Softball Challenge
We did get a challenge from one of the sales groups but there are only four of them so we couldn't figure out what to play that would be fair. They ended up getting busy and losing interest so Mfg came back at us.
With Softball.
Which I knew we wouldn't be good at nor could I even field a willing team from the department so I vetoed the idea. That was totally against the rules (again, that we made up) because you are supposed to accept whatever challenge comes your way.
They finally called me on it so I polled our group to see how many would play. I got 6 firm Ayes. Clearly, not enough to field a team. I tried to change it to a home run derby. No dice. I had no choice but to fill the team.
The negotiations began between me and Mike, the Print Director. Copied on all of the emails was the CFO who was pitching for Mfg and jonesing to play. Mike started in with constraints with the funniest being "No one from Kathy's little black book - she probably has some D-Back players in it." I wish! At that point, the CFO chimed in with a comment to the effect of, "I guess there's stuff I don't know about Kathy." Great, thanks for the help to my reputation, Mike!
We settled on the rule that I could only recruit from within the company. So, I asked my lunch boys if they wanted to play. Can I help it that they're all athletic and have played before?
I submitted my roster to Mike and he accepted it and we picked a date to play. The trash talking began immediately as did the betting. I ended up with $20 against one of the Print Managers and $20 with the CFO. My buddy Dave have $20 with the same manager and my VP put $50 up against the CFO.
With money and a huge amount of pride on the line, we knew we needed some practices. We headed out at lunch one day and everyone took a turn fielding and hitting while I took notes. By this time, the fun of it got a few other people in our department wanting to play. I ended up with 13 players in all. Oh, in case you were even considering the thought, I was not one of the 13. I was content to keep score and drink beer. I'm lousy at softball and good at drinking beer.
We had a second pitching practice in the back of our parking lot that one of the Print guys came out to spy on. I actually caught for a while on that one so I did the teeniest amount of athletic effort there.
I thought our practices went well and there were some good athletes within our group. The clincher was that we had shirts made so we really looked like a team. The logo had our team name, The Hackers, and a pirate/computer motif. We also put numbers on the back (I had 48, natch). The other team was scared.
We had game day all set when The Powers That Be decided that we were all too important to be out of the office on a Thursday. Whatever. We were going to be 10 minutes from the office. By the time we got everyone's schedules figured out, the game was delayed about a month. Talk about a buzz killer. We did get one more small practice in but the momentum and excitement had waned.
I tried to revive it and give the team inspiration. My attempt at the latter was "Don't screw up or I'll pull you in a heartbeat!" I felt bad about that so I did tell them all it's just to have fun but there's more fun in winning and to listen to T who was our infield captain. I also mentioned how important fielding was going to be and to remember to back each other up.
Game day arrived and we headed out to the field. A guy at work is an official umpire so he worked the plate for us. Since we were challenged, we got to be the home team. Their first batter tipped a foul ball right to our catcher and we got out of the inning with no runs scored against us. Sweet!
We didn't do so well in our part of the inning. I think it was 3 up and 3 down. Their shortstop was incredible. He stopped absolutely everything and the CFO throws a mean pitch.
We were still holding our own until the 3rd when they went through their entire lineup. They did that twice during the game. Even bribing the ump with Guinness didn't help us. Nor did one of our guys going elbow first into the catcher. He made his mouth bleed but the dude used to play minor league hockey so that was nothing to him.
We looked like real players!
You know how I said that thing about backing up the other players? We had one ball hit into the infield with bases loaded and T came off of first to stop it. He looked around and no one was on a base for him to throw to. It was just that kind of game. T and I also got into a fight because he told a runner to come home and I told him to hold up. He was out, not that it mattered at that point, but we were still "debating" the decision after the game.
The final score was a brutal 32-5 and we finished in less than an hour and a half. Man, what a bummer. I paid off my debts and the CFO was cool enough to use his winnings to buy us all drinks at Depot Cantina. It was nice to hang with everyone but I was pretty mopey. The Rocket Scientist and I worked on the float that night and every once in a while, the score would pop back into my head and I'd be bummed all over again.
T's injury - he got it tripping on home plate!
The sales group challenged Mfg to softball (what were they thinking?) so I'm working on our next event. It's going to be a little (OK, maybe a lot) less athletic and more brainy.
