Softball: Homeward Bound
Dear People,
In our last Grove Park game of this pitiful decade, my team fought back from a terrifying 3rd-inning 14-run deficit to beat Jeff W’s with courage, spunk and inimitable joie de kick-ass, 30-26. Our triumph was all the more satisfying since the communal roster featured such a rich blend of new and familiar faces; Kush and Stephanie made their long-awaited league debuts, Kira came back from Seattle, Steve Seskin returned from a major national tour, and after nearly three years in semi-retirement, Nanci flew in from Emeryville to launch her long-awaited Elvis-like comeback as the moral backbone of our entire community.
Indeed, she played with particularly crisp resolve, at one point smashing a 4th-inning 5-foot single that left Jeff’s contingent both visibly shaken and morose. Moreover, while her fielding at 2nd was somewhat ineffectual (in that every groundball she touched ricocheted off her glove, foot or tibia before darting off to the outfield), I now believe that those 237 incidents were not actually “errors” as much as they were simple Newtonian misunderstandings. With proper study and crazy glue, I’m convinced there is hope.
The point is that over these last harsh months of bittersweet exile, no one could deny that we have transformed Grove from a barren and parched wasteland to our own terrestrial bosom of milk, honey and fresh seasonal kale. Nevertheless, and given a choice, we as a people will always return to the land of our deepest aerobic roots, where the redwoods rise high, the rich morning dew is moist and dewy, and of course, cackles of the mighty Tilden Yak rut freely on the genteel sloped tundra beyond deep centerleft. Yeah, I get clavicular goose bumps just thinking about it, and therefore there will be a game at CODORNICES this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…Ray
PS: As some of you may have noticed, I recently added a fairly large wave of new recruits to our ranks, which means that we are now somewhat oversubscribed (In fairness, all of the newbies have increased both our communal athletic abilities and our average IQ, and regardless, I did so because for several weeks in a row, I had been forced to scrounge around for players on Saturday afternoons. Have you ever had to scrounge around for players on Saturday afternoons? No, I didn’t think so).
In any case, given this demographic situation, I am now reserving the discretionary power to automatically wait list the following commits:
i-The offspring of regulars (no matter how cherished by the parental unit),
ii-Those who have played for the previous four games in a row, and
iii-Those who commit and then later cancel without a good excuse, or those who arrive annoyingly late (Of course those who commit and then flake outright will face arrest, trial and public shaming if necessary).
Call me a dictatorial monster if you must, but these are precisely the managerial imperatives which will calm the rush and restore the game-creating process to a healthy equilibrium. Moreover, lest you sink into despair, you should be aware that for most weeks, the majority of wait listed people get in, especially if they’re a bit determined and stay flexible in the day or so leading up to the game.
Finally, 13 years of experience tells me that there is a ceaseless process of communal moultage in which a certain percent of both old timers and new recruits inexplicably lose their aerobic passion and move on, and thus these new rules will likely be unnecessary just a month or two from now. Nevertheless, I understand that this is all terribly distressing and unseemly, and thus if the people in their organizational disgust so demand, I will immediately resign and retreat to my beloved childhood shtetl in the pastoral Texas Panhandle.
12/2/09
Softball: Quickly
Dear People,
There will be a game at CODORNICES this Sunday at 11, and as of now it is full. As always, if you committed and need to cancel, please let me know ASAP, and if you're looking for reopened slots, feel free to contact me later.
I'm at Boalt, a thousand embittered law librarians on my back, and so I will need to get back to several of you who already committed later today (Don't panic).
$4 for the field/See ya Sunday...Ray 845-7552