I stole the title of this post from a tune wrote in 1997, but really it’s about my first softball game with The Blues at Central Park today.
Everyone from last year’s team Heroes bailed this year, so I hit up Sean Taylor for a spot on his squad. These guys play all the time in several leagues, so I put a bit of pressure on myself to not suck, which I shouldn’t have. Overall, it wasn’t such a bad debut. Everybody was getting the cobwebs out from the offseason, and everyone was cool and having fun without any attitudes. They were supportive and willing to talk softball advice.
I got myself a bit psyched up for my first at-bat, and it didn’t go well. Two runners on, nobody out, I wanted to do something good. I layed off an inside and low pitch that was called a strike. Second pitch looked like a big fat cookie, but I overdid my swing and took the sloppiest hack ever. Third pitch was belt high and way inside, but I got rung up on it. It was a lame at-bat, but really I should have gotten some more cuts in with a normal strike zone. More importantly, I shouldn’t have gotten all hyped up.
Second at-bat, also with two on, I decided to step away from the plate more. If the ump was going to call those strikes, I wanted them where I could handle them. Also, with the zone so big, the whole wait for your pitch strategy wasn’t working out so well. So I decided to swing at whatever I could put a good swing on. That came in the form of a flattish pitch down the middle which I punched on the ground into center for a single. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize on the bases loaded.
Defensively, I played short center for five of seven innings. My first play was a hard liner to my right side that I had to run down. I hesitated slightly, which cost me two inches of glove that I should have nailed it with. An embarrassing play to open up with, but they were cool about it. Second was a roping looper that I grabbed on the run. I was happy about a last-minute adjustment that got me to the ball. After that where two routine flies that I was easily in position for. Getting better at reading the ball, and my running is a lot better than last season, partly due to dropping 25 lbs!
It was a close, low-scoring game and we needed one run to tie in the 7th. I was due up sixth in the inning and was in a good position to contribute a tying or winning RBI. Alas, with 2 runners on, I watched the final grounder to third from the on-deck circle. I believe 4-5 was the final score.
Altogether, it was a pretty good game against last season’s championship winner. Best of all — no new abrasions! Looking forward to next week’s game.
Blues #1
I stole the title of this post from a tune wrote in 1997, but really it’s about my first softball game with The Blues at Central Park today.
Everyone from last year’s team Heroes bailed this year, so I hit up Sean Taylor for a spot on his squad. These guys play all the time in several leagues, so I put a bit of pressure on myself to not suck, which I shouldn’t have. Overall, it wasn’t such a bad debut. Everybody was getting the cobwebs out from the offseason, and everyone was cool and having fun without any attitudes. They were supportive and willing to talk softball advice.
I got myself a bit psyched up for my first at-bat, and it didn’t go well. Two runners on, nobody out, I wanted to do something good. I layed off an inside and low pitch that was called a strike. Second pitch looked like a big fat cookie, but I overdid my swing and took the sloppiest hack ever. Third pitch was belt high and way inside, but I got rung up on it. It was a lame at-bat, but really I should have gotten some more cuts in with a normal strike zone. More importantly, I shouldn’t have gotten all hyped up.
Second at-bat, also with two on, I decided to step away from the plate more. If the ump was going to call those strikes, I wanted them where I could handle them. Also, with the zone so big, the whole wait for your pitch strategy wasn’t working out so well. So I decided to swing at whatever I could put a good swing on. That came in the form of a flattish pitch down the middle which I punched on the ground into center for a single. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to capitalize on the bases loaded.
Defensively, I played short center for five of seven innings. My first play was a hard liner to my right side that I had to run down. I hesitated slightly, which cost me two inches of glove that I should have nailed it with. An embarrassing play to open up with, but they were cool about it. Second was a roping looper that I grabbed on the run. I was happy about a last-minute adjustment that got me to the ball. After that where two routine flies that I was easily in position for. Getting better at reading the ball, and my running is a lot better than last season, partly due to dropping 25 lbs!
It was a close, low-scoring game and we needed one run to tie in the 7th. I was due up sixth in the inning and was in a good position to contribute a tying or winning RBI. Alas, with 2 runners on, I watched the final grounder to third from the on-deck circle. I believe 4-5 was the final score.
Altogether, it was a pretty good game against last season’s championship winner. Best of all — no new abrasions! Looking forward to next week’s game.