Softball: Somewhat Less Than Macho
Dear People,
First of all, I think we can all agree that it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. I can’t recall if it was Cervantes, Shakespeare or Snoop Dogg who taught us this, but the point is that I make no apologies for having cajoled your pitiful, previously dry asses into taking the field for a 20-minute micro-aerobic two-inning washout that imploded in a sea of mud, panic and raw malarial despair.
The fact is that I knew the risks, though in all candor, I had no idea we’d fold so quickly. Five years ago we would have frolicked nine full innings under the rain in brazen defiance of the viral threats. Of course we’re wiser and older now—I believe the phrase ‘spineless little sissy-chickens’ comes to mind—but hey, the deepening of wisdom is always coarsened by the harsh contours of aging.
In any case, I was thinking that I would lay low for a couple weeks, especially given the organizational trauma of aborting a game in which so many good people were so ruthlessly denied their most basic cardio-vascular rights. But then I started thinking about how Elaine, who, assuming we were not playing, arrived fashionably late in her lovely corporate dress slacks. She was clearly frightened by the incessant drizzle and had every reason to bail right then and there, but instead, she stoically grabbed a mitt, marched straight out to second, and without batting a lash, popped open her jumbo-size floral beach umbrella.
Needless to say, this was an image of both uncommon valor and rarefied idiocy, but her courage was dominant for the remaining four minutes of the game, and because of it, I am just too inspired to have you denied again. And therefore there will be a game at San Pablo #2 this Sunday at 11AM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…Raymond
5/13/05
Softball: A Niche in the Market
Dear People,
There will be a game at San Pablo #2 this Sunday at 11AM, and as of now, there are still, shamefully, seven slots left. This means that you are all encouraged to commit any of the vital non-community people that add resonance to your lives, from distant lunatic cousins to sassy ex-paramours.
Please bring $2 for the field, which for this week only includes a special leather-bound 3rd edition of Houghton-Mifflin’s magnificent Yiddish-Navajo Bilingual Dictionary…Raymond