RRBS Softball Game Log
Game #6

July 31, 2007

Players: Kaitlyn Christopher, Kambria Current, Matt DiStasi, Jessica Hooker, Mike Jennings, Andy Lang, Julie Mundz, Jon Stropes, Jamie Tate, Matt Thompson

When you lose a heartbreaking game, all you want to do is get back out on that field and go at it again.  Unfortunately for me, my next opportunity to get redemption was nearly a week later.  And to make matters worse, the game wasn’t until 10:30 that night.  Needless to say I had a long time to sit and think about the walk-off grand slam that had doomed my team the previous week, and kept me from winning my first ever league game.

I wasn’t the only one on the team who had felt this way either, all of us were anxious to get back on the field.  After the way we’d played in the previous game, we knew we were on the verge of something special.  Everything had been clicking, we were all together, and we took the best team in the league to the absolute limit.  We were due for a win.  This was the second half of the season, and things were going to be different.

The first sign that things may not be right going into this game was that I got an e-mail from Ally on Monday saying that she wasn’t going to be able to make it to the game because she was moving back down to Bloomington.  That meant we were going to have to find another sub, something I had grown weary of doing.  My plan of having people find their own subs had seemed to fall by the wayside a few weeks ago, and wasn’t quite working out how I’d hoped.  The next tweak to the schedule came when I found out my dad, step-mom and brothers would be in town on Tuesday, and had made a plan to attend the game.  I was excited about this news as I always enjoy having an audience, but that kind of stuff also makes me nervous and I was worried that my performance on the mound might suffer because of it.  I was already a shaky mess after last week anyway.

Tuesday finally arrived, but the game still seemed to be a week away.  Those 10:30 games make the rest of the day seem to drag on and on and on.  Everything about the team seemed to be a little off too. Normally a few of us talk before hand about plans to practice or what our strategy would be, but nothing like that was going on this time.  I talked to Jessie about it before I’d left work that day, and though she was excited about playing again, she wasn’t looking forward to driving home, sitting around the house for a few hours, and then driving all the way back to the west side to play a game at 11PM.  I told her that when she put it that way, no, it didn’t sound like fun at all.

I felt bad that I wasn’t going to be able to rally the troops this week because my Tuesday was pretty much booked up.  I had to go home and clean my house in case my parents decided to come by, plus I had to run some errands, and get ready to go out to dinner.  I still don’t know why I bother to clean before anyone comes over to my place… who am I fooling into thinking I actually live my life in a nicely vacuumed and dusted house?  People know me well enough by now to know that’s a total lie.  Andy also was unable to take over in getting the team ready because he was busy working a double shift and getting ready for his trip to Florida the next day. 

The only two people I’d heard from that afternoon were Stropes (three times) asking me if we were practicing, and Mike who was also asking me about practice.  I told Stropes for the third time that I’d be unable to practice because I was going to dinner with my family, and I told Mike to call Stropes about getting together.  That seemed to solve all the problems.  Except for the sub thing.  I then had to call Stropes and talk to him for a forth time and ask him to find out if Julie could play this week, or if she was on umbilical cord duty again.  Stropes said he would take care of it, so with that, I left everything in his hands, and went about meeting my family for dinner.

I’ll save you the details of my family dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise other than to mention they have great drink specials and lousy toilet paper.  I ate some Caribbean Jerk wings that maybe stayed in my system for a total of 5 minutes before shooting out the other end.  If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would rather wipe my nether regions with dirt from the softball field than have to use their TP again.  As I drove to the west side I felt like a dog that had been scooting along on the carpet all day.

As I approached Andy’s house, I wondered if the team was still practicing in the dim light or if they’d moved on to somewhere else.  I tried both Jon and Andy’s phone looking for an answer but neither one picked up.  Typical.  After attempting each number three more times, Andy finally called back and told me they would be practicing for a few more minutes and I should just meet them there.  So that’s what I did.

Dressed in my Sunday best, I walked up to the field to see Andy, Staz, and Stropes throwing the ball around, and Mike throwing pitches to Kaitlyn.  All seemed right with the world other than I wasn’t out there with them.  I asked if I’d missed anything, and they said no.  I asked Kaitlyn if anything funny had happened.  She said no.  I said wow; this is going to be a prettying boring part of the game log.  I was right.

As I was talking to the rest of the team, Andy kept hinting that he really wanted me to go back to his house and change, so I finally said yes and started to get in my car.  He then got in the car with me and it became clear that what he was really asking was if he could get a ride home.  On the way over there he told me that he was in a horrible mood, and was doing his best not to snap at everyone.  Work and his upcoming trip had been stressing him out, and this late game wasn’t helping.  This wasn’t good news as an angry Andy normally leads to an angry everyone else.  He told me to keep an eye on him and if he started mouthing off that I should step in.  I asked him what I should do if he started mouthing off to me and he said that he’d already thought of that, and warned Stropes of that scenario.  Sounded like all those bases were covered.

So we pulled up to Andy’s and I changed into my Fancy Dan shirt, spikes and black shorts.  I also put my Cardinals cap on, and would be leaving it on all night so Stropes wouldn’t be able to pull another “hide that hat” trick on me.  Andy was angrily throwing clothes around in his room, only some of which making it into his suitcase, so I decided that this was the best time to make my exit.  I jumped in the car, turned on Journey, and headed back to the practice field.

Well, the practice field was empty as the rest of the team had already left.  Just perfect, thanks guys.  I stepped on the gas and burned my way to the game field, hoping to eventually get to spend some time with my teammates before we took the field to finally get that elusive when. 

When I pulled into the parking lot I saw Mike, Kaitlyn, Stropes and Staz unpacking their stuff.  I guess going 25 mph over every posted speed limit had come in handy.  I cranked the music and we had another parking lot jam session, but this one was a little more subdued than last week’s.  It may have had something to do with it being close to 10 PM, at least, that’s what I was hoping.  On the way in, Kaitlyn told me that her laid back demeanor was due to taking too much Benadryl earlier in the day (as in about an hour before the game).  I was telling her how smart that was as we made our way to the concession stand where we saw Mike icing down his arm again.  One by one my team was falling apart right before my eyes.

He said he’d re-aggravated his injury from last week during a game an organized kick-ball over the weekend.  I began thinking that Mike was playing in more leagues this summer than I had in my entire life.  I pulled out a nice warm bottled water to pass the time until Kaitlyn asked me if she could have it because she was hot.  I dutifully handed it over, but did pull a guilt trip on her before pulling out one of the other bottles I’d stashed away in my bag.  She was thankful for the water until she noticed it was near boiling temperature, having sat in my car all day.  While trying to choke some down myself, I explained that I preferred my water that way (a total lie, but hey, anything to save face.)

By then Andy and Kambria were walking up, so we made our way to field five which might as well have been in Michigan with as far as we had to walk to get there.  I was beginning to wonder if they were lying to us about their being a field five when we finally came upon a big diamond with a blank scoreboard.  Ooohhh, this was the field Mike had been talking about, the one where you had to keep your own score.  Just great, one more thing to worry about.

When we got there Mike (still icing his arm) and Kaitlyn (now icing her water bottle and barley awake) went over to talk to a few of their friends, Andy and Stropes started chatting it up, and Kambria and Staz took a seat on the bleachers.  I asked if anyone would throw a few balls with me since I’d not been able to warm up.  I didn’t get the response I was hopping for, and by that I mean I didn’t get a response at all.  Thanks team!

Fortunately Kambria had a soft spot for me and volunteered to throw a few my way.  I was glad that she’d accepted my offer but at the same time was worried she'd unleash her 120mph fastball at me “by mistake.”  I really wished I hadn’t teased her all those times as she began hurling balls at me.  For some reason, most of the balls she threw seemed to make a beeline right for my groin area, something she claimed to be pure coincidence.  I had no choice but to believe her.  In my mind though, I was cursing myself for this being the first week I hadn’t worn my cup.

Jessie and Jamie soon joined us, and both took spots on the bleachers where we watched the game before us finish up.  Kaitlyn had also taken a spot near the bleachers where she began to tease Andy about something.  I quickly made a point to tell her that tonight was not the night to be doing that, to which she replied in her drug induced stupor “I don’t care.”  I figured it best not to argue.

It was then I noticed that our sub, Julie hadn’t made it to the field yet.  I approached Jon about this and he said emphatically that he’d talked to her and that she was coming.  This didn’t comfort me, and it had nothing at all with me not trusting Julie and her word.  It was more of me not trusting that Stropes had actually called her and confirmed this, but then again, I am the paranoid type.  I also noticed that on the field we’d be playing on we had a new ump for the second week in a row.  This one seemed about 30 years younger, and was actually smiling while calling the game behind the plate.  He was stocky and bald, but seemed likeable enough.  Finally, we were going to have a normal guy calling our game.  Or so I thought.

The game before us ended and our team (minus Julie) carried our things into the dugout.  As I went to fill out the batting order, I realized my lucky pen was missing.  This night just kept getting worse and worse.  Had it not been close to 11 by now, I probably would have handled this in a much better way, but it was, so my method of coping with this was to accuse everyone in the dugout of having taken it.  Then I apologized, and asked if anyone there had a pen.  Jessie, Jamie and Kambria all said they didn’t, and I got mad and asked them how they couldn’t have one?  Jessie then reminded me that I didn’t have one either.  I told her that was completely different, and stormed off.  Too add to my panic, the ump yelled and asked to have team captains meet near the plate. That meant I had to abandon my search and meet him so he could go over all the rules we already knew.  He also told us that since our field didn’t have a scoreboard, we were going to have to do it ourselves.  He said it was the Home teams responsibility, and of course, we were the home team.  I asked him if there was any special sheet we were supposed to use to keep score.  He said no, and looked at me like I was an idiot.  Silly me for asking a logical question.

Still pissed at the ump, I walked back to the dugout to fill out the batting order and scorecard when I once again realized I had no pen.  I went flying down the pathway toward the concession stand to find a pen as I heard the ump yell for the home team to take the field.  Now, instead of throwing warm up pitches (which I didn’t get to do earlier because I was at dinner) I was looking for a damn pen.  What is wrong with the girls on my team, don’t all women keep that kind of crap in their purses?

Luckily when I was almost halfway there, I ran into the members of my family who were making the long walk back to field #5.  Out of breath I asked Stacy and my step-mom Dawn if either of them had a pen.  Stacy handed me a Sharpie and I ran back to the dugout.  I didn’t have any time to fill things out as everyone else was already on the field and the opposing batter was ready to go.  Julie had shown up too, and was sitting in the dugout.  I told her that she’d be playing right field next to Staz, and she happily headed out that way.

As I took the mound, Kaitlyn and the ump were talking and he really didn’t seem to care that I was about ready to throw a pitch.  In fact, I don’t think he even looked at the ball as it left my hand and made it’s way toward the batter.  The batter hit it and we got an out, but the lack of attention to my throw, and amount of attention being paid to our catcher worried me a bit.  That first inning wasn’t very eventful as the other team managed to score a few runs, but it’s not like that was anything new.  The interesting part of the deal was when my family took their seats in the stands and unveiled a number of brightly colored hand-made signs, each with a clever message on them.  Mix that with my dad saying things like “Hey pitcher, try giving them something they can hit,” only added to my already shaky psyche.

While walking back to the dugout, I heard my dad saying not to worry about those runs, that we could get them back, but at the same time I noticed my brother Adam holding a sign that said “No Show,” and my brother Aaron holding one that said “Fancy Dan.”  Were they here to taunt me or cheer me?  When it came to motivation, they sure could take some lessons from Ally.  I was later told that the “No Show” sign was intended for the other team that was now taking the field, and it was only a misunderstanding that the “Fancy Dan” sign was being held next to it.  How convenient.

When Andy grabbed a bat and headed off to bat, er, walk; I approached Kaitlyn to ask her about the ump.  I hadn’t even made it over to her before she began telling me what had been going on behind the plate.  I guess there was a good reason he wasn’t watching my balls, he was too busy thinking with his.  By that I mean, he’d spent the entire inning hitting on Kaitlyn.  His opening line was something along the lines of “What’s your name.  Hi, I’m single.”  Followed up by classics like “Do you ever date older men,” and “If I told you that you had a nice body, would you hold it against me.”  Okay, he didn’t say that last one, I don’t think, but it wouldn’t have shocked me.  Fortunately for her, Andy did walk, and Kaitlyn got to take her base without having to bat next to Freak-Master Ump.

We went through our batting order that inning, but as usual we left a few stranded on bases.  We got a few runs, but still found ourselves behind.  Of course, playing from behind is what the RRBS does best… and that’s mostly because it’s what we do almost all the time.

In the field things weren’t going too poorly.  We had made a switch before the game and had pulled Jessie off of second and placed her in left where Ally normally played.  We had decided to move Kambria to second base, mostly due to her mother requesting the switch.  I guess she had seen Kambria play in the outfield the week before, and didn’t like what she saw.  I’m pretty sure she was referring to the two balls that went flying over her head.  We were more than happy to make the change, as Jessie hated second, and Kambria was a natural infielder.  In fact, since we lost Kimmy back in week #1, Kambria was the best fit for that position that we’d had… and we’d had a lot.

And speaking of switches, I also decided to move Kaitlyn to the outfield, away from Mr. Chummy, and put Julie behind the plate.  Kaitlyn was grateful for the switch, and I think Julie was too.  I could tell that she was looking forward to verbally jousting with this guy.  I also did it because I knew if I didn’t, Mike and Stropes were going to go kick this guys ass.  I probably would have gotten in a few shots too, but only when I knew no one was looking and I couldn’t be identified to the police.

Aside from filling in at Catcher, Julie also provided one of the more comical moments of the evening. It started with her getting walked and getting to take her base on first. This was followed by me going up to bad and doing my patented shots right toward second base. It looked like they were going to get her out at second, but the shortstop (who was now covering second) dropped the ball.  Julie was going to be safe!  Wait, no, she had stopped running, and was already headed back to the dugout as we all yelled at her to turn around and go back.  But by then it was too late.  She made sure to remind us that this was the first time she’d played in many years. How can you argue with that?

Stropes was having another good night on first, and Andy was able to stay on his feet more this game.  It was only when a ball was hit to me and I tried to make a play at second that we looked a little foolish.  The ball dribbled off a guys bat and I ran up to get it.  There had been a runner on first who was taking off for second and I heard Andy yell at me to make the play there.  I turned and saw that both Andy and Kambria were covering the bag, so in a fit of confusion, I throw the ball, but completely missed them both.  This allowed the runner going to second to continue on to third, and the runner on first to continue to second.  You’d have thought we’d have stopped the play to second, but both Kambria and Andy took off after my horrible throw, leaving the bag unattended.  That’s all-star play right there, folks.

That’s when my brothers and Stacy broke out the John 316 signs for inspiration.  It seemed to help as we managed to get out of that inning giving up only a few more runs.  Now it was time to bat again, and surprisingly, we made a little run.

Stropes was hitting the ball better than he had all season, Staz got a nice base hit, Andy knocked a few to the outfield, and Jamie was solid as usual too.  Even with all the taunting and signs being waved behind me didn’t keep me from keeping my streak of base hits alive.  I even managed to get my first double of the season.  I think it was the chants of “Easy Out” as I stepped into the batters box that motivated me the most.  Then there was Mike, who even with a sore arm, was knocking the crap out of the ball every time he got up.  There wasn’t a single time that a ball he hit didn’t look like it was going over the fence, that is, until the head wind would catch it in the outfield.  Twice he crushed a ball that looked like it was a home run only to have it drop just before the fence, and right into the centerfielder’s glove.  I could tell he was starting to get frustrated.

Our girls were getting frustrated for another reason; the umpire.  He hit on every one of our girls as they went up to bat, and as the night went on, he got worse.  He told Kambria that if she “shook it for him, he’d call more balls than strikes on her.”  When she refused, he called strikes.  Poor Kaitlyn had to swing at everything that was thrown toward her because it didn’t matter where the ball landed, he was going to call a strike because he was still pissed she moved into the outfield.  He asked Julie what kind of car he’d have to buy her to get her to sleep with him, to which she answered, “You couldn’t afford it.”  Jamie and Jessie were also getting harassed and asked why they wouldn’t flirt back with him.  Normally I would have tried to lighten the mood and told them to flirt back so that we could get some calls, but he was too creepy even for that.

Then came our favorite, the fourth inning where, as is always the case, our team hit a bit of a rough patch.  We’d kept pace with the other team all night, staying one or two runs behind them, and even tying it at the end of the third.  Then came the fourth, and poor Jessie was the one they were going to pick on.  In all of our previous games, the majority of shots to the outfield have headed toward Mike in left/centerfield.  Tonight, things changed.  Three times the ball was hit down the leftfield line right at Jessie, two went soaring over her head, and one smacked her right in the leg.  Every one of those hits lead to a double or better, and before we knew it we were down by four again. 

Time was now running out, our energy was sapped, and it looked like we were due for another defeat.  We were near the end of our batting order, which had done a fair job to this point, but isn’t the group you’d look to in rally time.  The game was so tense that even our cheering section had given up heckling us, and was now actually cheering and encouraging to the point that it almost felt like we did have a home field advantage.

Staz was the first up to bat, and he wasted no time in getting on first base.  My dad would later comment on how fast Staz was, stating again that if he got his bat on the ball, he was going to make it to first base.  Kambria followed Staz and knocked another beauty to the outfield getting a double and sending Staz to third.  Oh my goodness, I feel a rally coming on.  All seven people in our cheering section were going nuts as we felt the momentum changing.  I could tell by the looks on the other teams faces that they felt what we felt last week when the rally started against us.  Stropes followed Kambria and he knocked one deep into the outfield, getting a double on the play. This got Kambria and Staz home, and low and behold we were now only down by three. Julie was up next and struck out, which meant The Mighty Fancy Dan was at the bat. I hit a hot shot to third which held Stropes on second and forced the third baseman to throw toward first to cut me off. Thanks to thier pitcher getting in the way of the throw, I made it to first just in time and Stropes took off for third. Thinking fast, the firstbaseman then threw a line drive toward third base to cut off Stropes, but thinking faster Stropes slid and took out the legs of the rather large woman gaurding the bag. She crumpled on top of him pinning him to the ground while the ball rolled toward the fence. The bald ump called time which froze me at first, and Stropes had no choice but to remain pinned to the ground. The Ump walked over to check on the girl, and she played it up like it was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Looking at her, I knew that couldn't be true. Once everyone was back up and ready to go, the Ump took his flirting position, and said game on.

After the long delay, Jessie took to the plate and struck out, this just wasn't her night. That meant Andy was now up. The other team, having seen it done twice before, knew that Andy was looking to walk, and they let him hear about it.  They didn’t want him to walk because that would mean two more runs for us, so they started heckling him saying, “throw a strike, he doesn’t know how to swing the bat.”  Andy took offense to this and swung the bat, and swung it well, knocking the over the second baseman's head.  Stropes took off and scored at home and I was able to round two bases and do the same. This left Andy on second with two outs and Kaitlyn was up.  Knowing she was going to have to swing at whatever the guy threw, she took a shot at the fist pitch and missed it, but didn't make that same mistake the second time. She reared back and hit a great shot toward third and made it to first before they could cut her off. Upon arriving to first base she had to fix her hair. Everyone in the dugout made sure to let her know that she looked fine, and that she could now just concentrate on running the bases. Now we were tied, with Mike up to bat, Andy on second base and Kaitlyn on first.  Two outs and less than two minutes to go.  If Mike drove a run in here, we’d take the lead, and time would expire.  We were the home team so it was going to end with us, no extra chance for the other team. 

The crowd was going crazy as Mike stepped up to the plate.  The pitch was thrown and it was right where he wanted it.  With a crack of the bat the ball went flying toward the wall again.  This was it, he was finally going to get that home run, or at least it was going to hit the wall and get us a double for the win!  But then the impossible happened, their centerfielder made the most unbelievable catch against the wall, and he was out.  The rally had ended.  The other team was going to get a chance to bat again.  Shit!

Not again, this was not going to happen, it couldn’t.  We were due, damn it! We headed back on the field knowing that we had to make quick work of them in order to get back up and put this game away.  We still had another at bat, and could still get our first win.  Well, that’s what we thought until the wheels came off of our fielding.  They hit a few more shots to Jessie, Andy fumbled a couple of shots toward short, I blew a throw to first, Mike fell down trying to catch one in the outfield, Jamie missed a play at third and when it was all said and done they’d rattled off eight runs on us.  It got so bad that at one point, the ump decided he needed to take a pee break in the middle of the inning.  Kambria claimed he went to “rub one off” which wouldn’t have surprised me in the least.  When we finally got the third out, our energy was gone.  It was close to midnight, our hearts had been ripped out, and we’d missed on our rally the previous inning. 

That was until Kambria and Stropes knocked a few balls to the outfield and got a run out of it.  Stropes was on second when Jessie came up, and got walked.  Staz then struck out and Jamie knocked a base hit that sent Stropes home.  I got up to bat and hit one out into left field that got Jessie to third, and Jamie to second, and you can only imagine how impressed I was that I didn’t sacrifice Jamie on that play.  Julie then trotted up to the plate, told off the ump, and struck out.  The important thing was that she went out swinging, and didn’t let the ump decide the game, which he would have.  Speaking of which, this is where Andy comes back into play.

Just like the last time he was up there, the team I the field was giving him hell about not swinging at anything, even though he’d hit his previous two at-bats and got doubles both times.  I could tell he was torn as he got up to the plate because he wanted to walk (which would have given us two more runs) but at the same time he was being called out by people he didn’t know, and that pisses Andy off more than anything, or so I thought.

The first pitch cam his way and was wide left of the plate.  Strike!  What?  The ump called a strike on that one?  Here we go again.  Andy turned and looked at the ump, then dug in and waited for his second pitch.  This one was even further to the left, and the ump had no choice but to call a ball.  Now with his third pitch, the pitcher threw the ball high, and it landed on the plate.  I swear to god, on the freakin’ plate.  Strike! That’s the ball game.  Huh????  It hit the damn plate, how can that be a strike???  Everyone on the team was silent, and so was our cheering section.  The game had come to an end, and for a split second, I thought the umps life had too.

Everyone kind of took off in a hurry, mostly because it was now midnight.  Only Mike stayed behind to hit some balls out toward the fence, one of which went over.  Why does that only happen in practice?

I said goodbye to my family, and posed for some pictures with the signs.  They told me they had really enjoyed the game, as it was one of the most entertaining events they’d been to in awhile.  I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not.  I then followed Stropes and Staz and Stacy out to the parking lot where we continued to bitch about the ref, his shitty calls, and his inappropriate behavior.  After taking his frustration on some glow in the dark yellow balls, Mike joined us too.

Around that time Stropes saw somebody leaving the field and ran over to confront them.  He thought it was the bald ump, but it wasn’t.  It was, however, a girl who had played on our field in the game before us, and she said that he had treated all of their girls the same way.  With this news, Mike decided he was going to contact the front office and report this jack-off.  I couldn’t have agreed with his decision more.