sunday softball update 130609

finally back to playing and as usual, the rust showed big time so what a poor showing it was... though the highlight of the game was a spectacular running catch by jackson in right field... she is really good when she plays regularly and in shape... unfortunately, we lost both games of a double header, 11-6 and 8-4, primarily because we were not hitting, we tossed the ball around too much, and we did not get the ball back into the infield fast enough... teams know they can take an extra base on most of our outfielders... balls got by outfielders and rolled to the fence... one outfielder just watched the ball... and we batted into seven or eight double plays in the two games... we have rather several slow players and some lack of hustle... and rust, definite rust... a few guys played really well, but when 8 out of the 12 batters are not hitting (and a few are almost automatic outs), there's not much chance in softball... last challenge is the team gets down emotionally very quickly and the energy drains from the field... it's frustrating to watch a team give up like that... not everybody falls into that trap, but enough to lose...

still love the game and have long accepted this is a very casual recreational team so i don't expect much (but some hustle running the bases would be nice... when we do that, we have won)... we have definitely had better weeks (and seasons... we are 1-3 so far)... as for me, i did poorly only going something like 1-4 with two walks... i pitched well though... both teams had trouble hitting my spins which were stronger than they've been in a while (the arm is getting better every week) and if not for the errors, it would have been much closer...

one big thing the league could and should do to make the league more fair and more fun is organize and manage the league better... there are 15 teams, more than enough for two divisions - one competitive and one recreational... six of the teams are undefeated and six of the teams have no wins... three teams have one win... that is really no fun for the recreational teams and it wouldn't be fun for me if i was on a competitive team, but most of the competitive teams come to this league because they are not very good and would lose in a competitive league and here they can push around the recreational teams and win easily...

as for us, when all of our players show up, we are a middle of the road recreational team because we have a few good hitters and a few almost automatic outs, a few good fielders and a few almost automatic errors and very little speed... the very little speed is our biggest weakness in the field and on the base paths... and a lot depends on how well i am pitching...