WooHoo !! I was complimented today and now am on a baseball team !!
Ok, so today during lunch instead of taking Elena to school I decided I would do something else. I thought about what i could possibly do in my lunch hour all morning. I could drive around for an hour and waste gas just singing to my cd's - but that idea didnt sound too fun since i do that alot and i'm kinda tired of it. So I thought maybe I could go park at Target and kick back with my feet out the window and just relax and take an hour to myself to just sit there watching everything around me - but i thought nah, i'd just be thinking about everything i dont want to think about. So Then I thought about going to the batting cages and blowing about 5 or 10 bucks for an hour's worth of play - this idea sounded great because i havent been to the cages in a few weeks and it is always a good stress reliever for me. So i went to the batting cages.
I found like $5 in quarters laying in the console to the truck and i had $6 in my wallet - so I took it all in and started to bat on the very fast machine. I took about 2 turns and then another guy, prolly in his late 30's or early 40's gets in the cage next to mine. Its a slower machine by about 10 mph. 70-75 mph was his and mine was 80-90 mph. So me being me (competitive out the ass), I did my best to out do him. I missed less balls than he did, and I hit harder and faster than he did, and I hit more home runs than he did. And I was doing 6 balls right handed, then i would switch and hit 6 balls left handed (12 balls per turn).
I did that for 3 turns and then he decides to leave. So I did another 2 turns while i am alone at the cages and i use my alone time for practicing my swing. I am a power-hitter. Thats the technical term for it i think, but when most people hear that word they think "someone that hits REALLY REALLY hard and fast to make the ball go farther, and most of the time homeruns." But in fact this is not what it means. Its all in the motion of the swing. You can have someone hit the ball as hard as they want to and it wont go as far as it will go if they would back off the power and get a better swing with more wrist motion. ANYWAYS - I practice my wrist motion because I like to hit farther and farther each time. And to make things even better, when I actually play I do full strength AND the full motion of the wrists and body. The combination of both result in batters like McGuier, Sosa, Ruth, etc. These guys were all power hitters that combined both power and motion. This is an extremely hard task to do. It takes years of practice to get it down just right. And I am not saying I am one of the best at it, but I know I am good at it. I am not bad at all. But since I am not the best, I practice over and over again, because, me being me, I am very competitive and I strive to be the best at everything I do.
OK - so I do 2 or 3 turns practicing my wrist motion without body force or arm force. Then this guy comes up who is in his mid 40's. He also gets in the cage next to mine (70-75 mph). Again I try hard to out do him. This guy was good. Alot better than I was expecting him to be because of his age. And then I guess he noticed what I was doing and he starts to try to out do me. So we are in the cages next to each other trying to out do one another. And to be honest i dont know who was better, me or him. I'd score it a tie if I was a judge. But after 3 turns of competing he turns to me and asks "Do you play baseball ?" I said no and continued with my turn as he stood there and watched from outside my cage. After my turn he asked "Do you play softball ?" I replied no, and continued to stick more money into the machine. I finished that turn and he then asks me if I ever played. I said "Yeah, I used to play when i was a little kid." he then goes on to say "You're damn good for not being on a team. Hell, even if you WERE on a team I'd still say you are the best damn batter I've seen in these parts." I said "Thanks." and then continued my last turn.
Once this turn was over I put the bat up and took my gloves off and continued out the door, only to have him follow me out and start up a conversation. Turns out he is a coach of a team that plays not too far from where we were. He says he is very interested in my batting skills and then asks me what position I played and how long ago was it. "over 8 years ago and i played outfield" I replied. He says well if you can field as good as you bat then you'd be the perfect player I am looking for. I replied "I can play outfield very well - I coach a softball team of girls and they are keeping me active out in the fields, so I know I still have it". He then proceeds to ask me to join his team and hands me his business card. He said they only have 3 games left this season, but he wants me in them. They play every sunday at 1pm. I told him I'll give him a call to get directions to the place and see what I can do. He tells me if I go to bring $5 for an ID tag and $3 every game to pay for umpire fees.
This sounds pretty damn good to me. I've been wanting to join a team for a long time now, but never knew where to look. But instead, the team found me. hehehe - so I am going to call him up tonight and see if I need any equipment(helmet and bat). I dont have a helmet, and I only have a softball bat i use for my girl's team. If I need the equipment I qill have to go buy a bat and a helmet. But I am definately going to at least go watch this game, if not join it.
Their is no age limit for players he tells me. He has guys as young as 16 and as old as 40 playing and they are all good players. But he said if I can hit off that 80-90 mph machine with no problems like that I am gonna kill when i bat against these guys. He says they throw at about 60-70 mph. Which is ****ing slow as all hell, but the good thing about batting is you can bat all day long against a fast pitcher and get used to it, and once you get a slow pitcher its like its all in slow motion - you're even BETTER against slow pitchers than fast ones. So he is expecting alot from me if I join. And oh boy, I'll give him alot. I will out do the whole team - and if I dont, at least i will still look damn good being me.
So yeah - I'm all excited now. I was well complimeted AND was asked to join an adult baseball league team. No one EVER gets asked to join a team like that unless they are good. Most people will just show up to a game and if they need an extra player they will call you off the sidelines. So this is a pretty big deal.
God damn I am excited !! My team will be happy to hear this tonight. I coach my girl's tonight from 5:30-7:30 and they all have been telling me to join a team so they can go watch me play so they can "see how its done." haha ! So they will be pretty excited - just not as excited as I am ! :)
