buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks

I had a new adventure this summer: I played on a softball team. I had seen my brother play little league back in the day & I had played baseball in the back yard. I thought, this will be a piece of cake. All I had to do was swing a bat, stand in the outfield & run. Surely, I could do that.

And now, reflecting on the season, perhaps I was a bit over confident at the start. My problem was not for lack of ability or enthusiasm; I hit the ball all right, I ran around the bases, and I ran around the outfield, and cheered for my teammates. (I'll admit, I could use some help with my catching and throwing, because apparently, I throw like a girl. But that detail aside, I didn't do too bad).

My apparent lapse in judgement came because I did not know all the rules. I am used to playing baseball. I knew that a softball was bigger than a baseball, and that the pitching was underhanded instead of overhanded. I figured that was about it. Boy, was I wrong. And to make matters worse, I also had to get used to co-ed rules. I didn't know the game was played differently if some of us were girls and some of us were boys.

So I learned a few things this summer. In softball you start with a ball and a strike (what kind of rule is that: why don't they just say 'two strikes and you're out'). There are 4 outfielders instead of 3. The infield fly rule- if the batter hits a fly ball in the infield, and the infielder does not catch it, the batter is still out. That is by far the most ridiculous rule I have heard of thus far. So, the defense no longer actually has to catch the ball... If I guy gets walked, he goes to second base, and the girl behind him gets the option of automatically walking to 1st base. And since the order has to rotate male-female, this makes no sense, because the next man up simply has to swing away and -BAM- 2 RBIs instead of 1.

I could make so many analogies now, but I won't. Suffice to say I learned a lot this summer while watching the dandelions grow in left center field.

I'm sure I have a lot more to learn.