1/1/14
Softball: Taking Stock, in Broad Temporal Perspective
Dear People,
On a frightful wind-strewn day in which the desiccated top soils of our cherished recreational homeland swirled about like the great Tulsa sirocco of 1936, Alan Miller's team devastated my own, 32-21. At one point in the 4th, we were down 19-2, but because my eyeballs were now coated with a soothing patina of raw granular filth, I felt newly inspired to lead my peeps forward. And so we rallied, and rallied hard, but then Saadia, Maya and Ali let loose with an additional late-inning wave of brutal multibase blasts to our flailing defensive ramparts.
In the end, my last captainship of 2013 was a feckless disgrace, and for that, I have only myself to blame. Myself, and perhaps Donny and Mateo, whose “emerging superstar” weightings in the pre-game team-balancing process were somewhat belied by a ceaseless and robust display of technically unhelpful pop-ups combined with a curious sieve-like approach to the underlying conceptual fundaments of 'stopping' ground balls. But hey-Who's really noticing?
In any case, it was still a wondrous way to end the year, for the park was filled with long-disappeared old-timers who date all the way back to our 20th century roots. Indeed, the Millernator, Dave Ross, Jeff W, Ken and Darryl all played with the focus of gentlemen in the very prime of their stirring post-primatude, and even Ruth and Ellen dropped by to frolic in the multi-generational glory of it all. Yeah, the Spring of 2014 will mark our 17th year as an aerobic peoples, and to be sure, that's got me musing, and musing strong.
Truth be told, I believe I was 17 myself when I first lost my corporeal innocence (or maybe I was 41-who can ever remember?), and so as we evolve into the most transformative phase of our perilous aerobic adolescence, I remain more optimistic than ever that as a community of athletes qua athletes, we will continue to learn, persevere and intermittently suck. And therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning . . . Raymond.
1/3/14
Softball: Dough. . . and Music!
Dear People,
There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, and as of now there are still four slots left.
Please bring $5 for the field, which I understand is a 25% increase over $4 and an exploitative travesty if there ever was one. However, after a couple post-game consultations with the communal whole, it's been agreed that for the first several months of 2014, I'll collect an extra $1 per game to pay for a variety of equipment that we need to replace, including a few bats that have been shattered to smithereens by the weekly onslaught of our fearsome testosteronic manly folk. Or perhaps they were just defecto, but in any case, I'll be further consulting with some of our knowledgeable batologists before spending your hard earned money. Moreover, and just to be clear, almost none of the extra cash will be used to support my tenacious fondness for crank.
Hasta el domingo….Raymond 845-7552
PS: I'm delighted to report that the great Steve Seskin, singer-songwriter extraordinaire and the moral backbone of this entire community (for the couple times a year that he actually shows up and plays), has a brand new album, Some Sunsets, available at his website, www.steveseskin.com, a new song on that record now available in the form of a free mp3, and best of all, three upcoming local shows . . .
Weds, Jan 8th Steve Seskin with Craig Carothers and Don Henry. 7:00 pm at our very own Catahoula Coffee Company, 12472 San Pablo Avenue, Richmond, CA. Suggested donation $10-20 sliding scale at the door. For more info call (510) 235-0525.
Sun, Jan 12th Steve Seskin with Craig Carothers and Don Henry. 8:00 pm, doors 7:00 pm. Freight and Salvage Coffee House, 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA. Tickets: $23 advance / $25 door. Purchase tickets online here. For more information call (510) 644-2020 or email info@freightandsalvage.org.
Sun., Jan 19th Steve Seskin with Craig Carothers and Don Henry. Evening house concert at the home of Steve and Ellen Seskin. This is our last show of the 2014 tour. Tickets are $25 and we can only fit 40 people. Reserve tickets by sending a check for $25 per ticket to 929 36th Street, Richmond, CA 94805 or by sending a PayPal payment to theseskins@aol.com We will hold seats for you. Call 510-236-9666 if you'd like to see if we still have seats the day of the show. The show starts at 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30 pm.
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