Softball: The Varieties of Work Product
Dear People,
Chris Fure's team shot out to an ego-crushing 20-3 third-inning lead over my own, yet let the record show that we gallantly clawed our way back to a place of genteel dignity-before, alas, falling one pissant run short, 31-30. Even in the acrid sting of victory denied, my peeps had the better story, and that included the triumphant return of the Reverend Greg Ward (http://www.revgsward.com/), who hadn't played in this community since his distasteful pre-ministerial failures at short in the Fall of '98! It's 16 long years later, and yet he showed us again that the stirring spiritual grace of Unitarian renewal still can't save a team with over 20 unforced errors, and in the weeks ahead, I think his new Kensingtonian congregants will have a lot to ponder because of this.
Of course some bloopers are of graver repercussion than others, and while Greg played clean, I do recall a particularly painful incident that occurred in the top of the 9th, with two on, two out and my team trying to maintain its fragile one-run deficit, at 29-28. Suddenly, on a buttery 3-2 Steve Bedrick slider, Donny unleashed the highest deep fly to left that I've ever had the privilege to witness, and yet as the orb began it's eight-second 500-foot descent to earth, I breathed a great sigh of relief in seeing that it would land a good two feet short of the yak-laden bush, and even better, that Professor Jim McGuire was already casually standing there with his gloved arm fully extended-still, focused like a laser and ready-to-grab. Curiously though, and for reasons I don't pretend to understand, the orb plunged directly to the ground between Jimmy's outstretched mitt and the upper occipital bone of his tender little cranium.
Now look, shit happens and I get that, so I'm not about to cast speculative counter-factual aspersions at one of our best. Yet truth be told, I can't help thinking that if good 'ol Languid-Limbs had bothered to “move” in response to the drifting trajectory in question, the ensuing 2-RBI double wouldn't have happened, and thus my team would've gone on to pulverize Chris', 30-29. That's just a fact, of course, but regardless, no one can know how all this will affect Jim's upcoming graduate seminar on the Evolutionary Biology of Snakes and Other Hideous Reptiles. Still, my guess is that he's gonna' have to work his arthrokinetic reflexes, and work them hard, if he's ever to safely hold one of his beloved reticulated pythons snugly between his arms again (see http://ib.berkeley.edu/labs/mcguire/People.html ).
Yeah, that's a harsh thing to say, and I don't say it lightly, but the implicit interface between sport, faith and career is a delicate mistress indeed, and as Greg's Kensingtonian congregants undoubtedly already know, Jimmy's upcoming grad students will have a lot to ponder in the slithery months to come. And therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning . . .Raymond
8/8/14
Softball: Chez, Again (The Mysteries of Lumpy Aerobic Demand)
Dear People,
There will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11, and as of now there are still seven slots left. Seven!
Please bring $4 for the field, which for this week only includes a goat-milk ricotta with roasted black mission figs _and anise hyssop fritters . . .Raymond 845-7552