Softball Stuff
I met a lady at the dog park who invited me to play on her softball team Wednesday nights, as they are frequently short a girl or two. Last night was my first time out and to meet everybody.
I was one of the first ones there, so got to meet pretty much everybody as they showed up, which I think was better than showing up last and trying to remember a whole bunch of names at once. They play for Rosenblum's Cellars, and their team name is the Zinners. (That's a wine place on Alameda around the corner from my house that does tastings and allows dogs.) They go to La Val's afterwards for pizza and beer, but I didn't go last night (too bad; their pizza ROCKS). I got invited back to play next week at a 6:30 game.
They were short TWO girls, so my dog park buddy asked if I could try to scrounge up another player. I sent out a text to all the girls on our team except one(don't have her number) and only two people answered, and they both said no. Then one of them called and said she could play. Then she called back and said she couldn't. So anyway, the line-up has to go M-F-M-F etc, so we took an automatic out every rotation through the line-up. It didn't hurt us too badly, but it kinda sucked just the same. I batted TERRIBLY last night. I went 1-4 with two groundouts and a strikeout. BOO. But there were two girls on that team who were at least as bad as me. Finally though, I got on base, and had some good heads-up base running, and even got to cross home plate, so that made up for it a little bit.
We only had 3 outfielders, but they all played really well. The shortstop really played more like short-center, and he had some GREAT plays. He's a little asian guy with a chipmunk name. There's a really nice lady that everybody calls Kiwi. She was super super nice. They really are a fun team to hang around, they tease each other back and forth like we do and don't take it TOO seriously. The 4th female there was a taller blonde lady; she was kinda quiet but also nice. There was another new person there who had some AWESOME plays at third base. Quick glove. There was a coach AND an assistant coach, and then two guys in suits showed up after a board meeting of some sort and somebody's wife. I think maybe one of the suits was the owner of Rosenblums.
They are JUST as bad as my regular team (the Underdogs) about sending out e-mails. I got like 5 today already from them. To play in this league, you have to sign a release form with all your personal information. They already added me to their team list, and the e-mails have been flying back and forth all morning. The coach (Bill? Brett? Bryce?) started it off with a quick recap and thanked the two new players. Then a couple more people hit reply all with various comments, and I e-mailed back to everybody thanking them for letting me play and telling them I'd play next week, and two of them have both e-mailed back a couple times today to say what fun it was. So, yay, new people! Ha ha, and I was JUST talking about how full my life has gotten lately, and then I go and add something else. I have a feeling it will turn into a regular thing. Apparently the owner (not the team owner of course; Rosenblum) has a daughter who is on the team, but she watches America's Next Top Model with a group of people on Wednesdays and can only come to the early games. I mean honestly, why even bother to sign up?? Do you know how much crap the Underdogs would give somebody if they did that to our team?
We won 12-2. I guess it was their first legitimate win in 2 seasons; they're really just not that good, but the other team was worse. There's only girl that can really bat, but the guys all got good hits. I went 6th in the line-up, and I think I batted all but one inning. I felt bad though, at one point I was the last out with bases loaded. Always unfortunate when that happens. I mean, it's stinking slow pitch! Anyway the first time up I swung and missed the first pitch, then tipped it once and then grounded out to third base. The second time I grounded it down the first base line and was out. The third time I didn't swing and got called out (but it was Frank though (our team has a love/hate relationship with Frank) and I swear the third strike was outside). The fourth time I hit a nice ground ball in between short and third and beat the throw to first. I'm speedy like that. :)
They had me playing second base, and I don't think I even touched the ball the first 2 innings. In the third inning the short-stop caught an INCREDIBLE line drive straight up the middle, I don't know how he got over there, and threw it to me and I ALMOST tagged the runner out, but the guy beat my glove by a millisecond. So it was a good play even though we didn't get the out. Then in the last inning I flubbed an easy grounder but picked it up and blindly tossed it to second and luckily made the out anyway. I hit my knee on the ground pretty hard on that play, and I have a nice little bump/bruise combo going on now.
All in all, a good outing. Better than sitting at home studying for the GRE or cleaning or doing laundry! Which should all take precedence, unfortunately...