He's Gettin' A Pretty Good Sound Outta That Guy.

Summer Dodgeball - Week Three: Sunshine On My Shoulders Makes Me Happy.

Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.

This is actually a photo from week two, so you can't see just how heavy the sun was beating down on us this past Thursday. We play in the evenings, and it's usually right around the time the sun is making its way towards setting. We face East to West when we play (I think I'm getting this right), so whichever team was on the East side of the court (facing West) would have the sun right in their eyes. BUT, if you came in close enough to the center line, it would be obscured by the building behind the team on the West side.

It reminded me of day games in baseball when the shadow of the stadium falls between the pitcher and the batter. As if it's not hard enough to see the ball coming at you, you have to follow it as it goes from dark to light. Not great. Luckily, we switch sides every two games, but still. Kind of brutal. Actually, it was only really bad in our first match. We had a 40-minute break in between matches, so by the time our second one came around, the sun was only in your eyes if you were near the back line.

ANYWAY, none of it mattered (though that felt like I was preparing an excuse for poor playing, didn't it?), because we played well and were able to add two more notches to the ol' win column. Our much-anticipated match against our sister team Debbie Does Dodgeball was a good one, but soured a bit by the fact that they only had two girls and were forced to play with five players instead of six. It was a victory, but not a full-fledged one, I suppose.

Waiting around for our second match sucked (we had never had to wait more than 20 min in any previous season), but it didn't hurt us. I think it helped that one of the dudes on the opposing team was rubbing us all the wrong way, so we pulled together to take him out. That was a team-building exercise.

The standings have been righted, and we are now where we should be, tied for first. It's turning out to be a good season. Fun, and we're winning. Not a bad combo.

Summer Softball - Week Three: Let's Play Two!

We had a doubleheader on Sunday, which was, of course, a great way to spend an afternoon. The sun was out, everyone was in a good mood, the sunflower seeds were flowing.

Oh, and we got walloped.

But I think we've all resigned ourselves to just having fun and not really worrying about the final tally, so it doesn't really matter. The games continue to be high-scoring affairs, so at least they're not boring. In fact, they're quite eventful. The ball is constantly flying around, whether it's being hit over our heads or we're tossing it into the street. Yes, never a dull moment.

Our first game was against the team who we lost to last Sunday, and while we were pretty sure we weren't going to beat them this time around, we hoped for a better showing. Last week they beat us by 12 runs. This week they beat us by 18. So, you know, not really what most would consider an improvement.

The second half of our doubleheader found us facing a team who had beat the team we just lost to. As usual, we had a couple terrible innings that sealed our fate. They ended up beating us 31-20. Not exactly a pitcher's duel. To add insult to injury, our third baseman took a bad hop off the chin in the last inning. Not a great end to the day, but it was all really fun up to that point.

We play the first place team in two of our next three games. Think I might start carving my own bat...

Standings are here. We're the team in the cellar.

Summer Dodgeball - Week Two: Windy and Wild.

I have no idea what's going on in this photo, but I thought it was a pretty good one.

The wind was a slight factor this week, though I suppose the outdoor conditions could have been worse. It was dry but bordering on blustery, and instead of running from the back line to get the balls, teams had to line up at the middle and just toss the balls back at the whistle. I would like to use the adverse conditions as an excuse for why we lost our first match, but I won't. We just got outplayed, as is often the case when you lose at something. We were bettered. I hope to not let it happen again, as I feel in my heart of hearts that we are better than the team we lost to. I'm trying not to dwell on it. Clearly it's working.

We took out our aggressions on the second team we played, beating them handily and scoring our third win of the season. Somehow things got jumbled at the Underdog offices, so the standings show us at 2-2. I think we got mixed up with our sister team, Debbie Does Dodgeball. This is a clerical error that will be addressed on the next gameday, but meanwhile, we're looking like a .500 team when we're actually a .750 team. Let's be honest: it's textbook misappropriation and I plan to fight this thing and take it to the highest courts until the proper data is displayed in this most public of all forums. The truth will come to light.

Until then, I'm spending nights in my garage trying to deadlift my car. Gotta stay in peak physical condition, don't you know.

Sha-mon.

Summer Softball - Week Two: Looks Like It Might Be A Building Year.

But look at that batting stance. I've still got it!

Another super-fun game, and another Sunday afternoon well-spent. The rain looked like it was going to cancel our plans for hitting the diamond, but after a torrential downpour hit us hard and then passed by right at gametime, we were good to go the full seven innings.

Here's our weak spot so far: one bad inning on defense does us in. I think it was the second inning this time around. The opposition took us for nine runs with only two outs, forcing the ump to call the always-embarrassing "mercy rule" into effect, thus ending the inning and sparing us the humiliation of having anyone watch us get pummeled any farther. It doesn't feel good.

We ended up losing 21-9, and if you take out that one inning, we would have had ourselves a ball game. Instead, it wasn't really close. Though we did manage to get nine across, which is a great thing in my book. We're scoring runs, we're just giving up more than we get. It's a common problem.

On a personal (and self-serving) note, I had my best game of the season, going 4-4 with two triples, a double, and a single. (You can't see me, but I'm patting myself on the back as I type this with one hand.)

We're in the cellar, folks, and it's going to be a rough climb out. We've got a doubleheader this weekend, which I see as a perfect opportunity for some redemption. Or at least some sun and exercise. Did I mention how much I missed chewing sunflower seeds and spitting them everywhere? It's about as primal-dude as I get.

Con we.

Con us.

Con now.

Standings are here. We are the Boilerplates.

Also: this has all got me thinking about Wrecking Crew, a tremendous book I read a few months back about a real-life baseball team full o' hooligans. If you want to read it, I'll lend it to you. Just ask me.

Summer Dodgeball - Week One: Red Rubber Revival.

The new season of dodgeball is different from the last few for a number of reasons:

1. We're now playing on Thursdays instead of Mondays.

2. Because of this, a few of the folks from our normal lineup can't participate because of work-related commitments. (Specifically: working.) So, we're down a few regular team members.

3. We're playing outdoors, blacktop style, on Jefferson High's tennis courts. It's very inner-city feeling and very cool. Though it's already wreaked havoc on my leg joints.

4. We're back to the rubber "playground" balls, after using the rhino skin ones for the last three seasons. I thought this would take some reverse-getting-used-to, but it was only weird for a minute.

We had a great start to the season, winning both of our first matches and just playing really well in general. A few of the regular teams are back, but this league is fairly small and there are definitely some new faces. So, it's a good mix of old and new in a lot of ways, and just seems really random all around. I'm digging it.

We were the only squad to go undefeated the first week, so we've already jumped into first place and staked our claim as the team to beat. I say bring 'em on. The rugged street scenery and once-familiar sound of rubber slapping flesh has reinvigorated me. I'm feeling quite invincible.

Standings are here. We are Team Awesome.