The Bermuda Triangle
Jul. 31st, 2008 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfieldCRASH DAVIS: So relax! Let's have some fun out here! This game's fun, OK? Fun, goddammit.
- Kevin Costner (as Crash Davis) in Bull Durham
Softball Game: July 31, 2008
WON 23-16, record 7-3
This was a weird game.
We won, which is great. But it wasn't a fun win, due to constant bickering with the other team. We played great for the first three innings and the last three innings, but the fourth inning was a net-13 run disaster. My girlfriend was there, which was sweet. But it also messed with my head, and apparently my swing.
Before the game, as is customary, the skipper gave the ground rules, which are typically pretty simple -- strikeouts, field of play rules, etc. But there was an unusual addendum this week: they made a point of saying "no arguing, except in really egregious cases." Well, okay. We took that as a good sign, as an implication that this was just going to be a lighthearted and casual game.
And so we set about kicking their asses for the first hour or so, just smacking the ball all over the place. And we were sharp on defense, even turning a lineout double play.
In the top of the fourth inning, I was coaching first base when one of my teammates slapped a shot down the right field line. I saw the ball tail directly over first base and land about a foot foul. I called it "fair." My understanding, borne out of 20 years of watching baseball, was that a ball that passes over first base is a fair ball, no matter where it lands.
But according to the International Softball Federation Playing Rules (Page 4, Section 29(b)) and the Major League Baseball Official Rules (Page 4, Rule 2.00), this is incorrect, although I believe there is some room for alternative interpretation depending on your definition of the verb "bound" -- i.e., whether it has to bounce in fair territory first, or if it simply refers to the ball's contact with the bat.
At any rate, I called it a fair ball -- making it an RBI double -- and the opposing team went absolutely apeshit. Everyone on their team was yelling at me, puffing out their chests and accusing me of cheating, or stupidity, or both. They mentioned that the score was like 18 to 1 at that point, as if that was at all relevant -- the suggestion being that either (a) we were running up the score on poor-old-them, or (b) since we were up by so many runs we should "give them a break."
They retired the next batter and sulked off the field, and they were still in my head when I took the mound in the bottom half of the frame. I don't know if my body language was contageous or if the perceived slight simply woke them from their slumber but suddenly a lot of their hits started dropping or shooting into the gaps. And every time they hit a ball down the line, I heard some wise-ass shout from their bench, "now that's a fair ball!"
And it's not like I was making them pay with the bat. My swing felt awkward and stiff, like I wearing a folded suit. Only with some luck was I able to get on base three times, and the one ball I hit really well (after four foul balls) landed in the left fielder's mitt.
Maybe I can blame some of this on J.'s presence. I won't go so far as to call her a curse, but she definitely rattled my cage. I should also mention that she was filming game footage on my camcorder (for a planned end-of-year creative project), creating an extra layer of external pressure. Plus there was the added general weirdness of a certain former enchantress of mine* playing for our team, and there never seemed to be an appropriate time or way to introduce the two of them without making it seem like a big deal, which of course it wasn't, or shouldn't be, but it sort of felt like it was anyway, and hey look I'm on deck I'll just get to it later.
After our big crap-the-field inning we settled down and they settled down (at least until our centerfielder spiked the pitcher on a play at home, sparking more puffy chests and red faces and some hard feelings -- and what may have been some fisticuffs if our skipper hadn't smoothed things over), and we closed out the game.
This makes three strange games in a row, all strange for wildly different reasons, and I'm about ready for a nice, boring game in which I don't have to start worrying about my blood pressure and start worrying about how to slice that ball into the right field gap.
I'd settle for a mildly interesting game, as long as we win.
My statistics:
AB#1: Reach on error by first basewoman, run
AB#2: Reach on error by right-centerfielder
AB#3: Flyout to center
AB#4: Bloop single behind second base, run
AB#5: Lineout to deep left-center
1-for-5, 2 runs
7 IP, 16 runs
Season-to-date
15 for 27(.556), 12 runs, 7 RBI, 3 HR
42 IP, 97 runs (20.79 RA/9, 16.17 RA/7)
- Kevin Costner (as Crash Davis) in Bull Durham
Softball Game: July 31, 2008
WON 23-16, record 7-3
This was a weird game.
We won, which is great. But it wasn't a fun win, due to constant bickering with the other team. We played great for the first three innings and the last three innings, but the fourth inning was a net-13 run disaster. My girlfriend was there, which was sweet. But it also messed with my head, and apparently my swing.
Before the game, as is customary, the skipper gave the ground rules, which are typically pretty simple -- strikeouts, field of play rules, etc. But there was an unusual addendum this week: they made a point of saying "no arguing, except in really egregious cases." Well, okay. We took that as a good sign, as an implication that this was just going to be a lighthearted and casual game.
And so we set about kicking their asses for the first hour or so, just smacking the ball all over the place. And we were sharp on defense, even turning a lineout double play.
In the top of the fourth inning, I was coaching first base when one of my teammates slapped a shot down the right field line. I saw the ball tail directly over first base and land about a foot foul. I called it "fair." My understanding, borne out of 20 years of watching baseball, was that a ball that passes over first base is a fair ball, no matter where it lands.
But according to the International Softball Federation Playing Rules (Page 4, Section 29(b)) and the Major League Baseball Official Rules (Page 4, Rule 2.00), this is incorrect, although I believe there is some room for alternative interpretation depending on your definition of the verb "bound" -- i.e., whether it has to bounce in fair territory first, or if it simply refers to the ball's contact with the bat.
At any rate, I called it a fair ball -- making it an RBI double -- and the opposing team went absolutely apeshit. Everyone on their team was yelling at me, puffing out their chests and accusing me of cheating, or stupidity, or both. They mentioned that the score was like 18 to 1 at that point, as if that was at all relevant -- the suggestion being that either (a) we were running up the score on poor-old-them, or (b) since we were up by so many runs we should "give them a break."
They retired the next batter and sulked off the field, and they were still in my head when I took the mound in the bottom half of the frame. I don't know if my body language was contageous or if the perceived slight simply woke them from their slumber but suddenly a lot of their hits started dropping or shooting into the gaps. And every time they hit a ball down the line, I heard some wise-ass shout from their bench, "now that's a fair ball!"
And it's not like I was making them pay with the bat. My swing felt awkward and stiff, like I wearing a folded suit. Only with some luck was I able to get on base three times, and the one ball I hit really well (after four foul balls) landed in the left fielder's mitt.
Maybe I can blame some of this on J.'s presence. I won't go so far as to call her a curse, but she definitely rattled my cage. I should also mention that she was filming game footage on my camcorder (for a planned end-of-year creative project), creating an extra layer of external pressure. Plus there was the added general weirdness of a certain former enchantress of mine* playing for our team, and there never seemed to be an appropriate time or way to introduce the two of them without making it seem like a big deal, which of course it wasn't, or shouldn't be, but it sort of felt like it was anyway, and hey look I'm on deck I'll just get to it later.
After our big crap-the-field inning we settled down and they settled down (at least until our centerfielder spiked the pitcher on a play at home, sparking more puffy chests and red faces and some hard feelings -- and what may have been some fisticuffs if our skipper hadn't smoothed things over), and we closed out the game.
This makes three strange games in a row, all strange for wildly different reasons, and I'm about ready for a nice, boring game in which I don't have to start worrying about my blood pressure and start worrying about how to slice that ball into the right field gap.
I'd settle for a mildly interesting game, as long as we win.
My statistics:
AB#1: Reach on error by first basewoman, run
AB#2: Reach on error by right-centerfielder
AB#3: Flyout to center
AB#4: Bloop single behind second base, run
AB#5: Lineout to deep left-center
1-for-5, 2 runs
7 IP, 16 runs
Season-to-date
15 for 27(.556), 12 runs, 7 RBI, 3 HR
42 IP, 97 runs (20.79 RA/9, 16.17 RA/7)
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*
Date: 2008-08-01 04:51 pm (UTC)Originally, in keeping with the title of this journal, I referred to her as a "Pants-Enchantress," but it is just suggestively inaccurate enough to make me think that she would probably object. Even if I think she ought to take it as a compliment.