A Day Well Spent

Friday 10 October 2003




The day in question is Sunday, 5 October 2003. It was one of those rare cases where I did exactly what I wanted to all day long, and enjoyed it.

I subbed for a friend's Japanese team in their corporate tournament, playing a mostly-solid outfield with one great running catch. 2 games, 6-8, 3 runs, 5 rbi, a home run and 2 doubles. Late morning saw me leave the tournament during its lunch break to go sub for a friend's mens team's doubleheader, which I'd previously committed to. We lost the first game due to lack of hitting, but in the second we rallied from 8-16 to 14-16 in the bottom of the 7th but couldn't quite get it done. 2 games, 3-5, 2 runs, triple, 2 walks. Then I sat around for 3 hours watching co-ed games from my league before playing in ours at 6 pm. We stomped a pretty good team (and one we're friendly with since we have joint practices every weekend.) 1 game, 3-3, 3 runs, 6 rbi, double, sac fly. I batted .750 for the day - not too shabby.

And then my girlfriend and I made our way to Turner Field for game 5 of the NL division series against the Cubs. Unfortunately for the Braves and their fans, the Cubs had the stronger offense and dominated the entire game. I can live with that - the point for me was that I was THERE to see a decisive game, one from which only one team would advance. I have to say, about half of the 54,000+ at Turner Field were rabid Cubs fans. Many bordered on obnoxious, but I guess it's been a while since they had something to cheer about, so let them have it. Their team played a better game when it counted, and now they get to reap the rewards.

I got home around 1 am and to bed around 2 am, meaning that I'd been up 20 hours, 11 of which were spent at softball fields and another 4 at the baseball field. To me, doing these things, with my girlfriend at my side (and actually enjoying the events, seeing as how she's a ballplayer too) makes for the perfect day.