Nerve Endings Firing Away

I guess I must update you on my softball progress. I missed the last Sunday’s practice and I was partly relieved because of the near-sub-Saharan temperatures outside these days. The game however was not entirely uneventful. We were up against a stronger team which one bystander said, was the strongest in our league. Great! We had hoped to reduce our defeat margin and we certainly didn’t need the strongest team in the league to do that against. We later learnt that the team actually belonged to a higher league but had been dropped down because there weren’t many teams in their league. To make up for the obvious disparity in strength, we were credited with 5 runs to start off with. Not that it would make much of a difference, as we would find out later.

On the bright side, this team was a lot more merciful and after quickly realizing that we weren’t exactly a threat to their winning season, they even humored us. The fact that one of our team members didn’t know where exactly to stand near the home plate while taking strike certainly helped them gain that realization quick. Also, we managed to score two runs as opposed to the one solitary run we managed last time.

Personally, I finally got to bat and I can proudly state that my first swing got us a base hit. To make it more fulfilling I even managed to stop a slider inside the infield and run the batter out at the first base. This might seem ridiculously inane but in our team, it is not just a struggle to stop and throw the ball to the right person but also for that catcher to hold on to the ball. So if we manage to achieve both those tasks, then there is much shouting and cheering. I wonder sometimes if we should demote ourselves to the Little League but who knows, we might just get beat out there too :)

So we ended up with yet another 20+ run defeat but we were nevertheless upbeat because we sensed a glimmer of hope and a definite rise in our standards. We decided to meet up the following Saturday (this past weekend) for practice. And I was glad I made it this time. We practiced for around 2-3 hours and even got coached by couple of new team members who had played softball more than once in their life.

My talent at stopping balls inside the inner field was duly noted and I was assigned the permanent spot of short stop i.e. between bases two and three. Of course, my lusty hitting with the bat had the definite style of cricketing shots as I had to keep reminding myself to keep the bat in the air and not tap it down on the home plate before taking strike. I sweated like a pig after god/FSM knows how many years. All that wild swinging of the bat and throwing sharp returns was bound to have an effect on my lazy muscles. Right now, I’m sitting with an inflamed right arm that hurts like hell even if I lift it an inch. I just hope it heals in time for our next game on Wednesday. As our team name suggests, we just need more cowbell. But I am just starting to enjoy this much-needed outdoor activity for my lazy muscles. Wish me luck.