A Game Well Played (5/10)

...And we are still undefeated, in a sense. Not so much in the “not losing any games” sense, but more the “not letting a loss get us down” sense. The True Foes are the Chumbawumba of softball.

Considering all the things we had working against us, we played an awesome game. At first there were only six of us, and it looked like we may have to forfeit, but then Brandon, Wendy, and Michael (Issa's friends from ThinkFilm) showed up and we had the required number. Thanks for showing, guys! Several of our core players were out due to illness, injury, and travel, and we missed them sorely. Jason rested his ligaments and cooked up an all-star lineup for us. Glen Baken tried his hand at pitching, and I think everyone would agree that he was better by far than the Muckraker's redheaded smirking guy. He was all over the place last night and there were plenty of walks.

The True Foes were up at bat first, and to be honest the first couple of innings were pretty rough. They scored a long string of runs at the bottom of the second—it seemed like they went through their batting order like a million times. Unfortunately they managed to keep a big lead for the rest of the game, but. to our credit. it didn't grow at all. The Foes in the field did a bang-up job, and the Mucks only got one more run in the rest of the game, for a final score of 15-3. Hey, it's better than 15-2.

Brian and Issa were a dangerous duo at shortstop and first base, respectively. Brian was just a softball magnet for some reason, and then he'd whip the ball over to Issa and it was out, out, out at first! Cleo played a strong game both at bat and at second base, and Alex Laviola hit a homer and zoomed around the bases in a blur of knee socks. Alex Mabilon said, "Broken elbow? What broken elbow?" as he bravely batted and fielded fly balls.

The weather in the Navy Yard, thankfully, was much more tolerable than the saunalike conditions of Union Square. It was still a very humid and sweaty game, though. By the end I had dirt on me like Shake ’n Bake on a drumstick! We were happy to have our favorite ump officiating the game. He's very fair and actually runs out into the infield when the ball is in play so he can see to make the call. As for the Muckrakers, well...I don't want to devote much space to them. Suffice it to say that they were quite mucky and rakish.

At Superfine after the game we "rediscovered" the team drink: a dirty ho. That's Guinness floating on Hoegaarden for those of you who haven't had the pleasure. While discussing the game it was decided that "we are a better softball team. And better people!" Hear, hear. The next game sounds like it will be a lot of fun. Apparently a there's a friend of Jason's on that team ("Instant Karma") who's been talking a lot of smack. If you couldn't make it to last night's game, come out and play on Tuesday the 22nd. Even if you haven't picked up a bat in years, just give it the old college try. It's so much fun!

GTF