Game #1

Months of practice. And it all came down to this ...

We opened our men's baseball league season tonight. And lost 16-4.

You could blame it on nerves. You could blame it on poor defense. You could blame it on a lack of timely hitting. Blame it on the wicked wind blowing out to right field. Or you could blame it on the fact that the team we were facing was one of the better teams in the league last year ...

Coming into the game, we were feeling capable of beating anyone. In our months of practice we'd built a strong chemistry and camaraderie. And all of us were pretty decent ballplayers capable of playing any position ...

We batted first and quickly put two runs on the board. I batted fifth in the order, walked on four straight pitches and got moved over to second on a single. But that was the only taste we'd have of the lead. The other team came up and scored four runs in their half or the first, including a three-run homerun that cleared the fence by about 15 feet. Stupid wind.

On defense, I started the game in center field. And given some of the balls I'd chased down in practices, my confidence to play the position was up -- way up ... and instead, I was humiliated.

As the innings went on and more batters were making contact, it was becoming unbelievably tough to pick up the ball from the outfield. I could follow it from the pitcher's hand to the plate, but as soon as any batter made contact, and if it was hit back in the air, I was losing sight of the ball ...

In my first mishap, a ball was hit to my left in right center field. My fielders were yelling in, in, in, and the ball was totally in my range. But I had no idea where it was. And before I picked it up, the ball had fallen and the right fielder was sprinting over to pick it up and get it in. As for the batter: an inside the park homerun. That play should have been the third out of the inning, but they would go one to score three more runs.

Then in the next inning, another ball was hit to straight center field and falling about 10 feet in front of me. But again, I didn't see it off the bat and I had no clue as to where it was. Luckily, the left fielder had picked it up, saw I was lost again, and sprinted over, nearly making a diving catch. The batter ended up with a double.

Though I can't imagine they were causing my sudden blindness, I immediately removed my sunglasses ... A couple batters later, a ball was hit in my direction and deep. That one I picked up quickly, ran back, following it all the way, and I made the grab over my shoulder. Now why couldn't the other ones be that easy!?

By the fourth, we were down by at least 10, and my switch to second base couldn't come soon enough. It was a fresh start, and I wasted no time redeeming myself ...

A batter sent a soft liner through the right side and rolling into the right field grass. I ran out and normally would have let the right fielder grab it, but his speed wasn't cutting it. I tore after the ball, picked it up in right field and fired into the shortstop covering second base as the batter was trying to stretch the hit to a double. My throw was right on the money and he made a perfect tag to get the runner out ...

Then , a couple innings later, a batter hit a chop grounder straight to me at second. With a runner on first, I snagged the ball, made the pivot and made a good throw to second to get the first runner. Then the shortstop fired to first base for the second runner. His throw would been in plenty of time but it pulled the first baseman off the bag and the runner was safe … Man, it would’ve been a sweet play had we turned that ...

I would get to the plate one more time before the end of the game. I slapped a groundball to the shortstop who threw me out at first base. But I moved a runner from second to third on the play, and that runner scored on the next at-bat ...

So yeah we lost. But it was a whole lot easier to take than any of our losses last year. That's because we have a fun team this year, and we know we're going to win some games ...