We had our end-of-season softball party last night at Champps. Each season, the team votes for various awards: most spirit, rookie of the year, silver slugger, golden glove, and MVP. At the party last night, I won both the golden glove and MVP awards, which was just astounding to me. I didn’t really think I’d win any this year. But we had a great team this year and they are all deserving of these awards. Regardless, it was a fun evening and a great end to our best season ever.
Tag: softball
Protected: The softball playoffs
Softball playoffs on Saturday
Today we received the bracket and schedule for our softball playoffs on Saturday. The playoffs are at West Potomac Park, are umpired (unlike our regular season games) and games are limited to 1 hour. Some other quirky rules that we don’t have during the regular season include being able to walk and strike out, and each batter starting with a 2-1 count. Should make it interesting.
There are 5 rounds: Round 1, Round 2, Quarter finals, Semi-finals, and of course, the finals. These games are being played on 4 fields and since there are 32 teams total, it means a potentially long day. Earliest games begin at 8:30 AM. Our first game is at 9:30 AM. We are the home team with a 7-2 record and are playing team that is 4-0-1. (Apparently, a number of teams dropped out of that division so that none of the teams played more than 5 games.)
Should we win our first game, our second game (in round 2) would not begin until 1:30 PM, giving us 3 hours to rest and either practice or watch some of the other games. Should we by some miracle, continue to win, we have a game every hour thereafter (2:30, 3:30, and 4:30-ish).
It’s all pretty exciting, being in the playoffs. I’ve got a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach, even as I write this. It’s the kind of good nervous feeling that I think helps me play better, but still, I am nervous. I want to win!
Building the lineup is tricky. In the regular season, it’s all about having a good time and I try and get everyone more or less equal playing time (with a slight favor to the “regulars” who show up to every game). Now that we’re in the playoffs, I want to set up a lineup that will let us win, even though that may mean leaving some people out of the lineup. I’m working with my co-captain and bench-coach to mitigate this as much as possible, and I think we’ve got a good starting lineup and good substitutions, but still, it’s tough.
We’ve got a practice at lunch today. I think we’ll be focusing on backing up plays. Our defense is pretty solid, and we do an okay job at back up, but I think it’s our weaker area, defensively speaking. It’s getting pretty exciting. It’s one thing to watch playoffs on TV and feel nervous and excited for your team. It’s a whole different experience to be in the playoffs yourself.
Feelin’ groovy
Despite sleeping in until nearly 2 PM yesterday, I was back in bed around 7 PM, and read for an hour or so before turning out the lights and going to sleep. I actually slept well, except around midnight, when I woke up coughing and with a dry throat and tossed and turning for half an hour or so before getting back to sleep.
I feel better this morning, although my head is stuffed. I got caught up on email when I got into the office. I’ve got a quarter of my day in meetings today, which isn’t too bad (Friday is worse–I’ve got 3/8ths of my day in meetings–which is weird for a Friday).
I’m 180 pages through The Reagan Diaries, having stopped on Friday, September 16, 1983.
Looks like we’ll have a good roster for our softball playoff games on Saturday. First game is at 8:30 AM and we’ve got 16 confirmed on the roster which means at least 5 subs. We’ve got a practice scheduled at lunch tomorrow.
Long-ass day
Almost 11:30 PM and just home from the Happy Hour after our last softball game of the regular season. We lost. Badly. So badly it was hard to take seriously. We finished with a record of 7-2 which places us 3rd in our division and guarantees us a place in the playoffs on September 8th. After the game we went to an English pub on 13th and Penn and I did my fair share of drinking to celebrate our season.
I had 6-1/2 hours of meetings today. One meeting was 4 hours long! In fact, I had to leave that meeting for an hour and go to another meeting, then come back. I spent the entire morning preparing for the second meeting, and the last meeting of the day, a short half hour number, was postponed until later in the week. Not even time for lunch today. Let’s just say it has been a Long-Ass Day.
Spoke to Doug tonight and he sounded good. I even got to speak briefly to Ruby, who said, in a cheering, voluble voice, “Hi, Uncle Jamie!” How can you resist something like that! I had a message from he11o_sunshine, who I think is back from her trip to L.A. I called her back, but got her voicemail, so I’ll try talking to her tomorrow.
When I got home from work, I had a package from Powell’s Books awaiting me. Two books that I look forward to reading: Robert’s Rules of Writing, which I am exciting to read in conjunction with mabfan‘s series of blog essays called “Robert’s Rules“. I also got Damon Knight’s classic book, Creating Short Fiction, which I am equally eager to read.
But for now, it’s into the shower, and then off to bed, to start all over again 6 hours from now.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
A critical softball game
This evening’s softball game, played in 100-degree heat and humidity, was a critical one. Winning it would assure us a playoff spot. And win we did. The final score was 20-13 and our team really came through, including strong offense in the first inning (scoring 9 runs and batting around) and solid defense in the later innings to keep the other team from scoring.
I’m really impressed with our team this year. There are several “core” players who’ve been with us from the start, through years of losing season (last season we didn’t win a game). But something gelled this year and that, coupled with the new players have made our team really competitive.
Our record is now 6-1 with two games remaining, both of them next week. One game is against a team with a pretty bad record. The other is against an undefeated team. Of course, I’d like to win both, but no matter what happens, this has been a great season. We think the all-day playoffs will be held on September 8th, but we’re not 100% certain about that. More on that later.
More travel tasks
More vacation prep today. I filled out the online form to put a hold on my mail while I am gone. I also paid the rent in order to make sure I didn’t forget that one. I took my black suit in to be cleaned and pressed. I can pick it up tomorrow. I also started collecting all of my travel-related itinerary information in a binder so that I have it all easily accessible in one place.
The humidity jumped up today. The temps were in the mid-80s but with the humidity it was 90 and even now, at 10:40 PM, the air conditioning is blasting just to keep the house cool.
I”m about 380 pages through American Prometheus and I am really enjoying it. I’d like to finish it before I get on the plane on Monday but I think I’ve got a good chance of doing that.
The softball game we had schedule for Wednesday has been postponed because the Senate office we are playing is busy with some issues on the HIll. It will be rescheduled for later in the season. As much as I love playing softball, it was kind of a relief to hear that it was postponed this week. I’ve got so much to do already that organizing a team for a game was something that I could do without this week. And besides, it was supposed to be well into the 90s on Wednesday.
Another happy hour is scheduled for Friday and I’m looking forward to that. And I’ve got the O’s/Angels game on Sunday to look forward to as well.
Rachel hasn’t been feeling well but I hear she’s feeling a little better tonight, which is good. I hope she feels a lot better soon.
Okay, off to bed.
Softball practice
We were supposed to play a scrimmage game tonight, but we didn’t have enough people. Instead, we’re having a practice on a field just south of the office building. It should be fun because there will be a few new people there. It will also allow us to improve our already great defense in preparation for our game next week.
Softball pictures
I didn’t get to bed until after midnight and then was up at 5:30 AM to come into work. I was supposed to have a 9 AM meeting with our Europe office but the meeting was canceled.
We had our fifth softball game last night. We had our biggest turnout yet, in terms of players and supporters and our biggest victory ever, with an astonishing 35-7 win over New Mexico. I had 2 triples and a home run, and everyone on the team was hitting the ball. Once again, we played excellent defense, holding our opponents to 7 runs over 7 innings.
I have posted pictures from the game.
he11o_sunshine and jkashlock come into town late tonight. It’s a good thing they’re getting in late because the temperatures are going to reach near 100 degrees today.
Busy day
Just home from the softball game (we won 35-7!) and I was so busy today that I did not have any time to blog.
Not much going on today outside of work and softball. I got the cable bill in the mail, and my landlord is sending someone over to clean out the gutters. It’s very late and I’m off to bed. More on the softball game tomorrow.
We won our 3rd softball game last night–in extra innings!
Last night was the most incredible game I’d ever played in. Not only did the game go into extra innings (we were playing one of the best teams in the league), but the game was all defense. We won in the 8th inning with a final score 5-3. (No, you are not seeing things; that really was a softball score.)
It was all about defense yesterday and our team could do no wrong. I am no wrong. Anything hit to the outfield was a virtual automatic out. And just about anything hit to the infield was gobbled up. I couldn’t believe how well I played at short, with 4 “web-gem”-like plays:
Somewhere in the 3rd or 4th inning, me and our ace first baseman executed a textbook 3-6-3 double play.
In the 7th inning, with the score tied, I made a Derek Jeter-like running catch into left field catching the ball in fair territory, and then nearly running into the street. I couldn’t believe my range.
Possibly the play of the game came in the bottom of the 8th when a sharp ground balls was hit between me and third. I ranged over and then skidded down on my knees to get the ball. And then from my knees, gunned a throw to first to get the runner. When the play was over, our first baseman stepped off the base and said, “I don’t believe what I just saw!” (I tore up my right knees in the process, so it was all bloody, but I was okay.)
The final out of the game was a line drive over my head, which I jumped up for and got enough glove on it to make the catch.
But everyone on the team–everyone–was making plays like that all game long. I haven’t felt that much excitement in playing sports–edge of your seat thrills–in I don’t know how long.
Our team is now 3-1 and is off to the best start (and best record) ever by a team in this office. And we’ve got 5 more games to play.
Breaking news: We won!
We won our second softball game of the season with a final score of 11-9. It is our second in this season and our team has started the season an incredible (for us) 2-0! Good defense today once again. I was in the zone at short; it was weird; there was almost nothing I couldn’t do. I went 3 for 4 including a 3-run homer to deep center field. It was a lot of fun! Big turnout again. More details tomorrow if I get a chance.
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