9/5/00
Softball: Hobos ( Musings on a Transition under Strain)
Dear People,
Congratz to all on last week’s oddly mellifluous 13-5 farewell to the lush green soilage of our beloved Codornices. Although my own team’s batting was admittedly pitiful, I suspect that our failure to connect was more reflective of a superior inner tenderness than a lack of raw athletic potential. Indeed, I myself went hitless on four at bats, and while I’m obviously not "proud" of this, I have no doubt that my heightened concern for the fate of both our field and our people conspired with the fact that I couldn’t get back to sleep after that stupid 5.2 earthquake, and thus I unfortunately lost the normal cognitive focus with which I usually attain a more respectable level of hitting mediocrity.
In addition, I confess that I was deeply unsettled when I noticed right after the game started that exactly half the eight males on the opposing contingent were named "Dave"; To wit, David E, David R, Dave K, and Lisa’s Dave. I suppose that some would claim that this is all irrelevant, and yet in fairness, I had to captain a team with a dubious assortment of individuals whose very appellations reeked of nominal disadvantage within the context of this quintessentially American athletic experience; Specifically, a "Brohein" (Lebanese), an "Ehud" (Israeli), a "Benoit" (French), and an "Ursula" (Uranush).
No, I do not claim some right-wing aerobic conspiracy, and ultimately, of course, responsibility for team balancing stops at my desk. But as I walked off that nurturing verdant tundra for what may be the last time of the Clintonian era, I could not help but wonder if come early next year, the same gazelles, polygamous spotted aphids and magnificent Alameda grazing yak will greet us upon our return. Yes, I left the field hitless, and my team lost, and lost hard (as you know, we had no Daves), but the tears that welled up inside me were not of shame, but rather of a growing pride in the realization that as a community, we had put down deep roots at Codornices, and in essence, we walked away having sprayed our kinesiological scent as thoroughly as the nastiest Oakland alley cat.
Of course, there will be those who now say that we must rest and enjoy the off-season, if for no other reason that we have no business continuing to wander from field to field like the tawdry athletic slut-whores that so many have already accused us of being. And yet as compelling an argument as that it is, I don’t buy it. Indeed, I truly believe that any person who spews such scornful intolerance is, to use the electoral argot of the day, a major league tukhis, and I mean big time. That’s what I think. And therefore, there will be a game at glorious SAN PABLO FIELD #2 this Sunday at 5PM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…..Raymond
9/8/00
Softball: Timing and Safety
Dear People,
There will be a softball game this Sunday at 5PM sharp at San Pablo Field #1 (directions below), and as of now, there is just ONE space left. You should also be aware that the park is reserved at 7PM, and in fact by the same group of charming fraternity fellows with whom we rumbled a couple months back. Therefore, PLEASE get there by 4:55 at the latest, lest we later be forced to choose between a truncated match and the spillage of blood, with all the unsightly yuckiness that such brouhaha entails……Raymond 845-7552
PS: Apologies for spamming the softball list with yesterday’s pitiful frisbee report. As you know, I am a cybertart of many sports, but just for the record, that was an honest technological mistake…ie….I certainly know the difference between you fine people and those shamelessly torpid bozos in the ultimate group.
PPS: This week’s field fee is only $1, and that includes the usual fresh coleslaw and pan-seared river eel.
PPS: Directions: The Park is 2 blocks Northeast of San Pablo and Ashby. Take San Pablo and turn East on Ward. Our field is at the corner of Ward and Park.
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