2/6/02
Softball: Kin, Email and Principle
Dear People,
Congratz to all on last week’s spellbinding won-on-the-last-hit 20-
19 exemplification of why unaffiliated email-organized softball is now America’s premiere recreational experience. Sure, the Super Bowl was somewhat more covered in the media, and admittedly, no more than a handful of our own players will ever end up on a box of Wheaties. Fair enough. Yet I honestly believe that my own organizational strategy of ruthless expectations and subdued salarial reward has effectively jettisoned the noisome dross of monetary obsession, thus producing a rarefied level of pristine competitive zeal that is simply no longer seen among the pampered pussies of the professional athletic classes.
Regardless, it is for this reason that I am particularly suspicious as to why Hotmail and Yahoo have suddenly begun to block delivery of my weekly musings. For the time being, I have been able to circumvent this disturbing wave of cyberterror by simply pasting the effected bounced-back letters into a cleverly forwarded file of immediate re-sendage, yet I still suspect that they fear our success so much that they may be willing to stop at nothing in order to disrupt our burgeoning network of athletic kith.
In response to these threats, I shall remain vigilant and do whatever it takes to get the word out, but for the record, I will not succumb to those who insist that we assuage these corporate slime-balls by switching to a BCC mailing structure. As you all know, it is the open "To" configuration that allows for a true sense of aerobic community, by proudly revealing each and every individual who helps to comprise our noble experiment in aerobic democracy. Of course the BCC proposal turns this openness on its head, shrouding our membership in a creepy digital vault of callous Orwellian nothingness. In all candor, I get lonely just thinking about it.
In any case, allow me to illustrate a particular concern; It so happens, for example, that neither I nor probably any of you have any idea who the fuck "sdunkle2@yahoo.com" is, and yet if one day he shows up for a game, he’ll be hailed as integral to the very bosom of our extended family. "It’s me, the DunkleAtor!," he’ll say, and we’ll all laugh and josh and know immediately. Yet if everyone had been BCC’d into the dank and nameless ether of the "proper way," well, who amongst us would not have demanded that this strange and unknown pervo just let us play in peace? I think you see my point.
And therefore, there will be a game at Codornices this SATURDAY at 11AM (which is just like Sunday at 11AM, except 24 hours earlier), IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…..Raymond
PS: I will be fleeing the Bay Area on Saturday night and will not be around to organize a game the following (three-day) weekend. If any of you would like to do so, let me know (i.e.…Anyone can use this list, but as always, I ask that organizational integrity be maintained by buying a field reservation and making sure there are enough players. It’s not hard, but it takes some time).
PPS: If you prefer that for now on this letter be emailed as a blind carbon copy, let me know and I’ll count the votes. Personally, I don’t really care.
2/8/02
Softball: Celerity
Pre-trip panic/Stupid-ass rain/No time/TOMORROW at Codornices at11AM/FOUR slots left/$2/Assume nothing/Check Email/voicemail at 10:05AM/The Frank-at-Kleeberger option remains/Hope for sun---radiant, scorching, desiccating and fine…Ray 845-7552
PS: The DunkleAtor’s dramatic emergence from indefinate cyber-aloofiositude dovetails nicely with a 7-2 vote in favor of maintaining the present structure of exposed email addressage. Another triumph for community….
2/9/02
Softball: Sunday 8AM: Some Unsightly Last-minute Tweaking
Codornices is verdant, dry and glorious.
Shamefully though, we are now down to 17 players, and while I can certainly resort to the usual acts of telephonic groveling, I think we all know that debases me, you and the entire softball community.
So please, immediately pick up that phone and call a cherished friend, a distant cousin, or even a pathologically embittered ex-lover, and get me that commit.
See you at 11….Ray 845-7552
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