softball game #2

My sister said my last softball re-cap was like my GLEE-caps during the school year. And if I can entertain you all with softball stories, I'll do it! So, without further ado, here's this week's "Ball-cap" (that's what I'll call them - short for "softball re-cap")

It was definitely not as eventful as my first game. As in, I didn't have any injuries or snot issues.

I DID hit the worst traffic on the way to the game. Let's talk about THAT for a moment. It normally takes me 15 minutes to get from my house to the field. It took me an HOUR. It was ridic. I don't get angry very often, but I was pissed. I'm trying to make a good impression on my teammates and after showing up late last week (by going to the wrong park) I wanted to be early this week.

I sat in my car, fuming. I cussed several times. (At first in my head. Then under my breath. Then out loud.) I got to the game 20 minutes late and apologized profusely. But here's the thing - it might have actually helped me. My first time up at bat, I will still so mad about the traffic, I swung all my anger into the ball and HIT IT. And got on base! And the other runners at base got to their next base. No outs! From then on, I started feeling much better.

Not much happened to write about. We played a LOT better than last week. Or maybe the other team was bad. I'm not sure.

The only fun thing that happened was my second time up at bat. The pitcher was reeeeally bad so I got to walk to first base. One of my teammates, Mike, was there to coach runners. I said, "Okay Mike, just tell me what to do. I'm sort of new to all this."

Well he took that and RAN with it. Suddenly he's telling me all the rules of softball and I'm realizing I can't listen to him talk AND focus on the game at the same time. So I keep my eyes on the next hitter while smiling and nodding so he thinks I'm listening.

The next guy hits the ball so I book it to second base. However, Mike decides he STILL needs to be telling me what to do. So he's literally shouting at me while I'm at second base.

"SARAH! OKAY NOW LISTEN. HERE'S WHAT YOU DO. WE'VE GOT ONE PERSON ON FIRST AND ONE PERSON ON SECOND. IF THE NEXT HITTER GROUNDS IT, RUN. IF THE BALL FLIES UP, WAIT TO SEE IF SOMEONE CATCHES IT OR DROPS IT BEFORE YOU GO."

I see everyone on the other team looking at me and I was so embarrassed. Mike is basically announcing my rookie status to the whole field, when I'm trying so hard to seem like I know exactly what I'm doing.

I forced a fake smile and gave Mike a thumbs-up to shut him up. But he kept shouting.

"SEE, SARAH? THAT WAS A FOUL. IF THE CATCHER HAD CAUGHT IT, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN AN OUT. OK GET READY SARAH. REMEMBER, IF IT HITS THE GROUND, RUN! FLY BALL, WAIT TO SEE. HERE'S THE PITCH....NOPE, THAT WAS A STRIKE! STAY THERE!!"

Good lord.

Not much else to report. I struck out my third time at bat. I switched off playing catcher with another girl and found out I really like that position. I slapped a girl's butt on my team when she gave us a run, just like the Giants do. We won 17-7. All in all, it was a MUCH better experience than last week's.

Stay tuned for next week's "ball-cap". We have a double-header on Tuesday. Which Mike told me means we'll be playing 2 games back-to-back. Thanks, Mike.