So close, yet so far

We only lost tonight's softball game by 2 points, which makes it our best game yet. There was a lot of excitement. Jess was working but my friend Erica came out to be my substitute good luck and she did a great job. I've decided that second base is definitely my favorite position. It's far enough away from the batter that you probably won't lose your teeth but still in the thick of the action. I scooped two grounders, almost made a double play and held onto a pass for an out even though I got hit by the runner.

And speaking of hitting...my second time at bat, I hit a fairly weak grounder over by third, but as always, I ran like hell for first base. I got there the same time as the ball, but unfortunately there was a confrontation involving my left thigh and the first baseman's knee. Muscle loses over bone, every time. I went flying and rolled and before I even hit the ground, he was yelling out, "She touched, she touched!"

There are two bases at first, a white one on the inside and a red one on the outside. If you're going to run through, you hit the red bag. If you're going to second, you hit the white one and keep running. So he was saying that I touched the white bag and the ref called me out. In actuality, I touched the red bag with my right foot and hit his knee as my other leg came through. He should've left more room.

But I wasn't really thinking about all that as I lay in the dirt with my leg throbbing. Lots of team mates came out and tried to help me up, but I refused until the pain died down to something I thought I might not scream through when I stood up. I took my bogus out like a good sport and when it was time to go out into the field, I sucked it up and took my position, over concerned protest from my team mates. "What's your pain level?" they wanted to know. When I said "five," they thought that was too high. But with a little favoring, I did OK.

To their credit, just about every runner that came through my base asked after my leg. It got a little old but they were just being sweet. Several of them offered as how they thought I was safe as well, which was gratifying.

Unfortunately the game went downhill from there and we gave up a lot of runs and gave them an 11-8 lead, of which we were only able to make up two runs before time ran out.

Still, I feel like I definitely suck less every game and I got a lot of compliments for my hustle. If I could just get some power in my batting, I'd be in good shape. I think I will play again next summer, where I won't have to deal with the stupid Fall ball rules of starting at bat with one out and one strike already.

Fence building

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Made great progress on the fence today. Terra came over with her saw and cut support beams for us and generally acted in an advisory capacity, which is not to say she didn't get her hands dirty. I somehow volunteered/got suckered into scooping all the dirt from the holes we dug and transporting it by wheel barrow out to the street. My back didn't like that. Then our nails were too long, so I had to go to Lowe's and then Home Depot. But finally, sometime in the early afternoon, I got to do what I've been looking forward to since we started--hammering. The nails in back were somewhat problematic, but in the front I had enough leverage to do some good old fashioned hammer-therapy.

We rewarded ourselves with the usual Scooby snack--Burgerville shake and then Jess proceeded to act as my good luck charm for this week's softball game. Yeah, we still lost 14-12, but we played much better than last game. Not only did I not make any major errors, but I got two people out while playing second and got my first legitmate hit--a solid crack of a grounder that I haven't been able to achieve in practice. I told Jess she'll have to call in sick if necessary so she can attend the rest of my games over the next four weeks.

NoPo Night

We went out to watch the last week of racing at PIR and cheer on some of my teammates. Kim Reuter took home first and Kem got the spirit award (in my book) for guts and persistence.

I'd forgotten my bike headlight so I went home for a hot minute, changed into my grubby and extremely dorky clothes and headed back to Delta park for my first softball game. I haven't played softball in, well, never except for subbing twice last season, but Maureen in her infinite wisdom put me at 3rd base.

Then we proceeded to get our @sses handed to us, but we had fun. And we only lost 20/12 which is not bad considering we gave up 15 runs in the first inning. I let a bunch of grounders go by, but redeemed myself by catching a fly ball that came straight at my head. "You looked surprised," said one of my teammates back in the batting cage.

"Yeah, I was totally surprised. Next time I'm going to work on playing cool." I got up to bat twice but the guy couldn't pitch to me so I walked and got to run around the bases twice. They have a lot of weird rules for Fall season softball like, you start with one ball and one strike which is just crap. I don't care if we only have an hour, I need all the chances I can get! Also, you're not allowed to touch home plate. Ever. It's a safety thing, so you don't plow into the catcher but it definitely lacks a sense of closure. I'm going to have to talk to my therapist about this.

Fortunately the rest of our games are earlier in the evening so I'm hoping Jess will be off so I can have my own cheering section.

By the time the season ends, I think I might actually suck a little less.