12/19/07

Softball: Musings on an Ethical Issue from the old Athletic Canon

Dear People,

For the second week in a row, my team smote Jeff’s, 19-18, and I’m not saying that just because ‘smite’ happens to be my favorite biblical verb. The semantic reality is that smittiositude implies a devastating blow of such raw deity-like wrath that I get verklempt just typing it, and yet how else to capture the impact of Matt’s 7th-inning 2-RBI 700-foot super blast to the mystical reservoir beyond the yak-laden tundra of deep center left?

A couple losers on Jeff’s team would bitterly observe that Matt was using Tom O’s magical but legally-dubious Miken bat, and that without it, that same swing would’ve clearly produced a piss-ant pop-up to short. Well, I was ready to dismiss such speculation as aerobic hysteria, and yet later that evening as I was browsing through Leviticus (as I am wont to do), I noticed that the Lord prohibited oysters, Twinkies and conch, which is no big deal, except that from about 600 to 300BC, the biggest purveyor of illicit shellfish in the Mediterranean world was “Mike’s Conch and Traife Shop” (in the old Tiberias mall). Now again, no big wup, except that in ancient Hebrew, the pronoun Mike was “Miken,” a direct derivation from the Amharic noun “Mikenn,” or literally “forbidden stick.” I think you see my point.

Did my team win fair and square, or was Matt’s homer a discomforting metaphor for all that tweaks the Godster when his ancient recreational laws are flouted? In all candor, I honestly don’t know. But I do know that the inimitable Jesus Christ was born exactly 2,011 years ago next Tuesday (give or take a decade), and therefore there will be a game at Codornices this Sunday at 11AM, IF I get enough commits by this Friday morning…Ray



12/21/07

Softball: Hidden Jewels

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 my long-awaited post-game walking tour of the goat farms, windmills and nude Roman sculpture gardens of beautiful downtown Emeryville…Ray 845-7552

PS: A Couple Perspectives on History…

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qf5cpN2tKbs&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=susZ2ceEHwk

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