Softball

I know the word "love" shouldn't be abused. Obviously, it isn't right to say "I love my wife" and then follow it up with "I love tacos", nor is it ok to throw about an "I love Jesus" followed by "I love my car". But when I say "I love baseball", I'm not lying or exaggerating. The short list of things that I love and am passionate about includes Jesus, my wife, my son, my friends, and baseball. Right or wrong, I'm unsure, but it's how I feel.

I want to play the game. But I was never very good. So, I get my fix in other ways... the Reds, fantasy baseball, and now softball. Playing real baseball would likely be a good way for me to get seriously injured or seriously dead... so softball it will have to be.

My friend Levon got a couple of his buddies and a bunch of guys from the church together to form a team that plays on Thursday nights in Harrison. Levon is a good ball player. Unfortunately, the rest of us aren't. We lost our first game 18-1. Tonight, we lost 17-4. I keep telling myself that we're getting better. We scored 4 times as many runs and gave up one less. At this rate, next week will be a 16-16 draw.

The worst part? On the season, I'm 0-3. All three outs have been grounders to short. F bombs were freely emanating from my mouth* as I tried to beat the throws to first. Not good. I'm better than that. Really. I am. But if I ground out to short in my next at-bat, I might harm someone.

It's 11:45pm on Thursday night... ya think the cages are open?

*Those of you who really know me are aware that I don't have the cleanest mouth. It's not that I'm necessarily pro-cussing... it's just that sometimes I find the lesser-refined words to be more appropriate for the situation. Such as when I ground out to short in my 3rd consecutive at bat when facing vicious 18-mph pitches.