Softball: Where We Stand
Dear People,
My sincere apologies for this past Sunday. For the record, I believe this was the first time in over 10 years that I told you to come out to the field, only to see the game ruthlessly crushed before we even had a chance to start. Still, the bottom line is that a series of tactical miscalculations on my part is responsible for the piss off in question, and thus, if the people so demand, I will immediately resign and retire to my cherished childhood butter squash farm in forested rural Slovenia.
For what it’s worth, I truly thought that the weather was so gorgeous and 98% of the field was so perfectly playable that if a Parks and Rec employee did show up, they wouldn’t actually enforce the official field closure that was still in place. Honestly, I think the decision to do so was absurd on multiple levels, all of which I might soon write up in one of those delicate endeavors of literary cogency that is so utterly compelling that I sometimes frighten even myself (see the last half of http://www.eslnotes.com/ray/040903.html). In brief, I hope to convince the powers that be within Parks and Rec that a “zero-tolerance-for-mud policy”—most especially as applied to us as a paying softball-playing people—is unfair, unnecessary, ill-advised and quite frankly, an utter betrayal of the basic aerobic principles upon which this great nation was founded. Yeah, I don’t recoil from playing the Madison card.
In any case, I’m not really sure how we ended up on the City’s radar, but this situation has been evolving for several months and given the most recent developments, we now face yet another in a series of organizational crises that, as in the past, we will overcome with courage, grit and perhaps a masterfully executed hissy-fit. Indeed, I think of the countless times we’ve been kicked off our homeland (sometimes with no city fields available as a backup), or the time they threatened to make us buy liability insurance (which would’ve forced us to cough up several hundred dollars per month), or even the time that Nanci, Frank and Peter nearly seceded from our ranks to form their own semi-nude grass-surface curling league. Yeah, as a people, we overcome; That’s what we do.
The point is that I’m doing my best, but given the despicable rains and exasperating bureaucracy, the next few weeks could be a challenge. What I can say is that I won’t put you in the same situation as last time, in that the city employee I’m dealing with at the park has promised me that he’d clarify the field status on those Sundays when it’s closed early that morning. In the meantime, if anybody can think of any decent backup fields from North Oakland to El Cerrito, please let me know. With a couple 10AM volunteers and the wonders of cellular technology, we may be able to pull off some spontaneous short-notice decampments to other locales—verdant, playable and unencumbered by the iron fist of the annoying state. And therefore there will hopefully be a game at Codornices (or elsewhere) this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…Raymond
PS: Jonny insists that there are industrial foam sponges the size of car seats that efficiently suck dry puddled fields. I’m inclined to think that life in Australia has rendered him a tad delirious, but if anybody knows where I can find such a thing, I’d love to know.
3/5/10
Softball: A Call to Organizational Greatness!
Dear People,
There may be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, and as of now there is one slot left. You will need to check email that morning since even if it’s sunny then, we could very well face the same problem we had last week (I haven’t yet made my case for a more relaxed puddle standard with “the authorities,” and given we’re now close to the end of the rainy season, I may decide to hold back for tactical reasons).
In any case, I would love a few more suggestions for any decent local fields from El Cerrito to North Oakland that we could possibly use if the weather is fine on Sunday but we’re still not able to play on our beloved homeland (Berkeley will likely be patrolling all its own city parks, so no point in suggesting those).
Better yet: Please let me know if you’d be willing to be a hero and call me from said field around 10:15ish in order to occupy it as your own, until your peeps arrive in force about half an hour later. If just two or three people let me know that they’d accept this perilous but exhilarating assignment, my gut says we’ll be able to play no matter how cruel the city is.
Heroism rocks!/Hope for sun/Stout resolve/Fingers crossed. . .Raymond 845-7552
PS: You may not have noticed this, but I’d really like to play some softball.
3/7/10
Softball: Sunday Morning: Yeah, baby!
Dear People,
Codorinces is dry, glorious and officially open; See ya at 11. . .Ray 845-7552
PS: As of now we are full with a wait list; If you committed and need to cancel, please let me know immediately.