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A Softball-y kind of weekend
Aug. 30th, 2010 04:23 pmEpiphany: what I need is 26 ounces. I had a long glorious weekend of softball--one game on Saturday, TWO on Sunday--and yesterday, had access to a lighter bat than I've been using for the U-Chicago games, the lightest of which is 28 ounces. However yesterday I played with a 26 ounce bat, with great results--I hit it out of the infield not just once but several times. Woo hoo! So now I have to go out and buy one. And I WILL.
The Chicago game Saturday suuucked. Ah well, they're nice people anyway, and I have fun. Ken Scudder was there. I had to run from that to interviews for Macbeth staff--we had one delicious moment where an SM interviewee (who did NOT impress me, she couldn't even tell us the name of the director of her current show, supposedly at the Fringe) had just left, and the next applicant (for costume designer) told us she knew the other one, she was a total whackjob and had been fired from a show about a month ago and had held costume pieces hostage, if you can believe it. When the costume designer was trying to get them back, they arranged some sort of meeting and the crazy one got there but wouldn't answer her phone or respond to texts, she just circled the CD from a distance for like an hour--finally the CD guessed who she was (she didn't know her from sight) and just went up to her, "are you Crazypants SM?" Weird!
So yeah, two games on Sunday. One was organized by my friend Eric, who does this every year. I first played with this group of people last year and we ended up having several more games on successive Sundays--it only petered out in early October. So it was a lot of the same people this year, including this one player who annoyed me mightily last year--a big guy who was a terrible athlete but really clueless about it and kind of self-satisfied in what I interpreted as a "I'm a guy, so by definition I must be a good athlete" way. (I remember his actually mansplaining how to throw last year to one of the girls who didn't play much, and I had to turn away to keep from laughing out loud. I mean, he cannot throw. At all.)
Again, I need to make it clear--I have no problem with people who aren't athletic--I am very patient with people who are bad but are trying, and I can certainly empathize with that. There are plenty of things I don't do well, and I am thankful for whatever help people can give m,e. But don't push yourself into a position you can't do--don't insist on playing first when right field or some other position would be better. It's the entitlement that gets to me which, as I said, I identified as male, which is interesting in light of recent developments as you'll see!
So this year, most of the same people are back--including this one. When I first caught a glimpse I was thinking "Whoah, he really looks effeminate this year"--long legs, curvy, very feminine-looking. As we're warming up one of the other players, a guy named Dave, says something about "that one that was a dude last year"--my jaw dropped open. Yep. He's transitioning. I never picked up that possibility from him last year, he was annoying but he seemed pretty straight. Anyway so we pick teams and of course he's--well, she's--on my team AGAIN. Every single game last year, same story. And when we're deciding positions, she insists on playing first AGAIN. She says she has "limited mobility" and that's the best position for her. Sigh. So we start the game and it's the same story. She muffs even easy throws. Our shortstop got so frustrated he stopped trying for any plays at first--at one point the SS (his name was Kyle) actually started to throw it to her and then stopped and just held onto the ball. And I don't blame him. Finally the captain (afore-mentioned Dave) reassigned her to catcher but she complained about that and eventually insisted on being moved back to first, and by that point, Dave had given up. Kyle got pretty pissed and started firing some very hard throws to first. Again, I can't blame him.
After the first game, Eric and some others were going to go get some beers, but I wanted to play the second game which was starting shortly. One of the first-game players joined me. The second game was made up of Brown players (my U-Chicago team is part of an alumni league and we've picked up Brown players who invited us at the Saturday game) and we were playing Georgetown. Solid game with great playing, a very efficient game, as Dave said (he wandered over to watch the game). Afterward Dave, a couple of the Brown players and I went to Jake's Dilemma for beer, nachos and wings. This place is great--Sunday nights they have $3 PINT drafts. Of premium beers! YUM.
The Chicago game Saturday suuucked. Ah well, they're nice people anyway, and I have fun. Ken Scudder was there. I had to run from that to interviews for Macbeth staff--we had one delicious moment where an SM interviewee (who did NOT impress me, she couldn't even tell us the name of the director of her current show, supposedly at the Fringe) had just left, and the next applicant (for costume designer) told us she knew the other one, she was a total whackjob and had been fired from a show about a month ago and had held costume pieces hostage, if you can believe it. When the costume designer was trying to get them back, they arranged some sort of meeting and the crazy one got there but wouldn't answer her phone or respond to texts, she just circled the CD from a distance for like an hour--finally the CD guessed who she was (she didn't know her from sight) and just went up to her, "are you Crazypants SM?" Weird!
So yeah, two games on Sunday. One was organized by my friend Eric, who does this every year. I first played with this group of people last year and we ended up having several more games on successive Sundays--it only petered out in early October. So it was a lot of the same people this year, including this one player who annoyed me mightily last year--a big guy who was a terrible athlete but really clueless about it and kind of self-satisfied in what I interpreted as a "I'm a guy, so by definition I must be a good athlete" way. (I remember his actually mansplaining how to throw last year to one of the girls who didn't play much, and I had to turn away to keep from laughing out loud. I mean, he cannot throw. At all.)
Again, I need to make it clear--I have no problem with people who aren't athletic--I am very patient with people who are bad but are trying, and I can certainly empathize with that. There are plenty of things I don't do well, and I am thankful for whatever help people can give m,e. But don't push yourself into a position you can't do--don't insist on playing first when right field or some other position would be better. It's the entitlement that gets to me which, as I said, I identified as male, which is interesting in light of recent developments as you'll see!
So this year, most of the same people are back--including this one. When I first caught a glimpse I was thinking "Whoah, he really looks effeminate this year"--long legs, curvy, very feminine-looking. As we're warming up one of the other players, a guy named Dave, says something about "that one that was a dude last year"--my jaw dropped open. Yep. He's transitioning. I never picked up that possibility from him last year, he was annoying but he seemed pretty straight. Anyway so we pick teams and of course he's--well, she's--on my team AGAIN. Every single game last year, same story. And when we're deciding positions, she insists on playing first AGAIN. She says she has "limited mobility" and that's the best position for her. Sigh. So we start the game and it's the same story. She muffs even easy throws. Our shortstop got so frustrated he stopped trying for any plays at first--at one point the SS (his name was Kyle) actually started to throw it to her and then stopped and just held onto the ball. And I don't blame him. Finally the captain (afore-mentioned Dave) reassigned her to catcher but she complained about that and eventually insisted on being moved back to first, and by that point, Dave had given up. Kyle got pretty pissed and started firing some very hard throws to first. Again, I can't blame him.
After the first game, Eric and some others were going to go get some beers, but I wanted to play the second game which was starting shortly. One of the first-game players joined me. The second game was made up of Brown players (my U-Chicago team is part of an alumni league and we've picked up Brown players who invited us at the Saturday game) and we were playing Georgetown. Solid game with great playing, a very efficient game, as Dave said (he wandered over to watch the game). Afterward Dave, a couple of the Brown players and I went to Jake's Dilemma for beer, nachos and wings. This place is great--Sunday nights they have $3 PINT drafts. Of premium beers! YUM.
