Softball: Us (A Brief Annual Report on Where We Stand)
Dear People,
“They say it's talent that wins games” Chris Fure has told me (200 times), taunting me with that mischievous smile “and it's management that loses them.” I don't mention this for any particular reason, although I did happen to notice that as his side cracked under the searing strain of a 10-10 tie in the top of the 8th, it was our hero himself who let several grounders to short bounce through his porous little mitt and on to the lush, verdant grasses of dispositive error and vanquishment.
Of course one can't blame a single captain for the 14-11 calamity that beset his collective whole, and I would certainly never hint at that here. Indeed, my entire team was more aerobically focused and fearlessly innovative than his, and when seen in that light, it's no surprise that we crushed them with the masticating dispatch of a famished Mojave corn snake about to savor his dinner gerbil.
The point is that the state of our athletic union is sound. Oh sure, we're detested by land-starved lacrosse, soccer and croquet players everywhere, the city treats us like disposable yak shit and our homeland is overrun by 52 trillion aphids. Moreover, our weekly games are replete with some of the most lame-ass players on the face of the earth. And finally, we're now aging as a community at a simply unsustainable rate, and I for one am not going to sugarcoat it; According to my calculations, every one of us will be dead within 68 years.
OK, perhaps “sound” is the wrong adjective. Maybe “irreversibly doomed to gradual decline, burgeoning irrelevance and the ultimate existential fate of every organic institution that's ever presumed it could survive” is more appropriate. I honestly don't know; I don't give speeches. But I do know that as we approach our 14th year, I will continue to offer you the vital communal recreation you need to pursue your aerobic bliss, because in the United States of America, that's what we do. And therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning….Raymond
1/28/11
Softball: The Synergy of Movements
Dear People,
There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, and as of now there are three slots left.
Please bring $4 for the field, which for this week only includes my personal guarantee to you that organized post-game demonstrations against my unbroken 14-year rule will be lovingly tolerated, and moreover, I won't block your tweets (or twits, or whatever they're called)….Ray 845-7552
PS:
i-Couldn't have asked it better myself…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbz9lnVbrwc&feature=player_embedded
ii-Godless….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFWA1A9XFi8
iii-My Generation…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ9r8LMU9bQ
1/30/11
Softball: Sunday 9AM: The Inherent Flexibility of our Nature-Hosed Community
Dear People,
Since it's been raining all night and it continues to do so as I peck, I have no choice but to cancel today's game. However, in order to save your currently shattered hearts from irreparable sorrow, Chris Fire and I will be meeting at the Crepevine at Cedar and Shattuck at 11AM for a savory egg-based brunch of fine aerobic fare.
Please let me know by 10:30 if you'd like to join us so that we can save you a seat…Ray
http://www.yelp.com/biz/crepevine-berkeley