True Foes vs. The Felons, 6/23/09

It rained 20 of the past 23 days this month, but I hadn't really thought about what effect it would have on softball beyond the annoyance of canceled games. We may have cursed the rain for keeping us away from the field for so long, but evidently the field was loving every minute of it!

The outfield was a veritable meadow. The grass was lush and thick enough to make suburban lawnscapers green with envy. Weeds reached up to knee height, and bumble bees happily crawled around on the abundant clover. Little white butterflies flitted about, and the mosquitoes and no-see-ums were having a field day (pun intended).

The vegetation was so thick that we actually LOST a softball during warm-ups. It landed somewhere in right field, but by the time anyone jogged over to retrieve it, the foliage had hidden it from view. And we spent a good ten minutes tramping around looking for it! I swear I saw some plant growths out there that looked like Seymour had escaped from the Little Shop of Horrors and spawned in the navy yard.

Not that any of this is an excuse for our 12-0 loss; I'm merely setting the stage.

For the first three innings we really had a close game: they got a lucky run during the first inning, and then a freakishly fast triple-play by the Felons brought a swift and shocking end to our first at-bat. The following two innings passed in a flash, with both teams hitting well but fielding better, resulting in a lot of good catches and plays, but no runs.

Then in the fourth inning the Felons scored a second run. And then some more runs. It wasn't an unwinnable game for us at this point, but morale dropped faster than Spitzer's pants and we never made that comeback. Innings five through seven were more of the same: they hit, they scored, they grand-slammed, and we started making more errors in the field.

We strove for a rally, and to tell you the truth we were hitting well, but their golden gloves just scooped up everything that came off our bats, and we weren't able to turn it around.

On the bright side: we got to play! How good did that feel? Pretty freakin' good. The dark clouds and the sun took turns watching the game, but it stayed dry, and that's the important part. We also had a really healthy turnout, with more than enough fresh players to sub in halfway through.

Jason pitched a great game, keeping the Felons on their toes and really throwing the heat, as evidenced by the big bruise on my shoulder! We were happy to have Willy on first base, and he made some great catches over there. Tyson made a crucial catch at second, which put an end to one of their scoring streaks, and Abbey made a valiant effort on third in the latter half of the game.

Drew made his debut game and had at least one great hit that I remember, and--hold the phones--Peter Becker took a turn at bat! The only downside to having so many Foes ready to play is that I can't give a proper shout-out to everyone. Instead I'll finish by thanking our team mascot (Max) and his manager for coming by and showing their support!

We had plenty of vehicles after the game, which was a nice surprise. We all congregated at the Water Street Bar to sip our brews and lick our wounds. The horror of our shutout definitely detracted from our excitement to be back in action, but in true Foes fashion we drank away the pain and ended up having a great time catching up as a team.

I mean, hey. We hadn't played for two weeks, we were missing some regulars, and we gave it our best shot out there. Let's consider this a warm-up game, and now we'll be in top form for our next face-off this Friday! So shake off any regret or disappointment, stay limber, and bring your A-game. We'll finish off the week with a definitive win and get to crow about it all weekend!

GTF