Remembering Softball, Cards, and Rest

After the tournament was over I checked in on Tinman who is temporarily blind and headed to his place to see some friends who gathered there for card games and support. We played blackjack and someone read the cards to him. I gave him a couple of contact numbers for services for veterans and for the blind and hopefully the two people primarily caring for him will help him find more help. It was a good evening for support and fun.

Most of today I rested, though the body wanted more softball. The holiday cancelled the Monday night game, so I headed to meet Jackson at a bowling alley where she was pre-bowling for her league. I watched her bowl and then we went to a local pizza restaurant I'd been wanting to try for a long time because the owners were originally from my home town, Canarsie, where pizza was the best (isn't that always the case? lol). The pizza was delicious and I will be back. Jackson and I chatted and laughed and touched on why she has avoided me all year and hopefully she will resolve her obstacles because it hurts and she doesn't seem to want to hurt me or avoid me or herself nearly as much as she does. She treated for the pizza and I hope she is budgeting ok and has the support she needs. We did not talk about that. After pizza we stopped into a bulk food store and I bought some chocolate. Doh.

I thought about softball as we reminisced a bit (I miss my softball buddy and best friend). So I will distract myself with memories of softball.

Remembering the 2016 World Series for the NAGAAA league (the national league our Sunday teams is part of) was a fiasco due to daily rain that washed out most games, presented poor playing conditions, changed the rules of play to 30 minute 1-pitch games, and played havoc with the scheduling. The tournament was supposed to start on Tuesday morning, but instead did not get started mid-day Thursday and that was rained out after a few hours. This was our schedule (the actual times were running at least two hours later than posted... yes, we were playing back-to-back softball at 3:00 am).

D21 ORL Hung Jurors 10, AUS Battle Wolves 8 Thur 11:05am - Kri #3
D40 LA Softball Cartel 3, ORL Hung Jurors 2 Fri 3:30pm - Kri #6
D67 ORL Hung Jurors 7, KNOX Good Times 6 Fri 8:45pm - Kri #2
D85 ORL Hung Jurors 17, LB Posse 1 Fri 10:30pm - Kri #9
D93 ORL Hung Jurors 12, CBUS Fu3I 11 Fri 11:40pm - Kri #10
D102 SEA Atomic 7, ORL Hung Jurors 6 Sat 12:50am - Kri #6

D106 SEA Atomic 15, TC Perfect Storm 8 Sat 1:25am - Kri #6
D110 DC Titans 13, SEA Atomic 9 Sat 7:50am - Kri #3

Our biggest obstacles were nerves and age. Most of the team had never been to the World Series before so they felt a lot of pressure. The rain and waiting for days made that worse. Then the 30 minute 1-pitch format really through off their bats as no one was used to playing in that rushed format. Umpires were testy and rushing all the teams, which took a lot of the fun out of it. Everyone had their tolerance tested by the rains. That's why our bats didn't finally wake up until the third game on Friday night. Adrenaline pumped and defense improved, and then, after a few games, age took over. Four of our players were over 50 and two of them no longer had any adrenaline or energy left. Errors cost us five runs in the game we lost 7-6 and that was our exit from the two-game elimination tournament.

The tournament leaders could not be faulted for the rains, but rains dominated and altered play and outcomes dramatically. Some teams simply left after a couple of days of no play and no end to the rain in the forecasts. It must have been a nightmare for the people running the tournament as hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent and millions of dollars in revenue for the city was affected.

Anyway, that series showed the obsessive dedication many of us who play softball have for the game.

I included the Seattle Atomic, the team that knocked us out of the tournament (we finished 13th out of 59 teams) because that would have been our schedule has we not burnt out and list to them by one run). They finished the night close to 4 am playing softball for 12 hours, the last five hours without much break, and had to be back playing at 7:50 am. A few of our players simply would not have been able to be there for the morning game due to their body limits. The Atomic finished 7th overall and the DC Titans who beat them on 3 hours sleep finished 2nd overall. Youth shined in this tournament. it was all rather ridiculous (due to the rains) and mostly fun, but the worst part was that there was no time to talk to people, make memories, or enjoy the fun.

The 2017 World Series is in Portland, Oregon and we very much hope to qualify and very much wish for no rain. :)

Off to sleep now, to dream, to rest, to dream.

narf :)