Fit Mom's Blog

School years come to a close with the annual teachers versus the students’ softball game. As the physical education teacher for so many years, my job was to teach the skills: throwing, batting, catching, fielding. That’s it. I never played softball myself- not even in college. As a student myself, one year of softball after school as a sixth grader was enough for me. I had no skills and I didn’t want to look like a fool. Still don’t.

Fast forward 10 years: I married a baseball fan. In fact, he loves baseball so much that I had to make a rule about no baseball at the dinner table with one exception being the “World Series Rules”. He also enjoys softball, apparently played recreational softball for years before I met him…so this leads me to my first ever coed softball game on Friday night. We were invited to play and I thought it would be a great way to get “out” with my husband and do something together. It’d be fun for the marriage. Have some laughs together as adults without children. So, this leads me to my first EVER game of softball.

Honestly, the thought of playing at 9 O’clock at night did NOT appeal to me. The boys were not going to be taken out of their beds, so that mommy and daddy could play ball. I’d been battling a sinus infection and sleep deprivation, and I really didn’t want to go. I dragged my feet finding a babysitter…found one and she canceled at 4pm and I was relieved!! I’d send Paul and be off the hook. Well, the team didn’t want Paul! They needed me because I was a girl. DARN IT!! So, Paul was going to stay home with the kids and I’d go play. NO WAY!!! I was not having any part of that. In the end, we found a babysitter with 45 minutes to spare.

Arrival: I got a loaner glove and start playing catch with hubby. He was throwing the ball really hard. I caught about five before he really blasted one into the glove. My hand was on fire! “No more catch with you!” This is going well, five minutes into this thing and I’m already hurting. I’m assigned catcher. I freaked out!!! I’ve never played this game before and they want me to play catcher. “Why can’t I go hide in the outfield?” Catcher is the safest place for you..

There were three other women all much older than me and they started giving me pointers immediately.
“Get out of the way of the incoming balls!”

“Let the pitcher get people out.”

“Wait for the pitched ball to come down low before you swing.”

“I broke my collarbone two years ago when playing pitcher because I didn’t get out of the way of a runner and he slide right into me.”

So, good looking Umpire is standing there waiting for me to get behind the plate. I introduce myself as “Hi I’m the fool who’s playing catch tonight and I have never played this game, EVER”. He smirked and said “ok”. Not a very talkative umpire. He didn’t tell me anything. No pointers, no where to stand, no rules, no counts, nothing…I finally worked up my courage to ask how long we played. Seven innings or 1 hour ten minutes, yikes! So, the catching part went fine. Pitcher pitches the ball and I wait for it to land before picking it up, no big deal. Runner’s coming home, just move the bat and get out of the way….I was just barely figuring out the rules of strikes, balls, fouls when the game ended. As far as my “at bats”, struck out twice, and hit two RBI’s. Paul called them “seeing eye singles” or something like that. I don’t know, I just know I hit the ball and ran to first base. After that I waited on the coaches to tell me when to run. “Run on contact.” Ok, so I ran. Managed to cross home plate and get a point for the team.

In retrospect, I had a good time. Batting was intimidating, running the bases was scary, but the catching part was easy. If I can get over the fear of a swinging bat hitting me in the head or a 60 MPH softball hitting me, it should be a good time!