Softball: Deep Ruminations on a Bad Day
Dear People,
My team feasted on Jeff W’s as if we were joyous gray wolves who had just nabbed the first feral caribou of the long El Cerrito winter, 21-11. In retrospect, I think their problems may have sprung from the Jeffinator’s own listless captainship, and I don’t mean that merely because of his 18 infield errors. Of course it’s true that the nadir of his authority may have come with that sublime 5th inning line drive, in which our hero cleanly scooped up the ball, but then, instead of making the simple five-foot toss to 2nd, inexplicably threw it 10 feet straight into the air, as if a tiny well-buttered ricochet machine had been secretly implanted in the web of his glove. I’m sorry if this sounds like crass aerobic schadenfreude, but that’s the way it looked, and at the end of the day, I have to call it the way I see it; In all candor, I believe Jeff’s mitt was possessed by the anti-Lord.
Regardless, though, his problems that fine ’morn were perhaps more philosophical than anything else. I refer you to the top of the 7th, when he slammed a lingering outside curve ball about five full inches down the right field line. Apparently confused by the rare understated nature of his blast, the Jeffster loitered pointlessly at the plate as Peter scooped up the ball before it could roll into foul territory, thereby transforming a potentially classic bunt into an easy and disturbing out. Almost immediately, Jeff seemed to realize that he had perhaps misplayed the situation, but rather than look deep into his own soul, he cried out in frustration, “Where’s my damn first base coach?!”
In fairness, this is usually an honest question of stark implication, yet in this case, it’s hard to fault the first base coach when the batter in question is still 60 feet away, contemplating his navel. Of course an objection of this very type is based on an annoying resort to “logic,” and frankly, I can empathize with the frustration of any coach who’s told that in the spiraling calamity of his team’s imminent collapse, Aristotle is somehow relevant to his life!
No, my friends, even Wittgenstein himself saw the limits of reason; “The most difficult task of the philosopher,” he once told an awe-struck student, is “to find out where the shoe pinches.” OK, fine, the man was an overrated idiot, but I happen to think that Jeff floundered barefoot, and therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…Raymond
6/13/08
Softball: Salubrious
Dear People,
There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, and as of now there are still three slots left.
Please bring $3 for the field, which for this week only includes a complimentary pre-game feast of cottage cheese with whey, organic prunes and chilled Armenian goat milk….Ray 845-7552