RRBS Softball Game Log
Game #8

August 14, 2007

Players: Nikki Connoly, Kambria Current, Jason Hoffsetz, Mike Jennings, Julie Mundz, Jon Stropes, Jamie Tate, Matt Thompson, Jenna ???

Normally I approach each and every softball game with a positive attitude, knowing that this would finally be the week we got our first win.  This week’s game was a little different.  I knew nothing about the team we were going to be playing in the upcoming week, because as odd as it may be, it was week eight and we were going to be playing them for the first time.  We’d already played three of the other teams in our league twice, and yet here was this new entity, an unfamiliar foe.  But that’s not where the ominous feeling began.

No, that feeling began when I got an e-mail that mike had sent out to the entire team stating that the team we’d lost to the previous week  (Team Jonesin) told him (Mike) that the team we’d be playing this week (Gatsby’s) had beaten them (Team Jonesin) by over 20 runs (Mercy Rule).  Uh-oh.  As Mike said in his e-mail, this one would be interesting.

To make matters even worse, we had a skeleton crew for a team.  We were missing four of our regulars this time around, so it was off to the sub-closet to find some replacements.  Staz was off in California at some sort of science fair, Kaitlyn was off gallivanting in Arizona hiking in the mountains and such, Jessica had tickets to go see Kenny Rogers (famous for the Gambler and Fried Chicken) at the state fair, and Ally had somehow lost all contact with the outside would.  Filling in for these four were team regulars Julie (famous for giving hell to the flirty ump), Jamie’s friend Jenna (who we’d all met last week), Jason (who’d filled in for Andy last week), and newcomer Nikki (who was friends with Mike, and from what I’d heard, a pretty good player).

So our lineup was set, but our spirit was not.  When I told Andy about the 20 run beat down the team before us had taken, we was ready to throw in the towel.  I was able to talk him down off the ledge, but was still not able to shake the feeling that we were in for some trouble.

I spent the rest of the week, trying to put my fear aside and instead use that energy to motivate the team.  Things were going well until I made the mistake of mentioning to them that the team we were was undefeated in our league.  Oh, and they were also in 4 other leagues on Tuesday nights, and combined had only lost three games.  That meant they were 32-3.  If what I just wrote didn’t sink in… read it again.  They were 32-3.  We were 0-7. 

With odds more lopsided going into this game than David had when walking up to Goliath, I began trying to imagine that this whole scenario was a movie.  We were a down on our luck team that couldn’t catch a break.  We’d constantly had our hearts ripped out by close games, still hadn’t won, and now were minus four of our regulars.  Then throw in the fact that we were going up against a semi-professional team who (for the purposes of the movie analogy) was run by an evil business owner, cheated, and hadn’t lost. Okay, the evil and cheating weren’t true, but my point is, if this were a movie, it was setting up for the perfect scenario for us to win this, and have the Cinderella ending featuring all of us hugging and dancing around on the field before it closes on a freeze-frame of the team lifting me on their shoulders, and then rolling the credits over some sapping, yet energizing 80’s rock song… like Don’t Stop Believing by Journey.

This image played in my head so many times over the next few days that I actually started to believe it was going to happen.  When Tuesday finally rolled around, I was actually pretty pumped up.  This was it.  It was the big story; it would make the game log of the century.  We’d probably make the paper, if not the 11 o’clock news.  There was plenty of time to make the news; it was a 7:30 game for god sake.  Who knows, a Wheaties box wasn’t even out of the question.  All I had to do now was make the team believe. 

Stropes and I were the first to arrive at the practice field, and we began our routine by having me pitch some balls to him and him smacking them into the outfield.  Little did I know that this exercise would end with me having to go out into the outfield and get all balls he’d hit while he greeted Mike and Nikki as they arrived.

As I collected the balls, Mike took over pitching to Nikki and I was happy with what I saw.  She made contact with almost everything, and looked to be putting it into the sweet spot just about every time.  About that time Kambria and Andy pulled up.  Kambria walked out the outfield to taunt me as I continued to collect Jon’s dingers, and Andy and Stropes began practicing their throws from short to first.

Jason, and Jamie soon pulled in and before long, we had a nice little practice going.  In fact, this was probably the most people we’d had at a practice since the first few weeks.  This was a good sign; we were serious about winning this week.  We all had fire in our eyes.

Oh, and did I mention that I had a new secret weapon that night?  Instead of my usual no-show socks that I wore with my cleats each week, I had decided to make the switch to black knee-high sports socks.  Though my calves are two of my best features, I figured I could do with covering them up one night for the good of the team.  Now all of a sudden I was an even fancier Fancy Dan.  I also remembered to wear my cleats this week, after last week’s street shoe debacle.  I wasn’t going to be sliding all over the place tonight.  Not sir… not in our moment of Disney Movie like glory.

When it was time to go, we all packed up and headed out.  Mike made sure to grab his two-litter bottle of rum and coke, as he hadn’t finished it yet, and it seemed to be doing him so good, he was hitting the ball like crazy.  Speaking of Mike, as we were leaving, he mentioned that he’d been working on a new pitching style involving backspin, and that if I needed a replacement tonight, he’d fill in.  I assured him I would do just that, but in the back of my mind I knew this was going to be a game for the ages… I’d be just fine.

As I drove to the field I sent our missing players a text messages telling them “Don’t Stop Believing.”  I couldn’t wait for this game to be over, for us to have gotten a win for the ages, and I for me to call all of them telling them of our victory.  It was going to be special.

Right when we got to the field, the mood seemed to change.  It was kind of like the feeling you get during March Madness, you know when you see a major underdog going up against Duke, and you convince yourself that the little team has a chance.  And then as soon as they walk out on the floor and you see they all the guys are white and their uniforms look like they were made at home you know the games over before it even starts.  It was kind of like that.

When we got there and congregated around the bench, we looked across the field at a team comprised of five hulking guys who where all decked out in the finest athletic gear, and five big girls, the smallest of which was probably still bigger than me.  I started wishing they had random steroid testing in this league.

To make matters worse, we were going to be playing on dreaded field two, you know, the astro-turf field.  The field where the guy beat us with a grand slam.  Now we were going to be going against the best team on the fastest field.  My movie imagery had just when from being an inspirational sports story to pure fantasy.  There was no way we had a chance in this one. I decided to take this moment to snap a picture of the scoreboard with the score tied 0-0, as I knew this was probably the closest this game was going to be all night.

Now with the fear of god in us, we went into the dugout and prepared to play ball.  We were the home team so we’d be pitching first.  That was good, we were much better fielders than we were batters, so we’d get a look at this team and see what they were all about before we had to bat.  They were playing right into our hands.

In my new black socks I took the mound and threw a couple of test pitches to Julie.  They were way, way off.  Oh shit.  When the guy from the other team finally stepped up to bat, and the old guy ump from a few games ago told us to play ball, my pitches didn’t get any better.  I walked the first three batters that came up.  And before the game had really even started, we were down 0-3.  What was happening?  I hadn’t thrown this badly since week one.  Finally, I think because they felt bad for me, they started swinging at pitches and we got a couple of outs, but not before they got a couple more runs.  It was 5-0 by the time we got the inning over with, and that was only before Jason in right center and Mike in left center had caught a couple of pop ups, and we got an automatic out because they were a girl short in the first inning. I felt awful, I single handedly gave them three runs to start the game, and we couldn’t afford that against this team.

Back in the dugout, I was ready to just sit and collect my thoughts for a few minutes.  We had a good group of batters on the team this week, so I wasn’t worried about a quick inning.  Well, I should have been.

Stropes walked up to the plate and swung at the first ball he was thrown.  He popped it up, and that was out number one.  Next up was Nikki.  I’d put her in the number two spot because she’d been solid in practice.  She stepped to the plate, swung at the first pitch, it was stopped by the pitcher and she was out at first.  Out number 2.  Next was Mike.  I’m sure he’d get on base; he’d been crushing the ball.  First pitch, he makes contact, caught in the outfield.  Three pitches, three outs, we headed back to the outfield.

I stepped up to the mound not knowing what to expect this time.  I threw my first pitch and it was way to the left.  Then I threw two more that were nowhere close, and I walked another guy.  I’d walked more people in this game than I had the last two combined.  At that point, I felt the eyes of all of my teammates on me, and knew I just didn’t have it in me to go on that night.  Looking back, I wish I had.  And I wish I could put a better spin on it than this, but at that point, I turned into a coward and just gave up.  If there’s one thing I regret more than anything from the entire season, it’s when I shut down, turned to Mike in left field and asked him to take over for me.  I could tell by his expression that he was happy to do it.  He, just like everyone else had seen my pitching up to that point, and I think we all knew that he couldn’t do any worse.

For the first time since game number 2, I wasn’t pitching.  I took a spot out in left field and hung my head in shame.  At least I knew I couldn’t do any more damage out here.

Mike took his warm up pitches and then the game proceeded. At first he didn’t fare much better than I did, walking the next two batters. but after that he seemed to catch his groove… but unfortunately, so did they.

These guys were unbelievable batters.  Even the girls could put that damn ball wherever they wanted to.  And what was even more unfortunate is that where they wanted to put it was right at me.  The first hit they got after Mike took over was a high pop fly in my direction.  I was looking forward to making the catch and getting some redemption, but I misjudged the ball and it landed over my head.  I scrambled for it and made the throw to Andy, but it was too late, they’d score again.

The next two hits were also in my direction.  One was a foul ball that I just gave up on even though I probably could have caught it.  The next was a line drive down the left field line that rolled between my legs and hit the wall.  How did that happen?  In the infield I never missed those?  But at that point, it didn’t matter.  Once again, they got a score out of it.  Finally, Mike and Jason had both had enough, and yelled at me to switch places with Jason in right center.  I was more than happy to make the change.

More depressed than I’d ever been on the field, I went over to right, hoping to just get out of this inning without messing anything else up.  

During that inning, they scored a total of 10 runs.  Between my horrible fielding, Mike walking batters, and Andy injuring himself on the turf, we were looking awful.  Nothing, and I mean nothing was going right. 

As we walked back into the dugout, Kambria waited behind at second and gave me a hug.  As honestly as I’d ever heard her say anything, she said to me, “you look so sad, it’s not your fault.”  It told her that it sure felt like it was.  She told me not to worry about it, and I said I wouldn’t once we got back in the dugout and finally got some hits.

Well, those hits didn’t come in this inning either.  Down 15-0 in the bottom of the second inning, our fourth batter, Kambria, took the plate, swung and hit the first pitch, and was thrown out at first.  Jason was up next and he swung at the first pitch, and popped out.  Next was Jamie, our anchor.  She hit the first pitch thrown, and the pitcher caught it.  Three up, three down, we were back in the field.

Nobody in our dugout could believe it.  We had been thrown six pitches all game, and every one of them resulted in an out.  This had to be some sore of record.  What in the hell was going on?  Aside from me, the person least excited about taking the field again was Julie, whose arm was worn out from thrown the ball back to Mike after every pitch.  She asked if she could trade with someone, but we all pretended not to hear.

This time around, we didn’t do as bad in the field.  They only scored three runs.  Jason did a fantastic job in the outfield, making two catches, and Mike was getting better on the mound.

Something strange had come over me too.  I don’t know whether it was the stress that finally broke me, or if it was the sad looks on all my teammates faces, but for some reason, I went from super-depressed to “I just don’t give a shit and I’m going to start talking smack.”

I started yelling things in the outfield like “okay guys, we’ve given the head start we talked about” to “he’s afraid to swing.  Watch he try and walk again.”  And I don’t know if what I was saying started to get on their nerves, or if they just let off the gas, but things started turning around.

There was no chance in hell we were going to make a comeback, but at least we had decided to play for pride.  In the third inning, we were now down 18-0, and Andy was up to bat.  He looked determined out there as he took the plate, and unlike our other batters he didn’t swing at the first pitch.  This shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise; he never swung at the first pitch.  Of course, it was a strike, but that’s not the point.  The point was their streak of three pitches an inning was over.  “That’s it, we’re going to wear him out now,” I yelled from the dugout, and the pitcher wasn’t happy to hear it.  He threw another strike Andy’s way, but this time he hit it, and guess what… he made it to first!  The streak was over, we had a hit.  Our dugout exploded with cheers. 

“Take that, Nolan Ryan” Stropes yelled from the baseline.  “There goes your perfect game!”

That excitement was short lived though as Jenna then walked up to the plate and struck out, followed by me going up there, swinging on the second pitch, and sacrificing Andy on second base.  Julie then came up after me, struck out, and it was back into the field.  It didn’t matter though, we’d gotten two hits. 

My shit talking continued into the fourth inning as they came up to bat again.  And by golly, I think it started to work because we were able to go three up and three down on them.  Jason caught another fly in the outfield, and then both Kambria and Jamie made plays at first. 

Now we were up to bat again, and the momentum was on our side.  Sure, it was 18-0, but things were about to change, and this time, for the better.  We were back at the beginning of our batting order, and it had only taken four innings to do that.  Stropes was up first, and he had something to prove.  He belted one out into the outfield and got on first.  Nikki was up next, and although she barely hit the ball, it was enough to advance Stropes to second.  Now Mike was up, and he looked pissed.  All of that anger came flowing out into that poor yellow soft ball as he belted it into deep left field, over the fielder’s head.  Mike took off running, as did Stropes.  Mike was able to turn it into a triple, and Stropes was able to score!

We did it, we’d gotten a run!  It wasn’t a shutout!  “We’ve got ‘em scared now,” I yelled from the dugout.

Kambria was up next and she was able to drive Mike home and get on first.  This was followed by Jason getting a hit, Jamie striking out, and Andy getting a hit, but causing Jason to get thrown out.  All in all, a very productive inning, especially considering what we’d been through so far.

As we took the field again I yelled, “If this were the first inning, we’d be in the lead.”  And it was true, too.  We’d scored two runs that inning, they’d scored none.  They were lucky this was near the end of the game, because now we were playing RRBS ball, and they were scared.

Well, no they weren’t, but they did seem a little upset at our running mouths and playful ways.  It affected them so much that once again we kept them from scoring in the fifth inning.  Down by 16, all we wanted to do now was make it to the end of the game before it being called due to the 10-run mercy rule at the end of the fifth.  That meant we had to score 7 runs, or at least let the time run out.

Jenna was up first and knocked one toward third base, but was thrown out at first.  Then it was me.  I fouled the first one, then popped up the second one for an out.  Finally, it was down to poor Julie, whose arms aching from the amount of throws she’d had to make from home. She did make contact with the ball this time, but the catcher was able to get the ball and throw her out at first. That was it, with 5 minutes left to go in the game, we were ‘mercy-ruled.’  Down by 16 in the fifth, the ump called the game and we walked off the field.

Much like every other time we’d walked off of field two, we left depressed.  Nobody really spoke as we left other than the occasional “see you next week,” and “what the hell just happened?” As I walked out, I pulled out my phone and texted Staz, Ally, Kaitlyn and Jessica the same message “Okay, you can stop believing now.”

Then, with the worst game I’d ever played at any sport in my entire life, I went home to get drunk.