Long Day of Softball

Had a really long  Saturday playing softball. Our team was in Kankakee, which is about 90 minutes away and our first game was at 1:00....or at least it was SCHEDULED for 1:00.  We had batting practice at 11:30 so I had to leave at 10. Everything was fine until we got to the fields and found out our field was delayed about 2 hours!! Crazy. I also noticed that while I thought our last game would be at either 4:30 or 5, it turns out that if we were to lose either of the first two games, we would play at 9 or 9:30. Yikes. What REALLY happened was that we didn't play until after 3, lost that game and then played on another field at about 4:45.  We won that game and then had a break scheduled until 9:30, but we really didn't play until almost 11!!  That last game ended at 12:00 or so, which means I didn't get home until 1:30 a.m. and not to bed until 2.  Since we lost our last game, I didn't have to get up Sunday morning, but if we had won it, our next game was at 10 a.m. Ugh. That would have been tough to make.

So this tournament was an NSA tournament which has slightly different rules that favor the hitters and is the organization with which our team struggles. We do much better at USSSA, which we have coming up next weekend.

How did the herniated disc hold up? Pretty well. It doesn't impact my swing much, other than that without the injury, my swing would be better due to the strength I had built up during the off season. Still, my OBA was .777 (7-9). Interestingly, I came up with the bases loaded three times in the first game and was 2-3, but we still lost.

As you know, our team is the merger of two teams from last year. The season is still young, but players from my team last year are becoming a bit unhappy with the arguing and intensity with which some members of the other part of the team play/manage. To explain, we have generally played with intensity, but we try not to get too out of hand when the umps blow a call or the other team is doing something illegal. We'll certainly voice our opinion, but if it doesn't go our way, we drop it and move on. What can you do really?  Well, apparently you can continue to harp on it for the rest of the game, goad the other team/umps and generally act like babies. We don't want to be known for whining and complaining.  That's just not the way to play.  The length of the day didn't help, but it's a trend that needs to be nipped, or we may be looking for another merging partner next year!