How did Joe end up in a barn last night?

Friday was a busy day with golf in the morning and then softball practice in the early evening as we prepared for the competitive state tournament on Saturday in Kankakee. Because of my golfing on Friday, I really wanted to move practice to Thursday, but we couldn't find free fields. The long day of activity Friday proved to be a detriment for me come Saturday morning.

We had to check in at the fields on Saturday at 8:00 for our first game at 9, so I left at 6:30 which means I got up at 6. Unfortunately for me, my golf bag decided to fall over at 5:00 and I struggled to get back to sleep afterwards. Bleary-eyed, I made the trip to Kankakee feeling a little tired, but not noticeably exhausted. That proved to be an illusion though as I started off only 1-3 in the first game hitting lead-off and it was a weak 1-3. My teammates picked me up though and we won our first game against Monkey Bash, a team we had lost to twice because of the home run penalty rule. The following game I went 0-2, again weakly, in another Brewdogs victory, this time over a team called Kensington's from Braidwood who had beaten our nemesis, Southside Connection.

Our third game was against a team called "Slumpbusters" (if you're familiar with the sports term then you can probably picture the logo on their uniform) for the finals of the winner's bracket and they absolutely thrashed us with great hitting. We then met Southside Connection in the finals of the losers bracket. We were tied 2-2 in the sixth when the guy in for me at third base (Gangsta we call him) launched a no-doubter home run giving SC one run and costing us an out. In the top of the sixth, still behind 3-2, I pinch hit Gangsta with runners on first and second and nobody out and rifled a single to center to load the bases. It was a big hit because we'd been hitting into double plays all day and I wasn't hitting horribly all day. The single lifted our team though and rolled over the lineup allowing us to blow the game open and score five runs. We held them scoreless in the sixth and seventh and won 7-3.

The victory put us back against Slumpbusters where we would have to beat them twice to win it all, but they thrashed us again and we finished in second again. Still, we had some good wins against tough teams and we didn't have three of our starting four outfielders!!

When in Kankakee for a tournament, we go to this local bar called Heather's. The primary clientèle of Heather's reside in a trailer park down the street, so the appeal is as much about people watching as anything. The bartender is usually a buxom, slightly heavy, very fun woman who loves to have softball players come into the bar. The woman we normally see there, Barbie who I think actually owns the bar, was having a party at her home north of town, so she wasn't working. Her replacement was a 22 year old woman named Alison who was, as you would expect, buxom, slightly heavy and very nice. Alison was going to Barbie's party after her shift was over, so six of us followed her to Barbie's house to experience a Kankakee party. How could we not??

I took some pictures of this place, but the party was outside and in the barn. The barn though had a band stage, sofas, a pool table, a refrigerator, I think a small bar, a volleyball pit outside and a Mayor McCheese playground thing which I can't describe but I took a picture it on my buddy's phone. Unfortunately there were a bunch of 19-22 year olds there interspersed with the bar's trailer home frequenters. Everyone was very nice and Barbie was happy to see us again. My teammates got hammered and I'm not sure what happened to them, but I took a break from the booze so I could drive back the hour and sleep in my own bed. No way I was ending up in my car, a Kankakee motel, or Barbie's barn for the evening.