2/18/15
Softball: Musings of a City Boy
Dear People,
Jim McGuire's team rallied from a harrowing 11-3 deficit in the third to trounce my own with a compelling mix of grit, tactical clarity and a shameless indifference to the emotively fragile contours of our unfortunate collapse, 26-19. The fact is that my side was totally dominant in the early going, but Bushrod is a voluptuous yet fickle mistress whose very nature is to sow the seeds of random and unexpected calamity. I refer you, of course, to the top of the 5th, with one on, two out and the score now tied at 15. If you must know, I came to the plate with a simple pledge to my peeps that I would break out of my 43-game slump, return big Mo' to our side, and perhaps most important, display my newly transcendent capacity to act as the subject---and not merely the dumbass object-of my own aerobic destiny.
Unfortunately, just as I was getting ready to blast away at a Steve Bedrick snooker ball, Reece calmly informed me that a fuzzy black bumble bee the size of a cantaloupe had landed near the top of my left shoulder. She was able to gently swipe it away, but the little bastard immediately regrouped and began a 30-second series of strafing maneuvers that targeted my ears, my skull and my very dignity as a paragon of athletic manliness. Apparently, it was the dignity that absorbed the greatest damage as I frantically darted about the batter's box to escape this outrageous and utterly unprovoked insectivian assault.
The point is that I've seen the stinger and the damage done, and while I was able to avoid a direct injection of subcutaneous poison, my batting suddenly went cold from all the psychic trauma (as if my previously stated plans to break out of my 43-game hitting slump had never been uttered!). Yeah, I happen to think that this apian fascist is an appropriate poster-child for the true and clearly overrated essence of nature that I referred you to last week, and while this time it was only my team that was waylaid by her capricious rage, I assume you see where I'm going with this.
Indeed, I think we can all agree that we will not be safe as a softball-lovin' folk until we can play in the hermetically sealed indoors of a pure polyurethane park, where the only carbon-based beings are Reece's beloved schnauzer Danny and your cherished fellow hominids. And yet for now, there will still be a game at North Oakland's quasi-majestic Bushrod Park this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning….Raymond
PS: Nature, baby!: Way cool discoveries by one of our own bio-athletic superstars…
http://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/Newly-discovered-fanged-frog-gives-birth-to-live-6071547.php
2/20/15
Softball: Last Days of Exile
Dear People,
There will be a game at Bushrod this Sunday at 11 and as of now it is full. As always, please let me know ASAP if you committed and need to cancel, and if you still want in, feel free to get on the wait list or contact me later for news of reopened slots.
Please remember that games at Bushrod are not guaranteed, but my algorithmic stew of the finest territorial and neighborhood metadata suggests that the odds of both diamonds being taken before we arrive are less than 1 in 4. Nevertheless, extra brownie points for those who get there by 10:30, especially if sporting a snarling 'tude for all potential interlopers….Raymond 845-7552
PS: For BR first-timers: http://www.yelp.com/biz/bushrod-park-oakland
PPS: Word has come down; Next week in Codorusalem! . . .
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