4 to 3

I played softball back-to-back nights on my gimpy knee and my primary team played quite well in the playoffs after a less than stellar regular season. My other team begins the playoffs tomorrow night, but since I'm so new there I don't feel the bond I have with my "main" team. And I don't think I ever will.

But, it came to an end last night in a 4 to 3 loss. That is an incredibly low score for two reasonably talented teams, especially if our 13.8 runs per game average is taken into account. We played pretty good defense but lost to a younger, stronger, faster and, to be frank, better team. No shame in that. We went down fighting but were left in the field as they scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.

I get a bit sad when softball ends. April of next year seems so, so far away and since I'm 40 now the number of seasons left in me are finite. I've known most these guys for 15 to 20 years but our bond is primarily softball. We all have families and work and other commitments so I only see about 3 or 4 of them socially for a round of golf or something.

Even with my bad knee for the past 5 weeks or so, I only missed the one game after I had it drained and played when I perhaps shouldn't have. There's a certain camaraderie in the trenches of softball and I never want to be the guy to let my team down. But we lost. I could have played better too.

Aside from that, though, every year as I leave that park that last night in defeat, it hits me how much I'll miss the competition. How I'll miss the dirt, the smell of the grass, the badgering, the insults, the sweat, the action, the lights, the ping of a bat, the snap of a glove, the post-game beers, the stories, the bullshit and Sox games on the radio.

Its more than the game to us. Its about "the guys". We fight. We bicker. But in the end, we're a team. Not much unlike family.

I'll miss the guys.