored). You should have seen us all shrieking and jumping around. We got a RUN!!!! Did you see?! We SCORED!!!
My next time up, I got walked with bases loaded. I choose to believe that the pitcher was intimidated by my earlier batting prowess. I only got to play two innings in the field, but I didn't mess anything up. I was mostly cut-off. I did manage to catch a throw from the shortstop to make a final out, which was desperately needed at the time.
And that was the game. We were in extraordinarily high spirits, ludicrous showing or not. We ended up hanging out at A.'s house afterward, who happens to be my only pre-team friend. A good nine or so of us hung out on her porch for a long time, although I felt very nervous about the loudness and said so. I was later vindicated by a neighbor walking over to ask us to be quiet. We moved inside and started up a game of Apples to Apples.
This group played that the person with the adjective card doesn't just choose - she lays all the choices out on the table and has people argue over them and try to convince her. Oh my lord, it got hilarious. At one point we had four different people shouting so loudly at the same time I was afraid the neighbor would come back! People got seriously into the most ridiculous of conversations. For example, who is braver - a Piranha or Lucille Ball? What is more demanding - The Universe, Martha Stewart, or Paying Taxes?
It was hard to switch gears, though - at my birthday party, we were very much the "irony" crowd, but people in this group did not get me at all. The word was "speedy" and I put "The Academy Awards" out there only to be shot down immediately since "The Academy Awards are so slow!" That was the point, people. Sigh. Also, they play a speed version where the last person to throw in a card gets disqualified for that round. I found it to be extremely stressful! I like to be thoughtful about my choices.
It was such a grad student crowd. We kept sliding into conversations about which wave of feminism was better, or racism in politics, or ridiculous student comments. At one point, the word was "ferocious" and one of the nouns in the running was "Tyrannosaurus Rex". We somehow got into a hilarious debate about colonialism and projecting and stereotypes and how could we really know and decided I'd have to write a paper called, "Can the T-Rex Speak?" NERDS.
I tell you, I have not laughed that hard in months. My stomach was aching and I could hardly breathe at one point. It was such a night! Definitely what I needed after everything I've been dragging around all week.
My softball game was not rained out, thank you Universe, so we got to play our first game tonight. I was totally pumped. The manager did an alphabetical thing for line-up, so I batted near the beginning but sat on the bench for fielding to start (we had 15 people show up to play!)
We lost, and we lost spectacularly. Some of you may remember my last experience with softball (although we did eventually suck less). Three years later and I'm looking at another season of common-sense-defying loss on the ballfield.
Want to hear the final score? Are you ready? Because this includes the other team offering us a pity last inning, after it was abundantly clear to blind people three towns over that we were going to lose. And also we convinced a few of them to bat leftie in the last inning, just to be sporting. And also this includes them having only three outfielders and no second-base player. Ready?
The final score was THIRTY-TWO to FOUR.
We managed to lose by a full twenty-eight runs. Ouch. Granted, I firmly believe they are in the wrong league. There are two adult rec leagues in Madison - one for "skilled" and one for "unskilled", and we are clearly in the "unskilled" league. These people must get their jollies by trampling over the "unskilled" in this world. We were unbelievably outmatched. Their pitcher was throwing freaking curveballs in slow pitch softball. The guy had a bizarre backspin in his release that really threw us off.
It did not help that we repeatedly dropped balls and missed flies and bobbled catches and walked many of their batters. On the walking thing, though, if you ask me, some of them should have been swinging, goddamn it. Yes, our pitcher is not the greatest. You can still hit those pitches. Most people could. You're just being dickheads now. It's clear you're going to win (Sir, I believe this is your third time to bat this inning). Stop standing there and purposely getting walked. Why are you even here? Seriously? This is fun for you, walking around the bases? Swing the damn bat.
As far as feeling depressed about losing so ridiculously (our scorekeeper had to ask the umpire for advice - he ran out of room for recording their runs and our errors), we broke through the barrier by the fourth inning. By that point, we were cheering wildly at anything we managed not to fuck up. Our batter didn't swing at a terrible pitch? WOOOOOO!!! Go Andy!!!!! Good eye!!!!!!!
Someone actually hit the ball and got on base? WOOOOOO!!! WE GOT ON BASE!!!! Our pitcher gets someone to swing and they don't hit? WOOOOOO!!! Etc.
If there were an award for team spirit, we'd be world champions. When the ump tried to call the game after four innings and the other team agreed to let us keep playing, we all cheered happily. "Beat us some more!" I yelled excitedly as I ran toward second base. We just wanted to play, and most of us hadn't even checked the score in several innings. It was so bad it didn't matter anymore.
On a personal note, I absolutely rocked. Somehow, the Alphabetical Gods appointed me to bat clean-up (pressure!), but the first three batters managed to get out, so I was actually up first in the second inning. A small, shameful part of me was glad when the third batter flied out, so I wouldn't have the pressure of being the third out ( I have a talent for this). But guess what? I had an awesome hit! Pow! Sweet spot! Placed perfectly between shortstop and left center field. I knew it was a base hit as soon as I started running. Yeah!
And I managed to get home as our first run (and what later turned out to be 25% of our total runs scored). You should have seen us all shrieking and jumping around. We got a RUN!!!! Did you see?! We SCORED!!!
My next time up, I got walked with bases loaded. I choose to believe that the pitcher was intimidated by my earlier batting prowess. I only got to play two innings in the field, but I didn't mess anything up. I was mostly cut-off. I did manage to catch a throw from the shortstop to make a final out, which was desperately needed at the time.
And that was the game. We were in extraordinarily high spirits, ludicrous showing or not. We ended up hanging out at A.'s house afterward, who happens to be my only pre-team friend. A good nine or so of us hung out on her porch for a long time, although I felt very nervous about the loudness and said so. I was later vindicated by a neighbor walking over to ask us to be quiet. We moved inside and started up a game of Apples to Apples.
This group played that the person with the adjective card doesn't just choose - she lays all the choices out on the table and has people argue over them and try to convince her. Oh my lord, it got hilarious. At one point we had four different people shouting so loudly at the same time I was afraid the neighbor would come back! People got seriously into the most ridiculous of conversations. For example, who is braver - a Piranha or Lucille Ball? What is more demanding - The Universe, Martha Stewart, or Paying Taxes?
It was hard to switch gears, though - at my birthday party, we were very much the "irony" crowd, but people in this group did not get me at all. The word was "speedy" and I put "The Academy Awards" out there only to be shot down immediately since "The Academy Awards are so slow!" That was the point, people. Sigh. Also, they play a speed version where the last person to throw in a card gets disqualified for that round. I found it to be extremely stressful! I like to be thoughtful about my choices.
It was such a grad student crowd. We kept sliding into conversations about which wave of feminism was better, or racism in politics, or ridiculous student comments. At one point, the word was "ferocious" and one of the nouns in the running was "Tyrannosaurus Rex". We somehow got into a hilarious debate about colonialism and projecting and stereotypes and how could we really know and decided I'd have to write a paper called, "Can the T-Rex Speak?" NERDS.
I tell you, I have not laughed that hard in months. My stomach was aching and I could hardly breathe at one point. It was such a night! Definitely what I needed after everything I've been dragging around all week.