As I started to say before the "friends" at Brighthouse interrupted us (another random outage and here in this new space it is not my account so I am not sure how to check on the network status... I'll talk to Curly about that tomorrow... anyway, back to wherever my train of thought was heading), I decided to skip the morning socializing and hanging out at the fields so I could give the body more rest because I did not have any games scheduled to watch (for the ratings committee) so I got to the fields about an hour before game time and watched our coach's team play (and win... they are 3-0 so far and tied for first with the perrenial best team in the "C" Devision). Our coach plays in the "C" (Competitive) division. I mentioned in previous softball narratives that I retired to the "D" Mostly Recreational division a couple of years ago to play at a slower pace. Prior to that I played "C" and prior to that "B" for a season or two. It has taken a couple of years to adjust as I do have a competitive side and watching people give games away because they will not show up to practice or listening to instructions on the field (so they repeat the same mistakes) is frustrating. Losing when we play well and learned is acceptable. Losing because we are too stubborn to learn how to play better is frustrating.
We played one of the lowest ranked teams in the league and I shut them down for three innings while we scored seven runs. In the fourth I gave the other team easier pitches and they hit soft grounders and easy fly balls. Many errors later, it was 8-7 and time to shut the other team down again. When I say shut them down, I mean few of their players can hit my variety of spin pitches so I can strike out some of them and get others to hit back to me. Coach was upset, but I looked at him and said I wanted to see how our defense could handle an easy team so we known what to expect this season and we just proved we need a whole lot of serious practice and repetitive drills on fundamentals before we take ourselves seriously. Many players are talking about winning the championship again and doing well in the world series which is not realistic at this point. He agreed and understood and we agreed we were both not happy, but we could still win if we don't get down and swing our bats right.
We did come back in the next inning, I knocked in two runs after the guy in front of me knocked in two runs and we won 14-8, so we are 2-2 on the season in the middle of the pack. As I said, the team we played is very weak, they are 0-4 and have won about 2 games in the last two seasons (2-26) so we could have shut them out and run ruled them if we did not make so many mistakes. Coach said we will practice this coming Sunday so hopefully we will and we will make it an effective practice. Too often out practices reinforce poor skills because people are allowed to play sloppy and careless. Anyway, we started last season 2-2 and won it all, so nothing is impossible, but we have five new players, three of whom never played before and at least two who are very weak which gives us five very weak players, a dilemma for the season and tournaments. If they will listen and learn, we could make it a good season even though the competition is much improved this year.
After our game I watched a few more games with one of the new guys from the ratings committee and we discussed the process of rating players as we rated the players we were watching. I waited around for Brandi to play as she joined one of the women's teams and Jackson left work early to watch. Her team won and are a respectable 2-3 on the season so far. That is not bad for a brand new team. It takes some brand new teams two seasons to win two games after all. It rained a bit during the game and Jackson and I went to our respective cars for raingear. Separate ways, sigh. Jackson team (she plays with them on Monday nights even though she can't play Sundays) is 3-1 in second place at the moment.
After the game everyone and said fairwells, I walked over to the last game of the day and watched with the new ratings committee guy who was still working games. Love the dedication and the Assistant Commissioner thanked us for our diligence on the Ratings committtee Facebook page. That page is private, but you may be able to access the league page and see the standings here, in case it matters.
Enough details? (too much for most, if you are hanging in with me, thank you more than words can say... and hopefully we are friends and communicating in some way) :)
I headed home and once again face the loneliness. Sunday evenings are especially lonely and depressing. Before Jackson moved and when I was working, Jackson would usually get home late (she works Sundays, though hopefull that will change later this year as she really misses the softball league and not that Brandi is playing, it's even more challenging for her. She misses her UU church activities even more sometimes as she has been very active there (still is several weeknights each month) and she would be exhausted and head to bed after grabbing some food and sharing a tv show. Now that she is gone and I am not working and have no TV people for distraction and that strange sense of family regularly watched tv characters can give us if we let them, I am feeling the isolation. Heavy. I am turning to music more, grabbing CDs out of the boxes one by one, but it is still an adjustment more challenging on Sunday evenings than other nights.
Maybe because I know the working world will be heading to work in the morning and I will not. Maybe because I mark the start of yet another week alone in this world, more alone than ever in daily life. Maybe I just let it be more challenging.
So I am listening to music while wandering Facebook, then somewhere in the night, I shall nod off sitting here babbling and roll over to the bed and fall asleep.
Nite nite. :)
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