Kickball - Week 5...

Played our best game of the season last night.  I think our come-from-behind win last week fired people up.  Everyone was eager to practice, and actually working to try and improve and play better.  And everyone clearly wanted to win.  We made a lot of really spectacular plays, and hardly any errors, got more base-hits than in any game before this, and ended up really evenly matched against a team that clearly would've wiped the field with us a couple weeks ago.

POSITION:

          -due to injuries and vacations, we were short-staffed this week - which meant I got to play
           center field

          -even with the bump-up in field status, I still only had two plays come my way - first one was a
           high pop-up directly to me - I knew I could catch it, and this would be my first opportunity to
           finally do something right in the outfield, and finally get my first out - but I had to run forward
           in order to catch the ball, and I took one too many steps - so instead of the ball falling towards
           me aimed at my chest (which is what I wanted), it was falling towards me aimed at my face
           (which is not what I wanted) - so I couldn't just hug the ball to my body, which is the easiest
           way to catch the super-bouncy kickball, and instead had to try to catch it in my hands in
           order to keep it from slamming me in the face (again) - which of course, I can't do (the ball just
           bounces straight out of my hands every time) - predictably, the ball bounced off of my hands,
           high into the air, and I was about to make our first error of the game - luckily, the guy playing
           left field had run all the way over to me to try and catch the ball himself (now there's a
           confidence booster!) and he was able to catch it on the rebound from me, gaining the out, and
           saving me from an error

          -the other play I had was just a ball that bounced over the 2nd baseman's head, so I fielded it
           and managed to get it to 3rd base to stop the runner from going Home - simple, easy, nothing
           special - at least I didn't fuck it up

AT THE PLATE:

          -first kick was a base-hit - and for the first time, it was skill, rather than luck, that got me
           there - the ball went exactly where I wanted it, in the exact way I wanted it to - felt pretty good            about that - managed to get to 2nd base before our third out ended the inning

          -second-and-final kick (I'm always at the end of the roster, so I only ever get two kicks a game,            whereas everybody else, including all of the girls, and the old guy with the limp, get in three)
           was a short pop-fly, easily caught by the pitcher

FINAL:

          -it was a really tight game - we kept it tied 0-0 into about the 3rd or 4th inning - finally, the old
           guy with the limp made our first error of the game

          -he was playing 3rd base, and we threw him the ball to stop the runner at 3rd from going
           Home - he gets the ball, and stops the runner, so all he has to do at this point is give the ball
           back to the pitcher and the play is over - but he throws it to 2nd base, for no explainable
           reason - the runner at 2nd was already ON the base when he threw the ball, so who the fuck
           was he trying to get out?! - it's as if, whenever he gets the ball, he just randomly does
           something with it, without actually thinking about what he should do with it - anyways, as a
           result, the runner at 3rd ran Home, and the runner at 2nd advanced to 3rd

          -so, skip to the last inning, again, and the other team has a couple of runs on the board, while
           we're still scoreless - but we are apparently Team Come From Behind, because in our last
           chance at the plate, we manage to score all of our runs for the entire game - enough to put us
           up by 1

          -bottom of the last inning, the other team gets one more chance at the plate - and despite our
           best efforts, we made a couple more errors, and they managed to score another run - so the
           game ended in a tie (which isn't a win, but it's still a lot better than a loss), making us 2-2-1
           for the season

INJURIES:

          -I worked hard this game, in a way I haven't since the season opener - really worked up a
           sweat, and got a good workout out of it - so, I'm pretty wiped today, and I'm generally sore all
           over - but, other than that, I'm doing fine - no specific injuries to report - I think it's clear now
           that I'm in better shape than I was when we started the season

          -it was even kind of fun this week