Played All Night

Woke up Friday morning as usual to get ready for work. At 7 pm I met up with my friend Katie and her husband and we drove to Mount Pleasant for an all night softball game. I took Mandy with me to this tournament, she was so excited about the idea of staying up all night and watching mom play softball. I think she was probably the most excited about staying up all night.

The tournament was two pitch with our pitcher pitching to us. Great, because you know you are going to get great pitches. Different because the pitchers does nothing when the ball is hit, so you cover the field a little bit differently.

In the dugout

Our first game started at 9 pm--we won. We then had an 45 minute break before our next game. Mandy was so excited. She had already convinced Lloyd (Katie's husband) to buy her a snow cone. Played the next game at 10:50--we won. Now we had to wait to see when we would play again and how we were seeded.

Great spot to wait and hangout in between games. What you don't see are the tents in the background.

Once seeded this ended up to be the longest break we would have for the night, our next game wasn't until 1:20, so we had about an hour and a half to wait. This was perfect, I had time to get Mandy set up on a mat with a sleeping bag, get my sleeping bag and chair, get some food and get set up for the rest of the night. Once Mandy was set up on the sleeping bag I was hoping she would soon rest, and then turned out to be the case. Little by little she settled into the bag, and eventually she told me she wasn't tired, but her eyelids wanted to shut. Then she was out.

Mandy finally asleep.

We ended up playing games until 7:15 am in the morning, before we finally lost and were out of the tournament. For the most part it was pretty cold during night which kept me up all night long--well that and a diet coke I had at 5 am in the morning. This was the first all night softball for me. I am calling it preparation for 24 hours of Moab.

Softball Tournament

Tournament was a lot of fun. We played one game on Friday and then played until 8 pm Saturday night. I don't have any pics while playing, because I get to engrossed in game.

This is my team I play on Scared Hitless.
Ryan, Chris C & Red (Red plays with us sometimes and Foul Play all of the time)

Katie & Shannon (Tara, Ryan, Chris & Red in the background)

Tara, Ryan, Chris & Red.

Gone to do Charity Work

I am taking off to a charity softball tournament tomorrow, and will be gone for a couple of days, so I won't be able to tell you about the awesome mountain bike rides, because there won't be any. And no this is not charity work, but it sure is great to have fun while giving to others.

Bitter Humble Pie

We lost our softball game tonight and it has been a hard pill to swallow, and here is why. We started tournament tonight. We are division champs, so we have a target on our back. Tonight we had two games. Our first game went well and we won. There was one incident where the other teams pitcher got mad at us and threw his glove at one of our players, but nothing huge. He got a warning and all was well. Oh, a little side note here. Our team is well known by the blues and other players and one thing that is well known is we are a fun team that doesn't engage with other teams. The only people we ever razz is our own team members and always in good fun.

Now back to tournament play. After our first game we had an hour break and then we had our next game. The team we played for our second game we played last week and we beat them by a lot. We were not too worried about losing, but knew we still needed to play well. We were missing 3 of our regular players, but we still felt we could win this team. Well we started off great with the first batter hitting a triple. As you do when running the bases he was a couple of steps off third ready to run home. The pitcher went to throw the ball and he hopped back on. As he turned he got hit smack in the back with the ball, and like a lot of us he swore. The pitcher immediately took this to heart and went after our guy. The guys on our bench emptied, but luckily they did not go out to where the confrontation was occurring, they were close watching to make sure everything was okay. Our 3rd base coach stood in front of our runner as did the other teams shortstop to prevent their pitcher from getting to our guy. The blue broke it up and only gave him a warning, but he should have been thrown out. And that was the start our game.

When that inning was over the blue went over to the other team and told them they needed to calm down. I guess they did not care much about what he said, because there were rude comments from their bench and when they were in the field all night long. I hate playing teams that are rude, there is no reason, this is supposed to be fun. Anyway we ended up losing by one point. We had a few too many errors and just did not play our best game. It was humbling losing, not that were cocky, but is always humbling to lose. But it was worse losing to a team like that. If I lose I would rather it be to a team that is a good sport than one with such bad sportsmanship.

We should end up seeing this team again, and if we do I hope we totally spank them....nothing would make me happier.

Game Strategy

Tonights game was all about strategy. Right before the game started the blue called the managers to the plate and explained that it would be a strike if the ball hit in front of the white line and a ball if it hit behind the white line. Okay, this is not the best way to call a strike, but at least we knew ahead of time. With this knowledge our pitcher went to work. He made sure all of his pitches crossed the plate and were in front of the white line. Do you know how hard it can be to hit a high arched pitch that is deep. Well, the other team does.

So how do you compensate for a high, deep pitch? You stand back in the box by the white line. The other team never figured this out. However, we did it from the start. We had our struggles, because good or bad if it hit in front of the white line it was a strike, but at least we worked with what we had. The other team not so much. Needless to say they lost. The funny thing is after the game the team manager went and complained to the field manager about the blue. I thought this was funny because the blue was consistent. He called the same strikes on them as he did for us.

Softball Smackdown

Tonight was coed softball and we laid the smackdown on the team we played. Before I tell about the game let me give a little back ground info. I play on an A Division Coed Softball Team. There are 3 divisions where I play. There is A Division - this is the most competitive and skilled players. There is B Division - a little less competitive, and a mixed of skilled players. And finally there is C Division - this is the recreational league and has a variety of players. So with that information you should know I play on one of the best teams in A Division, we usually take 1st or 2nd during season and tournament. For fall season (which started about a month ago) there was a sanfu. Only 2 teams signed up for the A Division league--us and another team. So the city opened it up to the recreational division to fill the remaining slots. What this means for us is that all of the teams we beat fairly easily. To make it not so bad we trade from our regular positions and make a few errors, so the other teams can score and not get beat too bad. Now for what happened tonight.
Our game tonight was at 6 o'clock. This is never an ideal time, because sometimes players are late or even worse do not show up. When you play coed this can not be good if the missing player is a girl, because you always have to have an even number of girls and guys on the field. You can have more girls, but never more guys. Well we have one member of our team that is sometimes a flake and does not show up, or gives very last minute that she is not going to make it to the game. This happened today. I got a text (not too last minute, only 2 hours before the game) letting me know she was going to be late, and I should get a sub. Real interpretation--she is not going to show up and I better find someone quick or we will only be playing with 8 players. I texted one of our subs and found someone. Whew, what a relief. Well only temporarily. Our sub had been assisting in dental surgery and ended up being late. We had to start the game with only 8 players on the field! Since we were playing a team that we knew we could beat we were not too worried and went out and played. During the first inning one of the players from the other team came up and questioned the blue about the number of male players we had on the infield (he complained). There is no way to regulate and make even numbers of female and male players on the field when you are short positions. The blue let him know this, but he made the unfortunate mistake of complaining. This miffed some of our team members (who remembered this team from the past and also remembered they complained before). So with a miffed team there was not going to be any letting up, no changing of positions and we were going to get on our sticks and win by the run rule (this is the worse way to lose). Also, our other player showed up by the 2nd inning, so we had a full team. We played our game and did not let up until the 4th inning. By then we had completely stomped the other team. We hit the 5th inning and the run rule came into play however they let the other team have one more time up to bat (time was over in 2 minutes and they had lost). Final score 20 to 5. Moral of the story do not complain when the other team is down 2 players and you have a full team.

Great Day

Today was a great day. I got to do almost everything I like to do. I went with my brother to the temple (it was his first time). I got to hang out with my mom, and 2 of my brothers--one came from California and the last time I saw him was about 9 years ago. I met my brothers wife. She is really cool. I got to go for a mountain bike ride. And finally I played softball tonight as a substitute and had the winning run in a tie breaker game! Fun great day doing almost everything I like to do. I don't think I could ask for anything more.

2 Long Hours

Tonight was my final tournament game for women's softball. We were in the championship bracket, so all we had to do was win the game and it was over--we didn't. Our game tonight was full of errors, but worse than anything was we could not get on our sticks. Normally we hit, hit and hit, but tonight we were shut down. I hit to the same place all night--ugh. Usually I choose where I hit, but I guess not tonight. Occassionally on a team someone will have an off ngiht, but our whole team had an off night. The weird thing is we were all ready to play. And if you can't tell we also lost the second game. The worst part there were over 10 runs walked. I think I saw the most action of the entire night (I caught for both games except for the last 15 minutes). Oh well, one last tournament game tomorrow. If all goes well with that I will be palying 3 hours.

Side note....one of our cats went to the groomer today. Check out the results.

BEFORE - long hair and weighed down.

AFTER- trimmed & happy, checkout the hanging tummy

Hit in the Face

I play catch on most of my teams. I prefer to play third, but only a few people dare play catch, and I am one of them. The reason is because of bats being thrown ( I have dodged or jumped quite a few thrown bats), runners coming in hard to home (one guy right hooked me across the face so he could cross the plate, a few have tried to cleat me), and of course the dreaded foul tips. Most foul tips I have deflected until tonight. Tonight I took one straight to the face. Luckily it hit my mouth area and not my nose area. The ball came in straight off the bat hard and fast, but the realization I was hit was slow. I sat there for a minute, felt around my teeth with my tongue to make sure no loose teeth, and then stared as everyone as they asked if I was okay. I couldn't talk, because my mouth hurt and I did not want to cry, and I was afraid if I opened my mouth I might cry. Luckily we had an extra player, so I pointed at her that she needed to catch so I could go in the dug out and shake it off. The funniest part was when the batter said she was so sorry and she didn't mean to do it. It made me laugh, because of course she didn't mean to do it--it helped to laugh. Lucky me for me that the was the last inning, and even better we won the game. I took pictures, but my self portrait pictures are not the best. My lip and under the nose area is swollen, and on the inside of my mouth I have a huge cut.

BTW honey, if you are reading this I am fine.

Cut on the inside of my lip...it kind of stings.Its kind of hard to tell it is swollen, but it is.Here is a better view of the swelling.

Check This Out!

How cool is that. Funny how she tosses the ball to the left fielder.

Superstitions

Before I play a softball game there are certain things I must do in order to feel like I will play a good game. Some of them have always been obvious to me, but today I learned I have a few more than I realized. One superstition I have always had was shaving before a game. I must shave my legs before a game and wear my sliding pad to avoid having to slid. If I do not do this then almost always I end up sliding that game. This doesn't always keep me from sliding, but it does decrease the chances. I learned today that my refusing to warm up before a game is superstitious. I do not warm up (throw the ball) before a game, because I throw it most of the game. Today I helped a teammate warm up, and I felt out of sorts for the first little bit. And finally, I always wear the same visor to my games. Well, today I couldn't find it, I looked and looked and finally ended up wearing a different hat. Needless to say this was not my game. Of the 5 times I got up to bat I walked 2, and then hit three piddly hits. Even though I had a powerful swing I could not connect with the ball, and it barely rolled off the bat. I think I need to find my hat and hold strong on not warming up before a game.

With all this I wonder if I have any supersitions with mountain biking that I am not aware of. If not maybe I should. Yesterday I took my bike up to AF Canyon to explore the trails and get to know the area. I decided to take Timponooke loop. The first 3.5 miles was fun, it was at that point I realized I and made a wrong turn and needed to back track. This was not a big deal as I did not have too specific of an agenda. I started back up pine hollow trail when all of the sudden I hear a pop and psssst. Sure enough I have torn my tire and its not sealing up. (I run tubeless, so the idea is when you get a hole it will seal up). I kept hoping it would seal and spun the tire around, but it didn't. I then took out my CO2 cartridge to see if it would help....no luck. I then turned my bike upside down and took on changing my first flat tire. I did great and was really proud of this accomplishment. I blow the tube up a little bit and then get out my second CO2 cartridge to fill it up. Somehow I ended up breaking the valve stem and all of the air comes out. I turned the bike over and began the hike back to my car. I didn't go too far when another rider was coming down the hill. He offered me his tube, and once again I proceeded to change my tire. He stayed and patched his tube while I got my tire ready. Unfortunately his tube didn't work, and I now had another flat tube. Luckily he was going back to his car which was less than 1/2 mile and offered to drive me to my car. Of course I accepted, who wants to walk 3.5 miles when you can get a lift. I thanked Mark (that was his name), loaded my bike up and went home. When I got to town a couple of blocks from my home I saw a rider walking his bike with a flat tire. I pulled over and helped him change his tire and gave him a tube so he could get home. It was nice to be able to help someone. Of course all of this bring me to my original question, should I have a superstition before I ride? Maybe I would avoid having a flat. :-) Probably not, but it might help.
Fixing my first flat.


















View from where I flatted

We Won!

Last night was a big coed softball game for me. Both teams were undefeated, and both of us had beaten the teams that historically have been the most challenging. We new it would be close, but it ended up going right down to the last inning. We were the home team with last ups the score was 7 - 8, so we needed to score 2 points to win. I was the fourth batter up and I thought I might need to change something up when I got up. My past 2 times I had hit right one strong near the line and the other mid. I was sure the team knew I would do the same thing, so I thought about changing to the left or center. However as one team mate said why change something that works, so I agreed and decided to stay right. I got up and the perfect pitch came and I swung. Much to my surprise it did not sail out to right field. Instead it dribbled down the first base line. At that moment fear and shock goes through you and you know you need to run like you have never run before. I did and made it to first. How lucky was I.....whew! Oh, and the kicker, I have pulled muscle on the inside of my quad and running fast hurts like nobodies business. Oh well, I made it and had a runner take my place. After I got on we only had 2 more up to bat, and we ended up winning the game by 1 point. The team was a fun, good team to play, and I can't wait to play them in tournament....I'm sure it will be a close game then too.