So,
I just walked over to the local high school to watch softball. Being a bit of a baseball fan, and catching occasional snippets of spring ball on the radio, I walk over from time to time whenever the field lights are on.
Tonight was the worst mismatch I've ever seen, and the winning team wasn't any powerhouse. A couple of company teams, just 18 working guys. Top of the inning it's three up, three down. Bottom of the inning it's single, double, single, single, triple, steal, double, single, and finally - the first out. It was really entertaining, like the Keystone Cops or the Washington Generals.
The poor guys were so earnest, but they couldn't even get the ball from third to first. The other team was just hitting bloopers - grounders and pop-ups and little dribblers - but the guys couldn't catch it, couldn't pick it up and certainly couldn't pass it on to one another with any degree of accuracy.
The sad thing was, they were the more powerful hitters. They'd hit big, soaring flyballs, or drives right at a player, but it was always three up and three down - and then the slow, painful slaughter.
But it didn't seem painful. It was just like, "this is the way we play ball." There was constant chatter among the players, but with no purpose. Somebody would stumble to catch an innocent, childlike bump of the bat, and there was nothing like, "that's alright" or "good hustle" or "what a moron" - nothing. Just idle chatter.
So,
An hour and a half later, after watching a full four innings,
it just wasn't funny anymore.
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