Thursday, April 30, 2009

Not Cut Out for Intramurals

Holla,

Being in the unemployment line allows one to have the luxury of quite a bit of free time. How one chooses to spend this free time depends on the person. Some people might take classes. Others will do volunteer work. I spend my free time playing intramural sports.

That's not all that I do, however. During the daylight hours, I try and accomplish as many tasks as possible. I will write blogs, work out, head to the grocery store, and spend an inordinate number of hours on Craigslist. But once the sun starts to set, I lace up my cleats and head out the door.

Here is a breakdown of my week:

Sunday: San Diego Shockers Kickball
Monday: Team #7 Soccer
Tuesday: Brew Crew Softball
Wednesday: Rest and watch Lost (it's an exhausting television show)
Thursday: Fluffers Dodgeball
Friday/Saturday: Various beach games including smashball extreme, wiffle-ball, and Rock-in-Hole

The best part is, of the four organized intramural teams that I play with, I'm only officially a member of two of them (dodgeball and kickball). The other teams I serve as a replacement player when they need people, which just happens to be every week. I've created quite a nice situation for myself.

My intramural lifestyle was going along quite smoothly. I was playing games, performing admirably on each team, and enjoying my evenings of relaxation. It was perfect...

And then last week happened. On Tuesday, I was playing with the Brew Crew softball team. The Crew has had a rough season. I have been playing with the team since the third week, and have yet to be a part of a victory. I've experienced three ties and four losses. Last Tuesday, we had a chance to comeback from 10 runs down to win the game. It was the bottom of the last inning of play. There was a runner on second base, we just needed one run to tie, and Mighty Vegter approached the plate.

I should point out that, other than 1st grade and a couple of Truman days, I've never spent much time on a baseball/softball diamond. My swing is terrible and I rarely get the ball to the outfielders. I'm more of a bloop single type of person. This did not prevent me from having visions of hitting a home run as I stepped up to bat.

I swung as hard as I could and sent a lazy fly ball to right field. Game over. Brew Crew loses again.

Thursday rolls around and I'm headed out the door again for dodgeball. Our team, the Fluffers, had a fairly decent first week. We only dropped one set on our way to victory, but our competition in week 2 was in a whole different league. They were the defending champs, and arrived to the game in matching knee pads. I'll refer to them as the Terror Squad.

We struggled through the first two sets, but had a chance in the third. We had won the first game, lost the second, and it came down to the deciding third to determine the set's outcome. If we lost, we had lost the match for the week.

I ended up being the last member of the team on the court, trying to take on three or four members of the Terror Squad. I dodged a couple of balls, eventually getting hit by a weak throw that I should have easily avoided. Match over, and in demoralizing fashion.

I didn't think much of the first two events. The Brew Crew really wasn't my team, and I just started playing with the Fluffers. I wasn't completely emotionally invested in the game's outcomes.

This all changed on Sunday. The San Diego Shockers had become an institution in the kickball community for several years before my arrival. They had welcomed me into their 4-time championship tradition with open arms. Throughout the season, I had done fairly well with the team, and was fairly confident in my abilities. The 2009 Shockers had run through the competition, earning a #1 seed for the playoffs.

The semifinal game had gone fine, and we won pretty convincingly. During the championship game, we were in control for the majority of the time, and then the last inning arrived.

The other team had tied the game up in the sixth, and we headed into the top of the seventh deadlocked. They sent their first batter to the plate, and I stared him down from my position in center field. There hadn't been a ball kicked to my direction the entire game, but I remained focused.

Out of nowhere, the guy kicked the ball a mile. I started sprinting to my left, tracking the ball as it arced through the air. At the last second, I thought that I might be able to run it down. As it started to descend, I reached out my arms, cradled the ball, and fell to the ground.

And, suddenly, the ball was gone. It had bounced out of my arms somewhere through the fall and was rolling into deep center field. I got up off the ground, grabbed the ball, and hurled it back into the infield. But it was too late...

I had given up the winning run, but I was going to get a chance to redeem myself. In the bottom of the inning, I approached the plate with two outs, and a runner on second once again. I just needed to get a single and we would tie the game.

I kicked the ball as hard as I could, only to line out to the shortstop, and ruin the Shockers championship run. I was starting to believe in the curse of Mighty Vegter.

My beliefs were confirmed to be true just one night later. While playing with Team #7, an absolutely terrible soccer team, I had a chance to pull off a tremendous upset. With only a minute left to play, we were tied 1-1 with far better team. Team #7 had their first opportunity to not lose during their season.

And then the curse emerged once again. I was marking one of the other team's midfielders, who made a run through the middle, and received a well-timed pass. I thought he was offside, but recovered to steal the ball away. At the last second, the guy stuck his foot out and hit the ball off of my shin. Somehow it caused the ball to bounce perfectly off of me and into a wide open space in the box. He took a shot, scored, and ended the game.

Mighty Vegter strikes again.

It was a rough week on the psyche. I started to question whether I was made for the intramural sports' scene. I may retire from the sport's world entirely. For the reasons listed above and a few others, which will not be named at this time.

More to come...

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