The Fall Season

Hello all,

It's been nearly a month since my last posting. I'm hoping with the onset of colder weather some of my activities will slow down a little and allow me more time to do meaningless stuff like this.
The Fall softball season is winding down as tournament season starts up. For some reason, we were scheduled to play 3/4 of our games with a starting time of 9:15 pm. I don't know about you, but at 9:15, the last thing I'm thinking about is dragging my fat butt out of the house and preparing for a game. Also, if you factor in that after our games we are required by state law to stand in the parking lot and discuss strategy, this makes for a long night. Our strategy sessions typically last about 2 minutes with 1 minute of it talking about how great I played (jokingly). An hour and a half later, we decide that we should get home. This led to our epiphany as to why we were scheduled to play so late....because the director knew we'd be the last ones to leave anyhow, so why not just schedule them at the end???
Even though playing ball gets a little old after a while, I still look forward to getting together with the guys. I feel like a school kid being let out for recess...the doors open up and you just run and laugh and be stupid. That's about what happens in our games. We get together and laugh, goof around, crack on each other and just have a great time. The game is secondary. We still play very well even though we had our two season unbeaten streak broken early this season. Teams are starting to catch up with us. I'm pretty certain that it isn't them getting better but, instead, us getting a little slower and probably a lot less serious. I have to say that we win a majority of our games with defense and great execution. I truly believe that other teams envy our ability when it comes to situational defense, lining up cut-off throws, being in proper locations, etc... What is really neat about it is that since we started (in about 1992) we've done with a "homegrown" team of guys who all went to high school together. What's more, we are all close friends off the field. I've never seen a team that could boast that. We started our first few years getting thumped on a little. Spent a majority of the next years dominating...and we are now in the "Fall Season" of our illustrious softball careers. And while we are starting to lose our edge a little, I don't think there are too many more teams around that get the respect we get. Mouthy teams are a lot less mouthy when they play us. This is partly due to the fact that we have a few guys that wouldn't mind mixing it up a little bit, but I think it is mostly because we are able to just blow up and score 15 runs in an inning.
I've been a part of some huge games. Seen a "Perfect" game thrown by Mark Rose. 9 batters. The tenth batter was running late and hurrying to get his shoes on and get loose. No need. He never got to hit. I've never seen that happen before. We've played guys with watches and jeans (to which it is mandatory to ask the guy, "What time ya' got?") and we've played state champs. We won the Ft. Loramie tournament which, to us, was the biggest thing around. Why? Because drinking beer was demanded of your team and they served mushroom burgers. The organizer would call us the month before to confirm we were playing because they had to order a truckload of burgers for us. I've seen one of our guys hit 5 homers in a game..each farther than the one before it. The last at bat, the outfielders were gathered in centerfield leaning against the fence talking...the ball launched 10 rows deep into the cornfield behind them. We won the championship there one year and it really felt like the freakin' World Series. Mike Rose took a pitch (that looked like a strike) to make it a full count. With the bases loaded and down by three, he deposited the next pitch over the fence and onto the road. Game over, championship won! Our prize. A warm 12-pack of Shaeffer Light beer.
Best beer we've ever had.