Waiting on a Win

Waiting is hard.  Patience is a virtue that I am still waiting to arrive. 

In fact, my fun and kind way of being passive and aggressive is to crank up this playlist when our family is running late.

This way I can say my foot tapping is rhythm not impatience, though I’m not sure the family agrees.

It’s been this way all my life. 

As a kid, I could not wait until it was gametime.  Weeknight and Saturday afternoon games were the hardest.  There were so many hours to fill until I was on the diamond.

To help with my impatience, I would excitedly put on my jersey soon after I woke up.  After my morning cereal, I would go in the backyard and warm up my arm with the pitch-back screen, then loft a bunch of flyballs to myself, and finish by perfecting my swing.  Later in the day I would finish suiting up with pants, stirrups, and spikes.  I was always at the ready for baseball.

It’s now forty or so years later, and I still can’t wait to play ball. But the problem has been exacerbated because I’m old and can’t stay up late either.

The Cougars had the 8:45pm late game on Tuesday, which is the time I am usually sluggishly heading to bed.

In order to get started early, we fast-forwarded the night with a pregame party.  The Li’l Rads family fueled a fantastic fun-filled festivity. 

No more waiting.  We were ready for our opponent.

1st Inning

Martini held our adversary, Ready by Tuesday, scoreless and registered a backwards K in the process.

Kev led off with a line shot and Rads punched it to the right side for first and third.  Fort ripped a caught liner to short center and Kev raced home and slid in for our first tally.  Sneak preview of things to come.

Cougars 1   RBT 0

2nd Inning

RBT started with a double but we stopped him there.

Cougars down 1-2-3.  Bats just warming up.

Cougars 1   RBT 0

3rd Inning

Our rival had first and third with two outs.  The batter smashed a hard grounder that skipped through the infield and Fort stopped it and pushed it into Crawdaddy’s hands at second base for the spectacular third out.

Cougars mirror the prior inning on offense.  Bats waiting to erupt.

Cougars 1   RBT 0

4th inning

One hit and three outs for Tuesday.

Pastor Ted led off with a laser just over the fielder’s fingertips.  Tiny Rads went hard to right and Pastor Ted went left fast around two and made it to third.  Rads imitated Tiny Rads and struck the same shot to right to have men on first and third.  Fort’s swing tallied Tiny Rads.  Here come the Cougars.

Cougars 3   RBT 0

5th Inning

RBT.  Three hits.  One run.

After recording two quick outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Cougars turned into the living breathing example of “keep the line moving.”  Jimmy had a frozen rope single to left center and Bobi followed suit with a double.  Li’l Rads hit a worm burner between third and short scoring Jimmy (1).  Crawdaddy dropped one in center field scoring Bobi (2) and while Li’l Rads raced to third, Crawdaddy slid safely under the tag at two.  Pastor Ted slashed the ball down the third base line scoring Li’l (3).  Kev blasted a shot to left scoring Crawdaddy (4).  Tiny Rads rocketed the ball between the left and center fielder for a bases clearing triple (5) and (6).   Rads punched it to the right side scoring Charley (7).  Fort had an oppo single scoring Rads all the way from first (8).  Martini beat out an infield single moving Fort to third.  JD had an infield spinner scoring Fort (9).   Nine runs in the nine o’clock hour!

Cougars 11    RBT 1

6th Inning

RBT remembered it was Tuesday and scored thrice.

Joker beat out an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error.  Jimmy moved his dad to three.  Bobi smacked a triple to left center scoring Joker and then Li’l Rads got Jeff home for another score.

Cougars 13    RBT 4

7th Inning

Our foe went down 1-2-3 for the Cougars victory!  Cougars win 13-4.

The postgame was short but spirited.  Li’l Rads handed out ice cold beers to the winners as we walked off the field.

As Nico Bobis aptly noted when I saw him at his baseball game the next day, Ready By Tuesday was definitely not ready by Tuesday.

On the mound, at the plate, or in the field, Nico is always an all-star ready to play.

While I may wish the Cougars always had the early 6:45pm start time, the entire team is always ready by Tuesday - ready to put on the green, ready to play, ready to win, and ready to pre- or post-game.  It’s hard to wait to do something you love, but especially when it’s with people you love. See you soon (but not soon enough), Cougars!

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Game Video

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The whole game is here and the big inning can be seen at timestamp 33:08.

Cougars 13 & COVID-19

After every season, the Cougars enter a quarantine away from the softball diamond.  Then, as spring arrives and the flowers bloom (or, more accurately, as the snow melts), we emerge to rejoin our Cougar family bubble.

However, COVID-19 delayed the start of the Cougars 13^th season.  

This shortened and plagued season we had to wait until Phase 4 to get on the field and touch base four.  Excitement throughout the community spread when travel to Howard Park was deemed essential.

 

In 16-inch softball, we have a couple of goals, pandemic or not.  On offense, we flatten the curve of high arc pitching. On defense, we practice proper hand hygiene because there is never ever personal protective equipment in this glorious game. 

Let’s get to the press conference for the update.

1^st Inning

Old Neighborhood Grill led off the top of the first and batted six.  Trying times for the Cougars, but we halted the outbreak to one run.

The Cougars started the bottom of the first with three players who can outrun a virus.  Boom transmitted a droplet to right field to start our season and Kevin got a shot to left moving Boom to second.  Then the umpire made a bad diagnosis on a pickoff play at first base, which we saw as a false positive.  Tiny Rads then sprayed a single to center.  With men on first and second, Rads swabbed it to the right side zooming Boom home.

Cougars 1   ONG 1

2^nd Inning

Both teams sheltered-in-place.

Cougars 1   ONG 1

3^rd Inning

ONG clustered a couple runs.

In our inning, Li’l Rads beat out an infield single and then took a tumble while crossing at first base.  Jimmy hit one deep to the hole at SS and was marked as safe.  No runs - we could not breakout.

Cougars 1   ONG 3

4^th and 5^th Innings

We held ONG scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings thanks to Tiny Rads defense.  He is our contact tracer.  Once contact is made, he traces down everything.

Kevin’s liner to center was our only hit in the fourth. In the fifth inning, Martini took a walk and JD hit an infield single.  ONG locked us down.

Cougars 1   ONG 3

6^th  Inning

Our rival scored one.

Li’l Rads wristed another infield single and then Joker hit a patented left field line laser liner double putting runners on second and third.  Jimmy, a super-spreader, powered a fly to right scoring Li’l Rads.

Cougars 2   ONG 4

7^th Inning

ONG continued to spread disease with two tallies.

Down by four runs, the Cougars last inning was a state of emergency.  Boom led off with a beautiful liner just over the unprotected fingertips of the SS.  Tiny Rads singled to the right side putting men on first and third but we left them waiting for a winning vaccine.  Our opponent practiced better containment than we did; we had herd immunity from runs.

Cougars 2   ONG 6

The new normal had our retirees and fans, Sawdey, Diamond, Philthy, Kate, Julie, and Miranda, viewing socially from a distance.  Pretty sure Philthy and Diamond were drinking quarantinis.

As always, the cure for losing is the postgame.  Dr. Bobi prescribed meds of pizza and beer to ease our pain.

At the postgame after the loss, we decided that with the toilet paper shortage, it was for the best that we didn’t have the runs tonight.

Next week we plan to ignore any stay-at-home orders and mask our errors on defense and cause an outbreak on offense!  We will be the Tiger Kings!

Go Cougars!

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Game Video
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