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.