Experiences of a Softball Rookie

Softball and the Sweet Taste of Victory

2006-06-12T20:27:00.000-06:00

I am a bit behind on my entries here, and I have two games to write about. I have decided to make separate entries for each, because they each deserve their own special treatment.

After a week off for Memorial Day (when we Bunns were living the good life on vacation in Silicon Valley) we were back at Zenoff Park, this time with a pretty healthy fan base, led by our resident seminarian for the summer, Phil Kosloski. Unfortunately for the other team, Opi's Sports Bar, their starting pitcher was--shall we say--weak... and we were happy to take the walks. In our league, the men get to take two bases for a walk, so that helped. But we also did some hitting, and good fielding, and it all added up to a 20-0 shutout, with a 4-inning game per the "mercy rule." The completely softball highlights can be read on our Stevens Point Softball page on the parish website.

I was catcher this game again, and I enjoyed it. Now I've realized that I have my own unique style when I'm catching... most of the other teams catchers stand up or just crouch a little bit behind the plate. I, following the way my sister was catching before the season started, squat right behind the batting box and stick the glove right where the strikes should drop. The umpire found this convenient, apparently, because he was crouched right behind me, and I think I stepped on his toes three times when I stood up and took a step backward to get out of the way of the batter after they hit the ball, or just to recover a ball that got away on me.

It was our last game with Tony, the guy who plays on a "real" softball team somewhere (I don't really know the whole story, I just know they're in a more serious league), and he is good at making hot-dog plays at short-stop. He can really hit the ball during practice, too, but didn't have as much luck during the games, probably because of the regulation fat ball. Anyway, it was his last game and he played well.

Afterwards, we finally had a chance to hang out socially, heading over to Pete's Bar and Grill for a bit. Good food, nice atmosphere, nice staff. It is also going to be the location of Stevens Point's Theology on Tap (more info on our parish website).

Oh yes... how could I forget, we also took our team photo that night. Apparently, however, Blogger is not letting me upload it or I'm doing it wrong. But you can see the softball team photo here if I don't get it posted.

Winning is fun!

"They thought they were going to be REALLY BAD..."

2006-05-26T10:38:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday at Mass our pastor announced that everyone was invited to our softball game Monday night. We actually had a double-header, but we were really pushing the first game, raising money for the new roof being put on our church. For every parishioner who showed up to cheer for us, our team would donate $2 for the roof fund. Father Louis' way of describing our prowess as a team? "They thought they were going to be really bad, but last week against Grazie's they cleaned up the infield." He mentioned his sentiments that he hoped we cleaned up the infield on the two pubs were playing Monday.

The first game was kind of a nail-biter. We were playing the 2nd St. Pub (which happens to be a couple blocks away from our church). Neither team played especially well. Heaven knows I was no shining star at that game. My problem is, I should not read softball tips before a game. I was just looking up some tips on how to hit a softball before I went to the game, and was watching online video clips of this guy putting his weight on his back foot, etc. So I tried putting my weight on my back foot and I could see how it would help, but when I tried it at bat I couldn't get a hit. Struck out. (Easy to strike out in a league with only two strikes.)

Nevertheless, we pulled out a victory in an extra inning at that game, which was great considering the fans.

It started to get really cold during the hour we had between games. The team we were playing for the second game, Graffitis, was playing during our off-hour, so a few of us hung around and watched. They all had nice jersey-style shirts, and they seemed to know what they were doing. They won big against the team we had forfeited to our first week. (Pretty sure we could have held our own against Fill's Bar if only we had showed up in time...) So then it was our turn to play against Graffitis. We were all stiff and cold from sitting there, so even with a little warming up before we played, we still had a tough time getting any momentum. It wasn't a shut-out though. And I actually did do okay in this one at bat. I got walked once, and I got a good hit that actually got a couple of runs in and I made it to base, believe it or not.

But, we lost. We just didn't get that rally going early enough. Complete game highlights can be read on our parish softball webpage.

The first game I was catcher again... and was glad I was not catcher the second game (because in watching Graffitis play Fills, there were a lot of plays at the plate). The Keymaster Chris decided to give a couple of other ladies a chance at catcher, and I was DH the first half of the game, then was put in right field. I liked it out there. I got to move around a little more... at least, I decided to move around a little more, running in to help back up second, backing up to be ready for a fly ball, whatever. Not much happened there. I fielded one ball that Jason, at first, said he should have gone for but he was frozen. But, it was a nice change of scenery, and more relaxing. Hopefully I will be able to do some good out there if Chris puts me out there again.

So now we have a week off because of Memorial Day. I think I'm going to miss playing, and am looking forward to next time.

One note... our team needs to have more fun. Gotta work on that.

Victory!!!

2006-05-17T07:22:00.000-06:00

Well, give us a chance to play a real game and we're not half bad! In fact, compared to the team we were playing, Grazies, we looked like all-stars. In their defense, I don't think they are in this league to win so much as to party.

Monday night started out with batting practice at St. Peter's. It had been raining all day but it stopped just for us. The field was kind of muddy though. Anyway, my sister Danielle was the first one there, with her three kids. For a few minutes she pitched to me til the rest of the crew showed up. At the end of the practice, Chris drilled us a little in the infield, which was good.

My catching lesson for the day: basically, the play is almost always at first. If the ball is bunted down the first or third base line, or hit right in front of the plate, it's up to me to get it and throw it to first.

An addendum to that is if there is a runner on third, and the ball is bunted down the third base line. If the runner has to run (i.e. bases loaded), I would either tag the base or the runner. If the runner does not have to run (bases not loaded) but goes for it, I have to tag the runner. I am shaking in my booties about when that day comes!

On to the softball game... we had the late game, and when we got there the game before us wasn't quite over so we really had a late start. The team we forfeited to last week was playing. They won.

We had a full roster, so it was a game... I played the whole time, even though Chris wanted to switch me out partway through with a girl that's even more rookie than I am. She refused, said catcher is the one position she does not want to play.

Chris pitched the first part of the game, Phil finished it off. I thought he was much improved from last week.

One of the reasons we got a big lead was that we have some real hitters at the top of the batting order. Not only that, but they can run fast too and are willing to go for it. So they'd slug one out there for a double, and everyone would run. So we scored a lot in that first inning. I believe another reason we scored high was the walk rule. This league has a crazy rule where if the pitcher walks you, you get to take two bases. Not only that, but if the next person up to bat is a girl (I think that's the rule) she gets to go to first without batting at all. That happened to me once, but we were out before I advanced beyond that.

That was the only time I was on base. I got one hit and was out at first, but we got two runs off of it. Is that what they call a sacrifice?

Thank goodness something went right at lease... cuz my second at bat I struck out... swinging at garbage.

In the end, we basically creamed 'em. Kept them the two runs. I think the final score was 14-2. when you have 12 run lead like that the game is called. "Mercy rule."

We had the funniest umpire. He was an African American guy, kind of heavy set, and he was teasing the players when we did something against the rules. The first thing he told me was to take my watch off. I guess watches are illegal when you're catching? I don't know. Who knows what the rules are in this crazy league? I would like to get a copy of them and post them on The Saint Peter Key's website.

At one point someone on the other team was talking kind of loudly and swearing in the dugout behind me, so I said, "Hey, watch that potty mouth, we're a church team." The umpire said with his southern accent--not from around these parts-- "Oh, I forgot, we're playing with the LAWD today!"

It was a lot of fun winning... and everything's pretty light-hearted. The umpire kept it light too, unlike the guy we had last week who was dead serious with his little stop watch telling me I got there too late, etc.

No big plays for me at this game, but my voice is still hoarse from cheering!

What A Nice Coach!

2006-05-12T13:34:00.000-06:00

This brightened my day. After emailing Chris with a suggestion for some infield practice he wrote:

Good ideas for the practice, although you certainly seem to know what you are doing out there. That was a great play you made catching the fly ball - you looked like Mike Piazza.

I had to ask Jason who Mike Piazza is though.

First Official Stevens Point Softball League Game (Forfeit)

2006-05-10T13:45:00.000-06:00

So, given that it was a forfeit, okay fine, let's let go of the guilt now.

It was a great time! I think our coach summed it up nicely in his email after the game:

Despite the forfeit, there were a lot of positives. Although no one kept score,
we probably only lost 8-6, or something close to that. Here are
my favorites for the "Key" play of the day:

4. After a solid line drive to left, Paul "PigPen" Szachnit seemed to get dirty at almost every base before scoring.
3. Darcy Bunn's 2-run, 2-out single to left.
2. Father Derek's leaping grab in left field (was that Ken Griffey, jr. out there?)
1. Angie Harris, in her first softball game ever, came to bat with 2 outs and the bases loaded, and placed a perfectly executed bunt down the third base line to drive
in a run and keep the rally going.

It was a great experience. If the game had been full-length, Jason thinks we would have won. As for my perspective, I was so nervous my hands were ice cold and my teeth were gritted... I mentioned it to Angie who said she had literally felt like throwing up she was so nervous. I know, I know, it's only a rec league, and it's all for fun, right? Yes, that was the idea when we started out but it turns that we have a team full of fiercely competitive people (I am one of them) and we are really playing to win. Hey, it's all about having fun... and winning is fun.

As a catcher, I stink. I never actually catch a ball from the pitcher when I'm there, unless he's warming up, and then I drop a few too. Most of the time the batters hit something, and I just jump out of the way of the bat as they run. If they let it go (i.e., it's a ball) I rarely can catch it. And worse, I can't throw very well. So poor Phil was out there jumping around to catch my crazy throws. I need to write an article on how to throw a ball, maybe it'll help. Practice would probably be good too.

But there was one ball that I caught. That was a pop up right in front of the plate. It was a miracle I caught it, but I did. Somehow kept my head on long enough to catch it. I didn't call it, because in the back of my mind I was hoping Phil would go for it. But it was up to me, and thank God I did get it. So I actually got an out! That is a rare event. I think I might have caught one pop fly to right back in my high school softball league days.

As far as playing at home when there's runners coming in, I am clueless. First of all, I know this league has all kinds of goofy rules to make sure no one gets hurt, so I don't want to mess up and stand in the way of the runner or something if I'm not allowed to. So where do I stand? Even my baseball fan husband isn't quite decided. We think it may be in front of the plate, when there's going to be a play at home. Phil was supposed to be covering home for me, but he was busy with other things sometimes, and it would have been up to me, if I would have known what to do. Jason and I are petitioning for infield practice.

On the other side of things, when it came to being at bat (I was up twice) it was a 50-50 experience. The first time up I was so shaken over the whole being late thing that my first swing was a swing-and-a-miss. I hate that feeling. My second swing I actually hit the ball, but not hard enough, not far enough, couldn't beat the throw to first base (I wish I was a hundred pounds lighter!) so I was out.

I redeemed myself the second time at bat, though. I was thinking to myself, okay, I have GOT to get this. There were already two outs (as you read in Chris's highlights) and I really wanted to do something to make up for causing the forfeit. So I remembered Dad's advice as I try to always when batting... wait until the last minute and swing through the ball. If you wait longer you have to swing faster, and that makes the ball go farther. So that's when I slugged it low and hard into left field. Woo hoo! I ran like heck and made it to base, where Lindsey was waiting to congratulate me. I have never had a chance to talk to her much, but it was nice to chat with her during those couple minutes on base. "You're running on anything, I don't care what it is, if he hits the ball you're running." Well, in the end, I was out at second and that was the end of the our game, the umpire called it. I can't run that fast!

Here's hoping the weather is better next time we play. Though it was nice not to have the sun in our eyes the whole time.

Oh Misery - Forfeited the Game and It's Partly My Fault!!!

2006-05-10T13:28:00.000-06:00

(I'm going to do two separate posts for this week's game so I can confine all the guilt and sorrow to one and celebrate our glorious achievements in the next post.)

Actually, the forfeit was very much my fault, but if you want to be technical about it, I was one of three of us responsible for having to forfeit our first softball game. But as the oldest of the three of us, and the one who usually is more responsible, I should have made sure this didn't happen.

As you may recall, our first official game was rained out. So this Monday was our first chance to play a game. It rained all day, and my hubby Jason, my sister Danielle and I were all wondering if we'd be rained out again. Jason works at the same place as our coach (sorry if you've been reading past posts and this is all redundant) and as of when Jason asked him, shortly before work ended, he did not know if the game was on or not. Dani called me to find out, but I didn't have an answer. Then she called back and said she had heard on the radio that the games at Zenoff Park were cancelled.

So going on that assumption, a biased one because Jason and I have been buried in working on my moms bed and breakfast website, and could have really used the evening home, we just said, "well, no game tonight" and started making supper. In the meantime, we discovered that our son John Paul had his very first woodtick imbedded firmly in his scalp. He's only 3.5 years old, and removing the tick was a pretty exciting experience for all of us. So maybe we might have thought to double-check on the status of the game if that hadn't happened. But we didn't. I didn't.

At 6:29 Dani called again. "You don't think they would uncancel the game, do you? Because I haven't heard it on the radio again."

At 6:30 (game time) one of our team-mates, Angie Harris, left a message. "Hope you guys are coming, we need you!"

At 6:32 we called her back to learn that they needed another female on the field or we'd have to forfeit. Goofy co-ed rec league softball rules.

At 6:33 we were madly getting changed to dash out when my friend Sarah Weyker, now Sister Mary Gabriel of the Nashville Dominicans, called for the first time since she became a nun. I had to tell her to call back later!

At 6:45 we rolled into the ballpark and Jason dropped me off. Everyone, even the other team, was cheering as I walked as quickly as I could to the field where I was told to get in there as catcher. The umpire pulled out his pocket timer and said, "It's still a forfeit though."

So that's how I am (partly) to blame for the forfeit of our first game. So much for our perfect record this year!

We played a half a game anyway, just a scrimmage. That was fun, and here's some perspective on that. (Go to First Official Stevens Point Softball League Game)

Our Softball Team is Online!!!

2006-04-28T14:20:00.000-06:00

OK, we've hit the big time now... the St. Peter's Keys has its own web page, as part of our parish website. We're part of the Stevens Point Softball league, and I want people to be able to find us when they're looking for that so here's the link: Stevens Point Softball - The Saint Peter's Keys. It's going to be a fun page to work on, once I have some information to put there!

I'm disappointed I haven't had much time to work on my other softball site, softball-league.com. It's not even online yet. But, I promised my mom I'd work on her site tonight. She has a bed and breakfast in Stevens Point called Dreams of Yesteryear. Maybe we'll have a softball-themed page on that site too before the weekend is out? Why not? Everyone should be into softball in the summer... its' the best sport!

Here's "the keymaster" Coach McKenna's latest email... at first I thought he was serious about ESPN.

Practice: Sunday night, 5:30 PM (for those who are not on the roster, you're
most welcome to join us for some batting practice and possible a scrimmage, if
we have enough)

Opening Day: Monday night, 8:30 PM, Field 3,
televised by ESPN2. Let's meet at 8:10 to warm up and sign some autographs for
all our fans. (A complete schedule should be made available by the middle
of next week - I was only told the information for our first
game.)

For those of you who have not signed a waiver form, I will
bring some to practice on Sunday. If you do not think you will be there on
Sunday and have not signed a form, send me an e-mail or give me a call this
weekend - I need to turn them in before the game for you to play in
Monday's game.

Yeah, I bet there's going to be a stampede for autographs. Actually, I just hope that somebody comes to watch us play!

I have been way too sedentary this week... I am going to be hurting this weekend! If only I could run faster. It's hard to be a softball rookie, and an out-of-shape one at that!

Working on it, though.

The Scrimmage - Or, softball in the frigid desert Part II.

2006-04-25T18:13:00.000-06:00

I thought I would mention a few words about running...

I had to run a lot last night!

Oh my gosh. The first time I got a hit, I remember thinking "oh shoot" or something like that and making a huge effort to get my legs to start churning in the direction of 1st base. I didn't make it in time the first time. As I walked back to the dugout, I muttered to no one in particular, "You mean you have to run in this game?" Someone answered, "Didn't they tell you that?"

In the dugout Trisha, who had batted and gotten out after me, was commisserating with me. She said her legs were all jittery. We both had had the theme from Chariots of Fire going through our head as we ran... i.e., we felt like we were running in slow motion.

My second time at bat I hit that ball as hard as I could and it went low and fast into left field, so I had a little more time to get to base, and I ran as fast as I could. I made it. Yay! I was able to get all the way around to home base--thankfully I had a break between each time I had to run to the next base--though I was "out" at home. It wasn't really because I couldn't run fast... I would have had to be as fast as Patrick (a homeschooled 17-year old on our team) to beat that throw to the base.

The third time at bat, I got a little hit, and I only made it to first base because they made the out at second (namely, my sister). Oops. I said to her, "I sacrificed you." The first base man, an "older" (50s?) guy on the other team (older than his teammates anyway) named Justice, said "It's supposed to be the other way around." I said, "well she's my little sister." And he said, "OK, then you can do that."

Needless to say, between all the squatting and standing behind the plate as catcher, and the running to which I am extremely unaccustomed, plus being frozen solid from the wind and the temperature (the car thermometer said it was 47 degrees out as we drove home last night) I was really really sore as soon as I got out of the car at my mom's house to get the kids. I couldn't wait to take a nice hot shower last night, and today the front of my thighs are killing me, I have a bruise on my right arm from batting practice Sunday (the handle of the bat kept gouging me) and I had a nasty sinus headache this morning. But... I'm happy! I think we all had a good time in spite of it all.

I do think I might put a sweatshirt or jacket in our duffle bag from now on, though.

The Scrimmage - Or, softball in the frigid desert Part I.

2006-04-25T15:24:00.000-06:00

So it was Monday night, the night of our first scrimmage. It had been a beautiful day, 76 degrees and sunny when I had picked Jason up over the lunch hour and we were driving around with the kids.

But we noticed as the afternoon wore on that the skies were looking ominously dark, and the wind was picking up. I wondered if we would get rained out of our scrimmage.

But the rain didn't come, and we hurried out the door to get my kids to my mom's house. We had one stop to make to help a lady from church get her computer going, and then we would have to hurry to the ballpark. Well, as soon as we got out of the car at Mom's we could tell it was really starting to cool off. We had not brought jackets or sweatshirts or anything... we were both wearing T-shirts. There was no time to run home or into a store to get any either.

When we got to the park, we got out of the car and started walking due north toward the field we were assigned to that night. It was like walking into an arctic blast. The wind was whipping right through us. I saw my sister in the distance waving to us and yelling, "Don't you have a jacket?" A jacket? Why on earth would we have brought a jacket, when it had been such a gorgeous day?

But now the sky was a dark gray color, the lights in the field were on, and everyone was huddled in the dugout (which isn't dug at all, but just a chain-link fenced in slab of concrete outside the playing area, no shelter). In the all-too-frequent really strong gusts of wind, the sand from the infield would come at us like a desert storm, prompting us to hide behind our mitts. I found I was jealous of a couple of my team members who had the intelligence to wear their stocking caps. Maybe I lived in Maryland too long... I wasn't prepared for this. I tried to remind myself, 'in July you're going to wish you had some of this cold air.' But it wasn't much comfort.

It was time for our fearless leader, "The Key-Master," a.k.a. coach Chris, to tell us what position we were going to be playing. He came up and said, "Darcy, would you mind trying catcher, and Dani could you play second?" I didn't know what to say. I looked at Danielle (who always plays catcher--and with whom I had just shared my story about the possibility of me playing second base) and she said, "I can do catcher," but Chris wanted me to catch and Dani to play second.

I had spent a good portion of the day working on my "How to Play Second Base" article, because I really wanted to prepared in case I was asked to play second during the scrimmage. I had not spent any time whatsoever learning how to play catcher. But I am game for an adventure. So I said, "OK, but what do I do?" The gist of the instructions I got were, "Stand here behind the plate and catch the ball." There was a little debate between Chris and our "ace-in-the-hole" player, Tony, about just how close I ought to be to the plate. I went with the conservative estimate, and out of a sense of self-preservation soon learned the art of sticking my mitt out to catch the ball without having my head in bat's reach. I also learned how to stand up from a squatting position really fast in order to jump backward out of the way of a flying bat.

Anyway, that was exciting. Phil, our parish's DRE and the person God had brought into St. Peter Church's life when I resigned to marry Jason and move to MD, was the first pitcher. He was not too bad. Neither was the girl who pitched later, and I am sorry I have the hardest time remembering her name, it's a mental block thing or something.

Our infield players were awesome! The other team thought they were nuts for their willingness to fly through the air and bite the dust when diving to catch a fly ball. "It's only a scrimmage," one of them said. The best was when Greg (our babysitter's dad from the night before), playing 1st base, hit the dirt and then literally crawled back to the base to get the runner out. (He later asked Jason how old he is and decided he [Greg] is too old for this game. But I seriouly hope he doesn't quit, he's pretty darn good.) By the way, Greg was also one of the intelligent people wearing a stocking cap. That's a picture of him getting a hit, at the top of this post.

(continued)

Sunday Night - "Real" Softball Practice

2006-04-25T14:55:00.000-06:00

OK, so I mentioned that Jason and I are on a low-calorie diet. We are not supposed to over-exercise, because we don't eat enough calories in the day to support that. Nevertheless, after spending an hour Sunday morning hitting and chasing balls around, on Sunday evening we had a 2 hour practice with the team. The energy reserves were well-tapped!

Of course, not much of the team actually showed up. As one guy said, "I guess the rest of the players don't need any batting practice." Yeah, right. I'm not the only rookie, believe me!

To say that the practice was chaotic would be an understatement. First of all, since my parents have to make the obligatory trip to the casino every Sunday night with my grandparents, they weren't available to babysit. Nor was my brother-in-law, since he and Dani had taken their kids fishing. My other grandmother had plans with my uncle. All the teen girls we know from Church were at youth group that night. So... we had the munchkins with us, and I was terrified of them getting hit with a ball.

Fortunately one of our team-mates daughters was there and agreed to keep on eye on the kids. They all ended up joining the youth group for a while, watching Narnia.

But my kids weren't the only problem. Just as we were about to start practice, a family walked up with their bats and balls and gloves, planning to hit it around for a while in St. Peter's field. They seemed a little put-out that we got there first. "Are you some kind of team or something?" But in the spirit of Christian charity and evangelization, we gave them the main field to play on and we practiced at the end of the left field. Eventually we "joined forces" and they practiced with us.

Finally, and the pinnacle of chaos, there were about 20 kids of various races (I think mostly Hmong, maybe a few Hispanic) who were playing some variant of soccer or maybe it was tag, it was hard to tell, in the outfield. They ran right through the midst of us, and I was sure that any minute one of them was going to get beamed by a line drive. Fortunately they all survived unscathed, but it was hardly a disciplined practice.

And if I had been craving some infield practice and a chance to try 2nd base, well, forget that idea. We all had a chance to bat once, and other than that we all pretty much stood in the outfield while our improptu babysitter's dad hit fly balls to us. It was still good practice, but not what I had envisioned.

I was concerned a little... because I new the next night (last night) would be our first official scrimmage with another team, and I hated the idea of The Keys looking really stupid out there.

Batting Practice - Part II.

2006-04-25T14:05:00.000-06:00

After we had had enough of hitting balls and chasing them around like fools with just one person in the outfield, we did a little infield practice... namely, to train me on how to play 2nd base.

Why me, and why 2nd base? It all goes back to a potluck party we attended Friday night (we didn't go off our diet, man we are being good) where Chris McKenna's (the coach) wife (Trisha) mentioned that Chris was considering having me play 2nd base. I freaked out initially, but then said I would be willing if someone would teach me how.

Consummate right fielder that I am, the thought of playing 2nd was practically unheard of, but once she mentioned it, I was really interested in the challenge. So Jason and Dad gave me some tips on how to play second base. You have to realize that for a rookie, the simplest piece of information like, where to stand, is huge! I felt so much more comfortable with the idea after I had a few basic concepts down. Of course, I wanted to do more, so that's why I ended up writing a little article on it for the softball-league.com website, also known as The Softball Rookie (No Clue. No Fear.).

So now I was starting to look forward to the idea of playing second base! Who'd have thought?

Batting Practice Part I.

2006-04-25T13:34:00.000-06:00

I was researching a little to find out if there were any batting cages in our area because after the humiliating experience at the official practice, I really felt the need to swing the bat a little more before facing a real team. Hubby and I found out there were some batting cages nearby, and had recruited my parents to babysit our toddlers Sunday AM after Mass so we could go do some hitting. But then my dad volunteered to pitch to us, and I thought that might be better. A, it was free and B, running around fielding balls would be good exercise and I could try getting used to the concept of actually running again.

You know, having two children really affects a woman's physique... at least, when you're like me and get so caught up in the rest of life that you let your personal well-being go to pot. I have never been fashion-model size or anything, and was pudgy as a kid, although in high school I was in pretty decent shape--not that I realized it at the time! In college the weight started to creep up, and by the time I had survived a couple nasty break-ups and had gone through a conversion experience and was working for the Church, I was really getting heavy. By the time I met my husband, I was in a pretty sorry state and it went up from there. Jason also had a significant struggle with weight, and it has been a defining factor in our relationship that we have alternated between being each others' "eating friends" and indulging freely together, and being each others' "dieting buddies" and going onto some program or other together.

By way of background info, the rubber hit the road this year and reality clicked in for me... we want to have more kids, but if I get pregnant now I will be trapped at a majorly overweight condition for yet another couple of years. We decided we would use NFP to postpone pregnancy (being open to God's will always) until I reached a much healthier weight. But I knew that we would end up postponing indefinately if we didn't take drastic measures to ensure success. We went on Medifast and between the two of us have lost over 50 pounds.

Above, by the way, is a picture of us at Easter, having already lost a significant amount of weight, if you can imagine. We have lost more since then.

So back to our softball adventures... after leaving my mom with the munchkins at her house, we took Dad back to the field by the parish school, and hit some balls. I took the field first. I was exhausted after recovering just one hit by Jason! But there were several more to come, until red-faced and puffing, I went up to the plate for my turn to practice. My dad is not much of a softball pitcher, but he is better than I am and better than nothing. So I was swinging at all kinds of pitches I shouldn't have at first, so that Jason was tempted to stand in the street to recover all the foul balls. Dad told me I have to learn how to judge them so then I was busy picking up the pitches I rejected and throwing the softballs back to Dad.

Finally I was able to hit some of his good pitches pretty well out of the infield... not quite far enough, because I knew I had to hit them really well and far to be able to make it to first base, Olympic sprinter that I am, ha. The tip that Dad gave me that seemed to help was to wait until the last possible second to swing, and then to swing hard and fast, right through the ball.

(continued in part II)

The First Softball Practice

2006-04-25T09:05:00.000-06:00

Technically, we missed the first softball practice, which was held on the baseball field of our parish school. But the first practice we made it to was held at one of Stevens Point's softball diamonds, at Zenoff Park.

It was beautiful breezy spring evening. We had enough people there (including some people too young to be on the team but there to help us practice) to do a scrimmage. Chris was going around asking people what position they wanted to play. Danielle volunteered to be catcher... she has always been the catcher, from high school up to last year when she filled in for a team in this league. Jason volunteered for first base. He always played first in high school. He likes it in part because you don't have to do a lot of throwing from first, and you aren't in the line of fire for most of the line-drives (since most hitters are right-handed). I immediately volunteered for right field. I always played right field in the high school summer league, only very rarely be putting in center or even left field... when the girls who really could play softball weren't there for some reason. So we all got our usual positions for that practice.

I had not swung a bat for years. I think the last time was a few years ago when we lived in Maryland and we used the batting cages at a mini-golf complex for fun. So without even so much as a practice swing, I went up to the plate when it was my turn. First try, a swing and a miss. Second pitch I let go. Danielle was catching (she was catching for both sides) and when the third pitch came she said "No!" because it was kind of high and inside. But it was too late, I was already swinging at it, and I hit a wimpy little hit down the third base line. I knew that was the third out, so I just walked back to the dug-out (even though Danielle was kidding me, "hey, run that out!"

So that was the first night really getting hands-on with softball. The next team, also in our league, was arriving to use the field, so we all got our stuff out of the dug-out and hung out on one of the bleachers taking care of some business. In the meantime we witnessed a member of the other team lobbing a hit all the way to left-field fence. We all got really quiet and knew the truth, that we really stink. Oh well, it's all for the fun of the game, and there is no crying in... softball.

The Adventures of a Softball Rookie

2006-04-25T07:56:00.000-06:00

I love softball. I really get into it. I have a competitive spirit, and softball satisfies my need for some healthy competition.

What I lack, however, is a good knowledge of the game. I am working very hard to fix that with my new website, softball-league.com. All the softball rookies out there will benefit as I learn the intricacies of the game of softball because I'm not a half-bad writer, and I enjoy web design. I have to say this is turning out to be a lot of fun, much better than writing about diet supplements, which is my daily fare.

Here is how my latest softball adventure started. At church, we've been working on ways to be more inviting to people who may be thinking about becoming Catholic. An off-shoot of that discussion was the idea of just having more fun as a parish, in general. One of the guys my husband and I are friends with (Chris McKenna) who works at the same company as my husband suggested we form a parish softball team.

I believe I was invited in order to get to my sister Danielle, though Chris will never admit this. His email to my husband said:

Jason,

Just to give you the heads up, Phil and I will be organizing
a co-ed softball team for the parish this summer. That would be great if you and Darcy could play. Also, maybe we could recruit Danielle (we need a ringer or two).

Chris

I wrote back and said:

Is he implying we aren't the ringer type???

When Jason forwarded that to Chris, he was embarassed, but as it turned out he got all three of us... my husband, my sister and I.

So that is how my most recent softball adventure began.