St. Maries Softball

It is time for St. Maries. Friday morning I wake up after a shortened sleep due to my card playing. Turns out my winnings from the night before were somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty-eight dollars. I drug myself into work at the jail. I only had to work for four hours then I was able to get ready for St. Maries. Just before eleven o'clock am there was a commit. That means the person had been to court and is serving a sentence. The guy I was booking was coming in for two days. Part of the booking process is a full strip search where he check for contraband. This person was the most shy person I have ever dealt with in that situation. Some people know the drill and are not phased by it. Others are a little nervous and get through it. This guy was covering himself with his hands. But part of the search requires me to see their hands and arms stretched out to the side. It was hard to get his search done because he had a hard time following commands since he was spending most of his time hiding himself. I was professional, and I just worked through it.

Finally one o'clock pm arrives and I am on my way to my house to load my truck for the trip to St. Maries. I went to Moscow to return my old digital cable box from my apartment. Then I stopped at the new Safeway and got lunch and a few other things that I would need for camping. I had some sweet and sour chicken. I went to my office and chowed on that and worked on my computer. I was trying to make sure I would not forget anything. At a quarter past four I was to meet with people at Dissmore's to carpool to Dan and Michele's to head to St. Maries. Russell at this time backs out from going. Matt, Aaron, and Mark all showed up, so we headed to Dan and Michele's. We waited from Ron and Heather and then we went to St. Maries.

The trip was pretty short over all. We got there and within about five minutes Chris and Brad show up. Garrett was already there as was his brother. Joe was there and was pretty well drunk. Everyone was having a good time.

Mark and I went to the field to throw the ball around and I hit him some fly balls so he could get use to seeing them. After we got back, Chris and I went to the field and he took some BP, grounders, and we threw a little while. Then we went back to camp as it was starting to get dark. I went into town to the store. I needed ice for my cooler, some beer, and some chew. I got a thirty pack of Coors Light. When I got back to camp everyone was sitting around in a big circle. We were all drinking and chatting. I was chatting with Jay who just moved to Yakima from North Dakota. Mark and Brad were also near by. I drank a lot. I moved my truck over so we could listen to some music while we sat around.

At one point, just before I headed off to bed I had only six beers left. I don't know if I drank them all, or if I had some help. But I was with my cooler most of the night and I don't remember giving out any beer.

Many times through out the night Garrett was trying to get me to give him a high-five or knuckles when he would say something about us winning at softball. He would try to toast me. I did not reciprocate those actions. He was mad that I was going to have Chris lead off in the order.

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Saturday
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The morning came and I got up and got ready to play some softball. The sun was working on shining bright and I wanted to go out there and help the team win. We got to the field and threw the ball around. We won the coin flip so we were the home team. I went to the pitchers mound and before I threw a single ball, the umpire was calling for a batter. Without a single warm up toss, I did okay. The first inning was shaky, but as a team we hit the ball well. With our sticks on fire it appears that all we had to do is play good defense. Which is exactly what we did. With that win we had a one hour break and then a second game.

Game two was not much different than game one. We hit the ball well and played good defense. We won the second team, Mingles from Moscow, by one run. They were mounting a comeback, but we squished the comeback.

Game three was our first loss. We were playing against a local team who was hitting the heck out of the ball. By this time the fire from our bats were gone. Everyone was starting to pop up. We changed in the fourth inning to using a rover. This made a difference. They were getting out since their hits were not dropping in front of the people now. The third out of the fourth inning was made by the outfield who was playing rover. He got to the ball and fired it in before the batter/runner was able to make it to first. The whole team cheered. Our good luck did not stick around long enough. We still lost the game, but we stopped them from royally destroying us.

Game four did not give us a break between it and game three. Game four starts and it was not pretty. We were tired as can be. The team we were playing against we would soon find are not all that nice. In fact I would argue they are downright jerks. I was up to bat my first time. All season I have been working on looking at a few pitches and making better choices. I did so, and the guy pitched three straight balls. Then he gets a strike on me. Followed by a pitch that I thought was coming pretty high. It was called strike two. I disagreed with the call in my head, but I know not to argue. The next pitch comes, is also looking high coming in. But as it crosses the plate I realize that it was in the same spot. I cringe waiting to be rung up. Then I hear "Ball Four!" So I dropped my bat and ran to first. That is when I heard a guy from left-center field yell "This is a hitter's game!" That was in reference to me walking. Funny that he did not say anything when his team walked. That guy also caused some problems later on.

He is on base and the ball is hit deep. The ball then gets thrown back into the catcher Grant. He has the ball and is ready to make the tag. The runner comes in high and takes out Grant. The umpire did not call the runner out for that contact, which in softball is not allowed. It was just one thing after another. Their fans were obnoxious. At one point a guy on their team needed a pinch runner. They put some faster guy out there. I complained to the umpire about that. The umpire said it does not matter who they put out there. I said it should be the last out. He came back in a smart ass tone of voice saying, there are no outs this inning. I said then the last out of last inning. Then the runner gets changed. One of the guys from the other team looks at me and says "he is our slowest guy, happy now?" I was not happy. I just wanted the rule of last man out followed.

It is going into the seventh inning and my team is losing by a few runs. We need to score to keep in the game. I get to the plate and get a nice hit scoring one. I am at first base and then Garrett yells across the field asking if I need a pinch runner. I said "Why?, I am not injured". I was insulted that he would ask such a question. I am insulted that he does not have enough faith in my abilities that he wanted me out of there. When I refused the runner he got made at me contorted his face and looked away. First he yells at me, like I don't know what I am playing. Now he does this. People are mad that I am mad at him. But if he wanted to know what the problem was he could have asked somewhere along the way. Instead he said nothing. This latest thing just added more fuel to the fire. What is it with him? It seems like he had gotten too big for his britches. There was a time when he was more humble. When he was barely hitting three hundred and fifty. He has been hitting the ball better so I guess now he has the right to act like he is hot stuff. I didn't see him ask other slow guys on the team if they wanted pinch runners. I eventually come around and score as everyone is hitting base hit after base hit. Then Jay comes to the plate. With one out and we are one run from tying the score. We have the bases loaded. It looked good. Jay then grounds into a double play to end the game. What a heart breaker.

Matt and Aaron leave town right away. Chris and Mark also leave. I stick around to be with everyone some more. Before Chris left we went to Serv A Burger. Jason and Suz also stopped by. We chatted for a bit and then Chris dropped me off at the field. I hung out with the others. We drank some, and listened to music. Everyone was going to bed early. I stayed up until about midnight then I was off to bed.

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Sunday
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I woke up with my alarm clock at eight o'clock am. I walked over to the fields and watched Ron and Jason play in softball games. After everyone was eliminated from their games I drove back to Colfax. I unpacked my truck. I headed into the IS Office and got on the computer for a while. Then I headed to Pullman for the Fantasy Football Draft. I think I did well. I was able to pick up Ricky Williams. He was considered by a lot of people to be a number one draft pick. So, I am happy that I have him. After the draft I headed to Colfax and I was in bed at a reasonable hour for once.