I’m sitting here waiting for the $40 baseball simulation computer game I just purchased to finish its download, and I realized that I forgot to post about last week’s softball game! We have another game tonight, against a team that came from behind to beat us in our first match-up, so it should be a very good and challenging game.
We have a team t-shirt now. It says “Los Expos” on it. I’d wear mine tonight if it wasn’t in the laundry. I guess the idea of having a team shirt goes out the window when you only do laundry every two-to-three weeks. Still, I’ll wear a dark blue shirt to match the rest of my teammates. It doesn’t help that my shirt is a size too large. I looked kind of pathetic last week with short sleeves that felt more like 3/4-length sleeves.
Last week’s game was our early game, it started at 6:15, so some people couldn’t make it from work. It was also Pat’s last game of the season, as he had to fly back the next day to the East Coast to start production on a potential television show. Yay for Pat’s career taking off! Boo for Pat deserting his fucking softball team in the middle of the season! He singlehandedly won us the game against Law Blog. Allow me to elaborate:
In the top of the first inning, we were absolutely pathetic. I think we were actually retired 1-2-3. Pat struck out swinging. We didn’t score a single run, and I don’t even know if we got a guy on base. In the bottom of the inning, Nate thankfully retired the side without allowing a run to score. It was 0-0 when we came up for our second at-bats of the game. Guess what? We didn’t score a run. I didn’t even have an at-bat in the second inning, which is pretty much unheard of in men’s softball leagues. In the bottom of the second inning, I asked the umpire if “greenies” were illegal in softball too, and if not could he give us some uppers because we were having trouble concentrating on the game. I think they scored a run in the second inning. They might have scored six runs. I don’t remember. In the third inning, I grounded into a fielder’s choice in my first at-bat. After a single and a walk, Pat came up with the bases loaded. For the first time in his softball career, he hit a homerun over the 281 sign in left field. It was a grand slam, actually. It cleared the wall by about five feet. I’ve never seen Pat more excited. Those were the only runs we scored that inning.
During the 4th inning, we again held the other team to — at most — one run. They might have even not scored. In the bottom of the inning I hit a tie-breaking RBI single and came around to score on a ball Pat almost hit over the wall for a second grand slam homerun. It bounced off the bottom of the wall. I’m pretty sure everyone scored except for him. Seven RBI in two at-bats? Pretty amazing. That put us ahead for good.
In the fifth inning, Nate — who pitched rather brilliantly — started to tire a little. Some runs scored, but we were so far ahead it didn’t much matter. In the next half-inning the umpire nearly called the game for our team. I had an RBI double and came around to score on another Pat hit. The ump eventually told our player/manager Matt that if he reached base, he was going to call the game. The pressure firmly put on Matt’s shoulders, he made an out, so we had to play a final half-inning. Nate was again effective in retiring the side, and even though the final score said it was 19-13, I think they scored five or maybe even six runs in that last half-inning, so the score should have been much more one-sided than it was.
A big game tonight. I’m hoping Pat’s absence won’t affect us negatively, as he is a presence in the middle of our lineup as well as in the outfield. We’ll see what happens…
