12/27/00
Softball: The Subtle Scales of Value
Dear People,
Congratz to all on last week’s enervating 28-18 holiday orgy of aerobic mirth and good cheer. I feel particularly blessed to have been part of a team that found the inner strength to rally from a calamitous 10-0 deficit in order to take a stunning 16-14 lead as we headed into the 7th inning stretch. Indeed, I remember walking out to take our defensive positions, the tension raw as a lab rat’s cheeseless maze, when Jen asked me in a shaky voice whether we could defy the odds and really hold on. I knew that Mikey’s team had more pure power and girth, but deep in my bosom, I also knew that we had the depth of character to meet any challenge.
And then, in a tear-filled moment that I will remember for as long as my days, I told Jen that the only real gap "on paper" was that certain Je ne sais quoi that she herself would need to exploit, in order to finally play at her true and sublime potential. I think she understood what I was trying to say, and thus as she strode off to right field, she glanced assuredly back at me. Yes, we had experienced a mutual psycho-athletic epiphany, and thus we both knew that little could go wrong on our road to triumph and destiny.
Oh, sure, we gave up 14 runs in the next two innings, but it would be utterly cynical to say that this was somehow Jen’s "fault." First of all, in only three of her next five errors did the ball actually roll directly between her legs on it’s way to the stately oaks beyond, but regardless, such analysis completely misses the point. In fact, even counting the previous six innings, her admittedly unconventional fielding techniques could really only be seen as a proximate cause in a dozen or so of the opposition’s runs. And when one balances this with the sheer clarity of recreational vision that she brought to our side, I truly feel that while her overall contribution was both complex and nuanced, she was a vital if somewhat misunderstood part of the total team effort.
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I will soon be in a strange and distant land, and therefore I will not be able to organize a game this weekend.
May your 2001 be filled with triples…..Happy New Year….Ray
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