The last and only time I played baseball my mom coached my team so I'm guessing that was over 15 years ago. I suggested to Chris that we join a local mixed fun league as a way to do something fit together and to meet people in our area.
He agreed and we had much discussion about how I felt we needed to go and play for fun and he felt we needed to go and play to win. He really does not see how I can go just for the experience and not care about the outcome. In the end I told him if he wanted to play competitively or if he was going to be grouchy if we lost every game because our team might suck (it's luck of the draw) then he should go find another team to play on. He decided he could play for fun as long as we at least tried to win and give it our best.
Tonight was the first game of the season. We arrived the 45 minutes early as requested to meet the team. Our captain showed up 20 minutes before the game already buzzed on beer and I think a little stoned. She proceeded to continue drinking beer throughout the game. We were feeling like these were not our kind of people.
Our "team" consisted of only 5 players. Somehow, out of 6 teams, we ended up on the team that was not filled. We convinced some players from the previous game to join us (the rules state if you do not have enough players you can fill your team to 9 players only). We played against a corporate team of about 20 players. The guys and gal that joined our team were very nice. It made me wish we were on their team.
Due to the lack of players and the league rules...all girls had to be on the field for every inning (2 infield, 2 outfield) and every other batter had to be a girl. This meant there were some innings where I had to bat twice (max 10 batters or 3 outs in an inning).
My biggest fear going into the game was that I would not be able to hit the ball. We practiced catching but not batting before the game. Surprisingly because your own team member pitches the ball I hit the very first pitch, hit all my other balls when at bat, and made it on base all but one time. My first run to first base went fine, but I discovered all my running had not trained me to sprint. My thigh was already sore. Thankfully I hustled enough during the game when running and never felt too out of breath to run to where I needed to be.
Chris was the hitter of the night I think. He hit the ball out of the park and over the fence on his second at bat. We discovered later in the game that whoever on your team does this first becomes the only person allowed to do this for the rest of the game. Anyone else that hits it over the fence is an automatic out. I have to say that I was concerned that Chris would be so awesome (which he was) that I would feel intimidated or inferior when playing, but I didn't. I think it helped that his first pitcher was drunk so although I hit the ball and got on base, Chris who followed me, struck out. I was pretty proud that I showed him up at least once during the game.
Somehow in all the confusion of an ever-changing batting order due to 4 girls and 5 guys on the team, a drunk captain, and a drunk scorekeeper we managed to tie the game 13-13. This is where the game should have ended as time was up according to the rules, but everyone opted to play one more inning as it was the first night. 13-13 reminded me of my gym teacher in school who always scored every game as "tied 11-11" at the end of the period. I was happy with this as it reinforced my argument that we were playing for fun and not to win.
We played the last inning and we won the game. Chris gloated "see, isn't it more fun when you win!", but I found it did not make a difference. I think having a happy husband who got to win the first game of the season made a difference over having an unhappy husband because he lost. But, the game itself, did not matter to me how we scored. And, truthfully, I'm not quite sure how we managed to beat the other team. Chris might argue it was because of him and his grand-slam homerun over the fence. I think it had a little more to do with luck.
End result: Happy to go play again next week. Decided we may bike the one hour to the field, play ball, grab an ice cream cone, and bike back as we get the early game. Sore thigh muscles and a strained groin muscle. Definitely need to warm-up first next time.
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