Opening Day

My regular summer softball league opens next week, on Wednesday.  The game is at 5:30 and I have a meeting until 6pm, so we're trying to get the other team to change the start time to 6pm so I don't miss half of the damn season opener... nevermind that.

Last night we all got together to get a little practice on - we had another team in the league agree to a friendly scrimmage.  Our team has a bit of a new look this year since we lost some players to another league and cancer in the off-season, so we wanted to see how we gel.  To be honest, it was a tad rocky.  The hitting started off slow, but ended up decent.  The infielding is where we need the most work.  There was a lack of communication, some confusion on who was the cutoff, some miscues at first base, and all-in-all just poor fielding.  The outfield looked pretty sharp.  The fields were a tad muddy/swampy, so it was hard to get a good read on hard liners, or just how we were going to look in general.  The fluidity was definitely there, though - no real lack of communication.  I usually play left field and have for the past 4 seasons, but I decided maybe we'd shake it up a bit and I would play more of a "roamer" position (or short outfielder... keep the jokes to yourselves), and I'd give someone else a crack at left field.  After the game, that guy came to me and said he didn't think left field would be for him, so in the regular season I will go back to my post.

As I said, the hitting started slow but ended up on point.  I felt really good because I have already taken a number of swings in the cages this spring thanks to my friend Jimi's persistence.  Also, one of my teammates came with a new composite bat, so that helped...  Jimi was probably the star of the hitting show, slamming back-to-back-to-back homers in all  three at bats.  Needless to say, the regulars were pretty impressed.  I hit a couple of doubles, so I was happy with that performance.  We have a few others that can hit, so as I said, this was looking promising for our next game - it's that defense we need to sharpen.

As for the new guys, I've already promoted Jimi enough, but it was funny when he asked Todd if he made first cuts, as if this were a tryout and his status on the team was in question.  Later, Todd jokingly said he was embarrassed because his hitting was off and Jimi probably thought he couldn't hit...  A lot of tongue-in-cheek and gentle ribbing, which is what this team is all about.  Now the other new guy we got - well, the jury is still out on him.  He demanded to play SS which is fine, but when it came down to brass tacks, he let a lot of easy grounders slip past.  He also had some poor throws to 1st base and cutoff our 2nd baseman as cutoff man when he should have been backing it up instead (i.e. I'd field the ball in the outfield, throw it into 2nd base, and he'd cut it off before it got to the bag - lapse in fundamental  judgement).  His hitting was okay though, but he showed a lack of effort in his base running, reminiscent of an arrogant individual.  We are doing the diplomatic thing and giving him another probationary shot at the position in a real-game situation, so he has one more chance to prove what his mouth preceded him verbally.

So I am really excited about this.  Softball is one of my favorite parts of the summer and I truly enjoy playing the game.  Hanging out with your buds and grabbing some cold ones afterwards isn't bad either...