We played another double header in softball tonight and we lost, but we won! Scratchin' your noggin, yet?
Well, the Henchmen won both games. However, I was not playing for the Henchmen tonight. The team we were playing against only had seven guys show up. So our coach, who didn't want to bother with a forfeit win, started asking a couple people to see if anyone wanted to play for the other team. Everybody said "no". But I knew, as soon as he started asking, that I would be asked. I'm a nobody on my team, in all honesty. I'm a backup catcher and designated hitter. So why not dish me over there?
When he asked, I said yes, took off my jersey, stuffed it in my bag, and took the long way around to the other dugout. We couldn't let the ump see this happen as he would know we were doing a player swap. Not a good thing and very much against the rules. So, here I am walking into a new dugout saying, "hey guys, sorry I'm late." They all played along.
I wound up being assigned to first base. Never played the position before in my life. But, apparently, I did pretty well without even trying that hard. I got about six or eight of my own guys out. I wasn't trying too hard and, anytime a ball was thrown to me for a force out of the runner, I kept praying that the runner would race it out. A few times they did. Several other times, the throws to me were way off. But anytime they were near me, I caught them. Couldn't look that inept at the base or I would accused of some kind of Black Sox scandal at a much smaller scale.
I wasn't really sure how well I was doing until two things happened:
- My friend Jason, who is a damn fine baseball/softball player, came up to me and said, "you play a good first base." To hear this from Jason who virtually never compliments another living being felt pretty damn good. He even left a message to that effect on my cellphone. I'm saving it.
- A player from my other team told me that if my own team doesn't accept me back, I am welcome to play with them anytime. I'd call that a good sign.
Maybe I've just been playing the wrong position. Not that I'm likely to take over first base from Dave. He's just too damned good and his hitting is great so he's going nowhere anytime soon. But it could give me yet another position I can play as a fill in.
I had fun. I played every inning of both games at first and I went 2-6 at the plate. Not great hitting, but better than my norm. Just gotta improve that.
But I gotta admit that it was very weird taking the field as my other team was leaving it. That's just odd. And then wearing a different jersey as well. I was part of Lifechurch where everybody is number one. And I mean that literally. Every single jersey bore a number one on the back. If this was their veiled reference to the whole "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending" thing, then I guess that makes the Henchmen the ending to the Lifechurch's beginning as we dispatched them pretty handily. It wasn't pretty in the first game. Slaughter rule invoked in the fifth inning. LC did better in the second game only losing 6-11. We actually put up some offense. Just not enough.
