play ball!

This will be my last blog about softball. Because I realized this week that Tuesday was my last game! *sob* I am going on vacation next week and will miss the next 4 games and then our team is not scheduled to play the last week of the league. So I REALLY wanted to play well on Tuesday's game so I could go out on a high note.

Unfortunately, one of the girls on our team was not there, so Coach Doug had to rearrange our line-up. And he sent me to center field. Noooo. Please no. Put me in right field because people don't usually hit there. Or put me as catcher, which I love. No dice. So center field I went.

We did not play very well. The other team was really good. The first two times I was up at bat, I hit right to the pitcher who threw it to first and got me out. Boo. My third time up at bat, I got on base but the person after me struck out and that was the end of our inning.

Outfield was scary. I was freaking that any minute a ball would come hurtling toward me. Thankfully I had two great people on either side of me that told me where to stand and what to do. In the third inning, someone hit a ball that bounced my way. I thought I had it but missed and it went right past me to the fence. The guy playing left field had to grab it and throw it in. I was a bit embarrassed.

Our whole team seemed to struggle. People were dropping balls, not hitting well, getting injured, etc. We ended up losing 15-6. As we went back to our bench area, I overheard some of the older guys asking each other what they were doing that night. One guy named Tom said in a sing-song voice, "I smell ibuprofen..." That gave a me a good laugh. It's true. We all seemed to hobble to our cars after this hard game.

So anyway, I wish I could have finished out on a high note, but oh well. I hope my team wins the next (and last) 4 games they play! I'm sad I won't be there. As nervous as I was to join a softball league, I'm really glad I did. I learned a lot, made some new friends, and have some good stories to share with people. I'll definitely do this again next summer.

P.S. One more thing. I forgot to mention one of my favorite people. Dale was the referee at all our games. He is probably in his late 70's/early 80's and one of the sweetest people I've ever met. He always called me "Sarah Jane" (even though that's not my middle name) and encouraged me when I was at bat. It was like having a kind grandpa on your side. He loved to share stories of previous games he's reffed where he threw players out for talking back to him or horror stories of players getting hit by the ball. My favorite Dale quote came on Tuesday. I asked him how he was doing. He looked me, smiled, and said, "Well, just as Lucille Ball used to say, 'Any day I'm above ground is a good day'."

My second baseball event of the week was a Giants game! Wooohoo!


On Wednesday, our whole church staff went up to SF to watch the Giants play the Dodgers at AT&T Park. We had a ball (pun intended). It was a beautiful day, Timmy Lincecum (my fav) was pitching, and I ate garlic fries. We sadly lost 1-0 because the Dodgers got a homerun, but it was still fun to be there. I wish I lived closer to the city. I would go to so many more games!!

Anyway, if you've been bored with baseball/softball stuff in the blog, no worries! It's done for now. I'll be blogging on other fun stuff in the future like a trivia night I went to, how much I am loving the Glee Project, and how weird it was to go to a wedding for two of my 20 year college students.

Love you all!