Softball

I have a love/hate relationship with church softball.
On the one hand (the uninjured hand), I love the game, the guys I play with, the exercise I get running after balls. I love when the bat makes good contact with the ball (as it did twice tonight) and racing around the bases. We have this year a crazy entertaining pitcher, who sometimes pitches between his legs and dances around the pitching rubber as if it hooked up to electrodes. We are a weird team, almost evenly split between lefties and righties. I love how we have a good team spirit and how we pray after every game with our "foes."
On the other hand (the injured hand), I hate how my body aches like it didn't used to, how it takes me longer to get to first base, how my skills seemed to have sunk rapidly since I first started playing nine years ago. Time was, I was "triple Tim," who could scuttle around the bases like nobody's business. Now I'm happy if I get to first base. Time was, if I touched it, I caught it. Now I'm lucky if I catch it at all, even if it's right in my glove.And speaking of injuries, I've had season-ending injuries two years in a row. One was awesome - I pulled my hamstring making a game-ending, game-saving diving catch against the Mormons! Probably get a two-planet demotion for that, but it felt good, even though - and this is the worst part - that I was hobbled for another month, including the only time I got to play Ultimate frisbee in my home town with my relatives. I wanted to be in peak condition for that, but I played like an old man. They all still think I'm fair to mediocre. And then last year was the worst. As I was trying to hit a fairly well-hit pop up, I put up two hands to catch - like you do, with my right hand giving stability to my glove hand - and instead of the ball landing in my glove, it landed on top of my right middle finger, breaking it. Not only that, but I tried to drive myself to the hospital, and almost passed out on the way from shock.
Never again! I said. Especially since I just now finished paying for it.
So there I am out in right center field feeling a mixture of fear and trembling with excitement to be playing again. All for God and glory - and the glory of God, right?
I like that our sleeve says "Love God, Love people and Live like Jesus." But that has also has not always been the case, especially against the Lutherans.
Yes, I know we're Lutheran too, but up until last year, we were never able to beat them. So that rankled. The reason? They had some pretty non-church league players anchoring their line-up. They had three home run hitters, and when you can count on three runs each inning, that sort of puts you in an advantageous position. Our captain, my captain, sent a well-crafted letter to the pastor of the other church saying that their team was a bad witness to the other teams, who saw them as bullies. After all, they had not lost a game in six years. He suggested that the players who were their D-Rec players play in the D-Rec league and not in the church league. They agreed, midway through last season, and our team was the church champion! Yay us.
Here's the thing though - now we are the church team that probably won't lose any games this season. We have several players who don't go to our church, who have played for other church's teams that no longer have teams. So we're almost kind of the all-star team in the league; I've never been comfortable in the Goliath position.
So I thought "cookies." That's one way to be less of the 800 pound gorilla in the league, is by also being the kindest team in the league. So after we're done pummeling our opponents, we give them something sweet. I don't mind winning; I do mind being resented.
There's a difference between being the best team in the league, and being the giant undefeated team in the league who pulls in ringers from all corners in order to be the giant in the league. I want to be known as the kindest team in the league, and that will take some doing.