1/15/19

Softball: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Dear People,

For the second see-sawing game in a row, my side rallied in the final inning to joyously crush Chris Fure's by one splendid little run, 20-19, and I'll tell ya, the thrill of this kind of triumph never grows old. Of course the flip side of that Janus-faced coin is the sudden agony of victory denied, and given that Chris is the sagacious philosophe who first popularized the idea that “talent wins games and management loses them,” I suspect that he's still thinking long and hard on whether captainship is the appropriate vehicle through which to find his own aerobic bliss. If I were him, I honestly wouldn't know.

What I do know is that both contingents played with clarity and brio, as seen by Dan May's 7th-inning 3-RBI homer to right (putting my peeps ahead for our second lead of the game), and Corey's staggering 8th-inning grand slam to the aphid-laden grasses of deep center left (putting the Furinator's posse back on top, if only for five final and pitifully ephemeral minutes). Yet I believe it was Pace whose passion not only set the tenor of the entire match, but who also challenged our most basic understanding of that ever perplexing nexus between pure athletic excellence and the annoying laws of basic quantum theory.

I refer you back to the top of 3rd, when Donny unleashed a scorching 2-on 1-out blast to the undefended gap between deep grassy short and lush virgin center. The Pacester instantly took off from his left field perch with the astounding speed of a leopard on meth, and exactly 2.03 seconds later, he jumped high and focused with his expertly outstretched glove set to intercept that darting orb-And yeah, at a precise 75 degree angle to its blistering trajectory. Time froze in place as his grand jeté unfolded, but then, and for reasons I don't pretend to understand, athlete and ball crossed perfectly past each other, with nary a molecule of actual contact. Frankly, the whole play was an unsightly disgrace.

Yet it was also an eerily magical moment, as if a wayward quark had ripped open a gravitational tear in the fabric of our delicate space-time continuum. Or perhaps Pace was just stoned, but either way, and precisely because it cost my side nothing, I can still relish the inscrutably random interplay of brains, balls and particles. And therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning . . . Raymond

PS: Ads Worth Watching. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwndLOKQTDs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO0qwl5k9R4



1/17/14

Softball: Synergy

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 for this week only includes a rare post-game workshop which blends Middendorf Breathwork, Lifespan Integration and “Emeryville-Style” Batting Practice …Raymond 845-7552

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