Spoke Too Soon

Well, it's official. The team I play with in church softball doesn't care if we win or lose. There isn't but one player who showed up for practice on Sunday. During the two Monday night games, the first we expected to lose to an upper level team, they showed that a little practice could do some good. We only lost 15-8, but could have done better. We could have even planned out ahead of time to field the best team possible for all upper level games. During the second game, our coach even gave the team a runner that was obviously out. He didn't step on second when he was going to go for a double play. I caught this and got the ball, stood on second, and then tagged the runner. That should have been an out, but he said the runner could stand since he missed second base on the play. I caught that he missed second and did what I was supposed to do for the out. Even the umpire called her out after seeing the play I made. Instead, our coach said it was all in fun and let her stay on second. It didn't affect the inning, thankfully. At that point, I realized that even the people leading the team don't care if we win or lose. We were the home team and after that inning, the game was over and we had won it 8-7. We had played 60 full minutes and by the time we would have batted since we were up, it would have been 65 minutes. Instead, they opted to play yet another inning which brought the outcome of losing 11-8. My first pitch, I made it obvious that I didn't care in that last inning. I threw it about 15 feet high and about 6 feet short of the base. If you ask our catcher, the assistant coach's wife, she will tell you that I didn't even try in pitching. They were behind by one and scored 4 runs. I gave them two of the runs by walking a batter. I figured if my team really cared, they would come back in the bottom of the inning and show me they wanted to win. Instead, we didn't score any runs and the game was over with two losses for the evening. I handed the other team that game on purpose by serving up wild and flat pitches. If anyone on my team asks, they will get this same explanation. I don't walk batters and it was obvious that I gave them their inning. I was so disgusted that the team didn't want to walk away with a win, gave a call to the other team, and throughout the evening showed a lack of any practice or desire to practice.

I've never played anything to lose, unless that was the object, of course. I wasn't taught to play to lose, I was taught to play to win. Life is about winning, not just getting along. I wish that others who paid to play this season wanted to get their money's worth as I do. I wish other's realized that life is about winning in all areas, not just some. I'm tempted to call it a season and ask for my money back for the other half of the season. I'm tempted.