Cougars: The Joy of Softball

The blog is almost a week late. Did you think I was sleeping on the job?

Well, maybe. I did watch several episodes of my favorite television show when I should have been recapping the games.

The Joy of Painting was on TV from 1983 and 1994 and can now be found on YouTube and Netflix. Bob Ross makes me happy. He is intoxicating and sedating. He is such a peaceful being with a kind and gentle demeanor. Watching and listening to him paint happy clouds and happy trees is truly a joy and can lull me into a snooze in a matter of minutes.

As Ross himself once said, “Most people don’t watch the show to learn to paint. Instead, they watch it for relaxation.” Bob also said, “You can do anything here — the only prerequisite is that it makes you happy.” Sounds like a plan!

Well, then, let’s have Bob help summarize the night with some of his most famous lines.

“It’s so important to do something every day that will make you happy.”

We wish every day was Tuesday!

“They say everything looks better with odd numbers of things. But sometimes I put even numbers — just to upset the critics.”

Agreed. We played two games last Tuesday.

“We don’t make mistakes. We just have happy accidents.”

In the opener, we lost to SlaughterHouse 9 by a score of 7-6.

“I like to beat the brush.”

Boom liked to beat the ball and was 3 for 4 in this game and was 5 for 7 all night.

“Water’s like me. It’s lazy. Boy, it always looks for the easiest way to do things.”

JD, Li’l Rads, Philthy and Diamond Dave and Joker all drew walks – a new team record.

“Be so very light. Be a gentle whisper.”

Martin, trying to spark the team into a come from behind victory, tried to quietly tiptoe a 90 foot leadoff on a hit and run.

“The secret to doing anything is believing that you can do it. Anything that you believe you can do strong enough, you can do. Anything. As long as you believe.”

We certainly needed that motivation going into our second game.

“Just beat the devil out of it.”

In the nightcap, we beat Templeton Rye 14-1.

“If you do too much, it’s going to lose its effectiveness.”

Bob’s only imperfect statement. We scored six runs in the first inning against Templeton Rye on hits by Boom, Fort, Rads, Martini, Joker, JD and Philthy. Too many runs is never ineffective.

“You too can paint almighty pictures.”

The mighty Bobi smeared one of the longest balls this year with a triple to the left center field fence.

“However you think it should be, that’s exactly how it should be.”

One of the toughest positions to decide where to play is shortcenter. Lip, JD and Coffey played shortcenter in a variety of spots in the infield and outfield.

“Make love to the canvas.”

Hmm. An episode I have yet to see!

“You need the dark in order to show the light.”

Sounds like something Pastor Ted would say on a Sunday.

“You can have anything you want in the world — once you help everyone around you get what they want.”

This too!

“You can do anything you want to do. This is your world.”

I think Teddy’s sermon next week is already written.

“If we’re going to have animals around we all have to be concerned about them and take care of them.”

Our rescheduled game against Chicken Shack is on June 28^th.

“Go out on a limb — that’s where the fruit is.”

We didn’t go out on a limb but we did go out to Park Avenue and had a fruitful celebration hosted by the Martin family.