Softball and Old Men

A while ago my brother and I were going to try and play softball for our church team. They only play softball, but it's so full of "grah!" that they can't handle normal human baseball. So softball it is.

One day I was pitching and my brother hit ball after ball. Then the second to last pitch, he hit the ball and it was coming at me to fast so I turned to the side and it smacked me on the side of the knee. BAM! Evidence of me being a sissy was never so clear.

We never scheduled practicing so we went whenever we had time.

At Jefferson park, one Saturday morning, we were practicing early and a group of old men came to use the field. There was another one just on the other side of the park. My brother and I were going to move on there so they could play, but they invited us to practice and my brother accepted. Or, I pushed him to accept. I was thinking, "We're going to clean the field with these old men."

Oh man, I was never proven wrong so badly.

The first old man was up. He hit and it went flying. My brother went after it and caught it, but it slipped from his mitt. He brushed off his mistake and threw it back. 

Then the second old man, let's call him Oldy, hit a slider. It came towards me and I knelt down to slide it in my mitt. It slid in rolled up my arm and smacked me in the right side of my jaw. I was so embarrassed. That's what I get for being prideful. A nice swollen jaw.

Then the third old man, we'll call him Bird, was up to bat. Bird hit the ball high and it was bounding to go into the play area. Oldy threw up his mitt straight in the air. He didn't even bother to look where the ball was and it caught the ball. It was so good and so perfect that I just busted out laughing. As it came down and crashed into the ground, the ball came out. All the old men then started to laugh. I was thinking, "Oh man, even though it's softball, that's gotta be pro!"

The practicing time passed for me and my brother.

We started to head home from the park.

As we got in the car, I busted out laughing again. That catch was still in my mind.

So perfect.