Softball Skills (or lack thereof)

For all the softball ball mishaps I've been a part of, I've usually been on the non-receiving side. Karma has come back to haunt me. Here's a story of my demise.

I was asked by Ti to sub with a few others for her co-ed softball team last night, and being that I haven't participated in any active team sport (other than basketball) in months, I was more than happy to sub. But when we got to fields, subs weren't needed at all. However, the captain was much too nice and found a way to get us in the lineup. In the later innings, the captain made defensive adjustments and put me in at shortstop. With runners on 1st and 2nd, and a ball was finally hit my way, and I go down on one knee and make the throw to 3rd from the ground for the force out. A little shaky on the pickup, but I'm starting to build confidence. We get a force at 1st for the second out (I can't recall the details). So, with 2 outs now, a guy comes up to the plate. And he takes a rip at the 1st pitch and blasts it 150 feet straight into the black sky of the night...

Now this is where Cabelly takes his tumble. In my Austin sporting career, I've only played a few games at night outdoors: 2 soccer games and 2 softball games (including this one). Not to make excuses, but I've only started wearing contacts for 2 years now, and when I do it's usually for sporting purposes during the day. At night, my contacts seem to fail me.

...so the ball is coming out of the sky and finally reaches the lights again where it's spinning fast. I'm on the edge of the infield just into the grass trying to find my footing. I'm waving everyone off and yelling loudly for the ball, "I GOT IT, I GOT IT!" Oh, I got it alright. To make a last second adjustment to the flight of the ball in which I could barely make out because of my eyesight and poor contacts, I take one more step backwards, and somehow find a hole in the grass to lose my footing. With the glove just above my face and now off balance, the ball barely nicks my glove and nails me right on the side of the chin. SOFTball, my ass. I go down like Tyson versus Buster Douglas. I felt like the biggest dumbass on the planet that I laid on the grass staring up into the night sky wondering, "Could this be anymore embarassing?" I was less worried about my chin, and more concerned about my image.

I am notoriusly susceptible to brusing, but so far my chin has just been swollen and just looks like half of Jay Leno's. Not money. This morning I just got back from a follow appointment with the eye doctor, and he gave me another trial pair of contacts to be better suited for night time vision after I tell him the story of last night. "One day too late, Doc."

In a 22-2 ass handing of a loss, the game will probably be a little more memorable for my blunder than the score. But for a bitter sweet ending, I ended up getting the 3rd out of the inning with a solid throw to first on a grounder. Chin up, Jase.