Saturday, May 28, 2011

Huge Win for Veritas Church

I'm not spiritualizing here when I say "Huge win."

We're talking literal win for our church. 29-27.

The Veritas softball team was in a bad way. As I understand it, there are 4 city wide softball divisions. There's the A league all the way down to the church league. Scott Chandler, a guy in our church, cajoled me into rounding up some guys to play softball this summer. He assured me he would sign us up for the church league. The next day he came back with the good news that "we got signed up" and the bad news "the only spot was in the A league."

We were 0-3 heading into last Thursday's game against the undefeated dental students.

After some shuffling of personnel, manager Chandler put us in a position to win. The shuffling involved getting me into a position where my inept softball skills could cause the least damage.

You see, my greatest softball skill is that I take the game from being "fun" to "funny". The first night I threw the ball in from center field and literally hit the unsuspecting cutoff man. What's wrong with hitting the cutoff man- aren't you supposed to? Well, I was aiming for 3rd and hit the short stop (Thune) in the back. Some of you are thinking, "If you're playing center field, how would the 3rd baseman ever be the cut off man?" Softball is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror. In that moment of possessing the ball as people are rounding the bases, my eyes blur, my mind is in a fog, and I just throw it... wherever. That's what I'm saying- it's terror out there- one percent of the time. In another center field debacle, I almost got hit in the face with a fly ball to center.

So Chandler moved me to catcher, where I'm known for occasionally skipping the ball back to the pitcher. The "yips" happens to everyone at some point in their career. As a fellow catcher, Mackey Sasser's inability to throw the ball back to the pitcher ended his major league career with the Mets. I tell myself I'm in good company. It happens to the best...or worst, however you want to look at it.

But Thursday was our moment of glory, and we chalked up our first win for the Veritas Church softball team.

Veritas Church, you can hold your heads high this week, knowing that your church has posted a win in the A division. And also rest secure that your pastors are hard at work, refining their skills on the diamond.

Here's to being thankful in all circumstances, especially after such a sweet victory...
In other sporting news...

I busted out the clubs and showed off my sweet skills on the golf course. Dale Mullikin commented on my clubs, "I haven't seen wood drivers in forever... wait... those aren't wood, they're plastic!" It turns out my Wilsons are a step way below TaylorMade and just above Fisher Price. But the clubs were hot... just ask Dale to tell you about my putting.
Here's Thune putting with an apple in his mouth.

Congrats to Jeff and Ashley with the birth of Kota Ryan... what a sweet baby girl!
Boom, I'm out.

1 comment:

Scott Chandler said...

I love Thune's "Stone Cold" look! Hey Jeff everyone else was happy we won but glad to see you aren't satisfied!