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Apr 3, 2005
unretired If anyone has ever discussed movies with me before, you know that I count "The Sandlot" as among the top movies of all time (in fact, just talking about it has convinced me to put it in the VCR). I think that the reason that I like it so much is that it was pretty much written right out of my childhood (minus the swimming pool scene, easily the funniest scene in a movie EVER). Starting at around age 8 or so, all the guys on my street played some type of sport on pretty much a daily basis. In the fall, it was football, in the winter, it was basketball, and in the spring and summer it was baseball. I don't know what made us stick with the official seasons like that, but we did it. Unlike the kids in the sandlot, we did keep score. However, like them, we had our own team for our street, and a lot of time was spent having team practice. We each had our own positions: I was a 1B, Keith Wolfe at 2B, Eddie Brown at SS, Brandon McQueen at 3B, Shannon McQueen at C, and my brother Justin at P. We didn't have enough for a full team, so we didn't have an outfield. But, it was so much fun. I never did play a lot of organized sports; I did play t-ball, and then in middle school I played 2 years of intramural basketball. But then, at age 12, we started going to a church that participated in a softball league. In that league, they had a boy's division for ages 11-15, a women's division for 11+, and a men's league for ages 16+. So, that first summer, I joined the team. We lived across the street from the ballfield, so every summer after that was spent watching and playing. When I turned 16, I moved up to the men's team and became an assistant coach on the boy's team. My playing time went down, but everything was cool. The next year I became the head coach of the boy's team. I kept all of this up for a few more seasons. As I got to the end of college, I began to become less satisfied with church softball. People were becoming too competetive, and it became less and less fun. Then, in the summer of 1999, the men's team coach got into a dispute with a couple of players and quit on the spot. At the next game, we had no coach, and somehow coaching duties ended up with me for the rest of the season. Throughout the remaining weeks the tension kept mounting, and the former coach rejoined the team. During our last game, there was a bit of an incident, and I officially retired from my softball career at the old age of 23. Somewhere in there, my glove gave out. so, for the last 6 years, I haven't had a glove. It's kind of sad really. I really loved playing. Well, on Thursday, things began to change. At around 10:00 pm, I took a little road trip to Meijer, and wandered over to the sporting goods department, and walked away with a Rawlings Renegade Series (it makes me feel edgy having the word "renegade" on my ball glove). And then today, I officially became unretired. This afternoon, I laced up my cleats, slid on the renegade, and went to softball practice. I'm playing on a co-ed team with some of the other people I work with in the mailroom. It was so awesome being back out there. It was such a beautiful day to be outside, getting some excercise, and reliving my youth a little bit. I can't think of a time that I've ever felt so old and so young at the same time. After practice, I was so sore. The amazing part is how much I didn't suck. I fielded pretty well, and was swinging the bat really well too. Not too bad for having not played in six years. So now, I've got the Renegade, a sunburned forehead, and all is right in the world again. The season starts in 3 weeks. I'm like a kid before Christmas. If anyone ever catches me trying to retire again, just smack me. posted
by Unknown @ 10:03:00 PM |
