I learned Saturday evening that what I had feared had indeed come true: This was my last weekend of softball for USA Today. Although we swept two games on Saturday, we lost a tiebreaker and did not qualify for the playoffs.
I started playing for the company 13 years ago, within weeks of getting a full-time job there in May 1995. Other than being with Cate, it's the longest I've ever been involved with something, and I'll definitely miss it. Only two people have been on the team since I started and I've seen close to 100 people shuttle through, including fellow bloggers Tammi Marcoullier and Neil (though he wasn't at all eligible, we passed him off as an intern). Dad has played for this team as well, though that got me blackballed from coaching the team for a few years!
I've already missed chatting with Tammi in the outfield about whatever was going on in our lives or at work, team captain (and team glue) Mark Hayes getting tossed from games in his younger days, falling to pieces on the final day of the season to miss the playoffs for most of the late '90s, and, of course, winning three league titles.
I came full circle this season, getting to pitch again after an ugly flameout in the 1996 playoffs kept me out of the rotation (other than to mop up) for more than a decade. Played first base, second base, catcher, all around the outfield. Pulled a hundred balls foul down the third-base line, as I have never mastered Dad's art of placing the ball in front of the opponent's worst fielder.
A few times in recent years, the kids came with me. One week the team was so hard up for players that I packed up all three kids and 8-year-old Elizabeth was in charge of watching the other two while I kept track with one eye. But I hated to miss a game. I spent part of the 2003 season on the sidelines when Cate went back to work Saturdays after Robert was born, and last year I wasn't eligible because of a paperwork snafu (I had to get grandfathered in since I no longer worked for the company), and those weren't fun. Cate was never quite as keen on me packing up the younger ones the way Dad would bring me out to a Dirty Sox or St. Alexis game. Or whatever the team in Delaware was.
This weekend we went out with a 16-0 win against the Discovery Channel and a 14-9 victory against AOL. I wore the Baseball Weekly jersey for old time's sake. In a mercy rule blowout, Ramon Padilla preserved the cheapest 2-hitter on record by throwing out a batter at first base to end the game on a ball hit into right field.
This will probably be the thing I miss most about living in Virginia. Although the names and faces changed frequently, this team eventually managed just the right balance of competitiveness and camaraderie so that we could all have fun.
I hear they might be getting the Cavity Busters back together, though. If Jay can still hit and Peter Erickson can still hit ball after ball up the middle, it'll be just like old times.
8 comments:
I remember having to forfeit a game due to, um, annoying the umpire. Is that they guy you're talking about?
That's the game!
The ump actually has not worked in this league, since, though -- he was most of the problem.
In fact, that game ended the season, if you recall.
The Cavity Busters *have* reformed and you, Neil and I are welcome to join, this from Betsy at my recent visit. Her sons are spear-heading the team, I say we join and reestablish the power of the Cavity Busters... although my membership might be contradictory.
Great post, Patrick! See, you can still write.
And re-forming (as well as reforming) the CBs is really good news. Keep me in the loop. Maybe another Coleman-to-Coleman-to-Coleman DP is possible.
Someone asked offline about the ugly flameout. It's a doozy!
We're playing one of the TV stations, and it's the second game of the tournament (we won the opener, if I recall correctly). I am really struggling with the strike zone, as I did a lot that year. Batters started with a 1-1 count to speed up the game and I went to a 3-ball count on almost every batter. I was walking batters and getting hit, but the first inning ended when a batter hit the ball to center field and our left-center fielder, Rich Kenda, cut off the ball and threw a strike to home plate where I tagged the runner coming from second for the third out.
Second inning, similar -- worked deep in the count, got hit, gave up a couple runs. But again, Kenda nailed a guy at the plate for the third out.
Third inning was worse and I was relieved after a second or third walk in a row with two outs. Mark came out to relieve me and I threw the glove into the dugout in disgust.
For nearly a decade I only pitched in mop-up situations. And deservedly so. Sometime four or five years after that I started pitching with backspin on the ball and I had much more control and it induced more pop-ups and can-of-corn fly balls. And this season, with our No. 1 pitcher in our 1-man rotation having a broken arm, it was all hands on deck.
So Rich Kenda kept me in that game a lot longer than I deserved. :)
I have not played softball since this post. :(
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