Need a Job in Detroit?

This weekend I was in Utica/Sterling Heights/Detroit for yet another softball tournament. While the weather was very nice, the complex at which we played was pretty awful. We joked that we should have just taken batting practice in the parking lot of the Dave and Buster's outside our hotel. The infields were just about as hard. For the infielders like me, it made every ball an adventure. (Un)fortunately I only got about 2 or 3 balls hit at me all day, which is a bit of a surprise because in this organization, the pitches that are allowed generate more ground balls than in other organizations.

We won our first game 19-6 and really jumped on the team from Davenport, IA. In my first at bat, in the second inning, I took a pitch or two including strike 2. The pitcher threw me a knuckleball on the inside part of the plate and I tried to hit it to right field....but missed. No, I didn't miss hitting it to right field as in I hit it foul. Noooo, I missed the ball entirely!!! Yes, a swinging strikeout in slow pitch softball. After missing, I turned around and headed towards a completely silent dugout. What do you say to someone who has just done that?? "Good cut"? "Tough pitch"? "You were robbed"?? Ugh. Fortunately I got hits my next two at bats and we were winning when I came up for my fourth at bat. After taking a strike, I looked at strike three! Two strikeouts in one game!!!! Unbelievable. I went on to hit ok for the day.....6-11 I think, but really, who strikes out twice in a softball game? We lost the next two games due to lack of hitting and our tournament was over early.

With our tournament over, the night was free to do whatever we wanted and some of us wanted.....to watch the Bears. Unfortunately we couldn't find a bar in Detroit that was going to have it on, though two places did in fact tell us they were going to have it only to lie. It did get us one free round of drinks at Dave and Buster's though. Not that we needed it as we had played a drinking card game for about an hour that left us pretty hammered.

No, what we needed was a damn cab! And could we get one? Well, eventually, but it took over an hour the first time we needed one and two hours the second time. Can you imagine that in Chicago?? Hellzzzzz no. Anytime of day or night I can get a cab inside of 10 minutes. Just ridiculous. We were trying to be responsible by taking a cab instead of driving, but it seems like the metro Detroit area WANTS you to drive drunk.

Were there cabs at Dave and Buster's at 10:00 on a Saturday night? Nope. Were there cabs at Coyote Joe's in Shelby (look up the street view in Google maps 49442 Ryan Rd, Shelby, MI, United States)? Nope. LOTS of cars parked in both lots, but no cabs. So if you live in metro Detroit and you need a job, get yourself a cab license because they are few and far between.

UPDATE:

The team we lost to in our second game (11-6) went 5-0 and won the tournament. Damn our bad luck with draws!!!