6/12/01: What Might Have Been

6/12/01

Softball: What Might Have Been

Dear People,

Congratz to all on last weekend’s electrifying 15-14 won-on-the-last-hit 11-inning paragon of unbridled athletic passion. I still get chills when I think of how my own team rallied from a nine run deficit in the 7th in order to force Frank’s motley contingent of oozing complacency into their fatal rendezvous with extra innings
---each unexpected extension an enervating test of the human animal denied its insatiable craving for finality and rest.

Of course, some aerobic ethicists will forever claim the final score is tainted by brutal enforcement of an 8th inning third-out call caused by the Frankmeister’s curious decision to walk off his 3rd base sanctuary (and into an effortless tag-out), apparently because of his mistaken impression that he had just witnessed the final out of that inning. I suppose that none of us will ever really know what was in his tiny little mind when he proceeded to destroy his team’s last, best shot at victory, but as the ruthless enforcer of that emotionally charged out, I have to come clean and admit that I now believe I made the wrong decision, and that in so doing, I may have inadvertently tore an unsightly gash into the normally mellow and forgiving cloth of the community fabric. Fortunately, with time and love and thread, we can close that wound, but Frank’s team, perhaps all abstracted victims of ruthlessly unjust proximate causation, lost 15-14 in the 11th, and that, alas, can never change. Pity.

In any case, and as most of you know, this Sunday is the 29th anniversary of the day that five mysterious silent-types were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. True, I was just a tender 12 year old during that hot and sultry summer, but on that night, as I watched Walter Cronkite report ever so briefly on this apparently insignificant event, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would eventually lead to Nixon’s resignation 26 month later. Regardless, those five sons-of-bitches stole my political innocence, and just as with the loss of virginity itself, I have yet to recover. And therefore, there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, FOLLOWED BY a post-game potluck barbecue and more recreational mirth, IF I get enough players by this Friday morning…..Raymond

PS: The barbie will probably start around 1:30. You should bring your own meat and a modest communal contribution, such as a grill, some coal, silverware, condiments, paper plates, ice, drinks, veggies, side dishes, desserts, chips, salads or braised Ukrainian lamb liver. All are welcome, but please let me know what you’re bringing!

6/15/01

Softball: Oral

Dear People,

There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11:00AM, followed by a scrumptious 1:30ish barbecue, but sadly for those who tarried, there are no longer any slots left. However, feel free to call for late cancels, or to just show up in order to frolic and graze.

The field fee is $2, which for this week only includes a post-meal teeth whitening and root canal, complete with complimentary nitrous oxide sedation…Raymond 845-7552

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