The other day, I was playing baseball.  It had been a while for me since I had last played the game competitively.  Almost 12 to 13 years...  not since my old school days...

   I was kind of worried about how I would be able to play after so much time away.  I had pulled my dusty old baseball glove that I hadn't used since those years, grabbed a ball and first, tried to regain the feel of a glove on my hand, and a ball landing in it.  Would it be like when I was first trying to learn how to catch?  I remember the exhiliration I felt when finally, for the first time, when that ball was coming to me, I put my glove out and I felt the object land there.  I squeezed my hand to close the glove, and lo and behold, the ball was there.  It hadn't fallen out, it didn't bounce off the top or edges of my glove, it had landed cleanly in the mesh, and I made it stay there by perfectly timing the catch.

   I put the glove on, and the feel came back instantly, like it had never been lost.  I thought to myself, "I can do this!"  And I went to that game ready to rip my opposition apart.  12 to 13 years was nothing.  50 or 60 years would have been nothing.  I was back!

   The game was hardly a defensive gem, I must admit.  The final score 14-12 in favor of my opposition.  I was disappointed with the loss, but not with my play.  I was stationed in the infield, and made some spectacular plays.  A sweet off-balance throw to beat the runner to first base.  Twice tagging out the runner going home, thus preventing two runs from crossing the plate.  Setting up double plays.  And the biggest play of all, I came to bat in the top half of the final inning, my team down 10-9, and two runners on base.  I held off from swinging at two deceptive pitches, and fouled one off.  But I knew... I just knew that my pitch was coming.  I stared down the pitcher, and the ball was released.  And that was it.  I swung with all my might, crushing that ball into outer-space.  A three run homerun, and we were up 12-10 going into the bottom half of the final inning.  But unfortunately, the opposition rallied back with a big homerun of their own, and the game was over...  It was as well-played as expected in such a high scroing game, but was a great game for me.  The way I played earned me team MVP honors.

   Driving home from that game, I started thinking to myself, "What if I had tried to pursue baseball professionally?"  My name could be added to the short list of great Canadian players in the Majors...  Larry Walker, Justin Morneau, Jason Bay, Rich Harden, Paul Quantrill, Matt Stairs... goTO (I'm not quite ready to use my real name yet... lol).  I was pretty good when I played regularly.  I had a good bat, and could play any position asked of me...  Maybe I could have been a Major League baseball player.  You know what?  I would have been a Major League baseball player, possibly the greatest to ever play the game.  You know, I could probably walk into any MLB teams head office and say,"Give me a contract," and I would be playing the very next day!

   Then...

   The next day came and reality sunk in.  I could barely walk.  I had used muscles that I hadn't used in 12 to 13 years, and I felt it.  Four years of working a desk job seems to have advanced the effects of gravity on my body, thus making it a little less simple for me to just jump in and do anything.  My pain also forced me to look realisitically at the circumstances of the game:

• The game was organized by the company I work for as a team building/morale boosting exercise for employees and their families/spouses/etc.
• We were playing slow-pitch softball, with a softer-than-a-typical-softball softball
• The age range of the players in the game was about 10 to 60 years old
• The players were both male and female; like I said, some were employees, and others were the children of employees
• Not very many of the players were really athletically gifted
• I was pitching 6 out of 7 innings and was the pitcher of record for around 12 of the runs scored against us; hence my saying that "I played in the infield..."
• some of the people I was playing against were my boss(es) (I know... prime time to orchestrate an "accident...")
• I had one good hit, the other times I went to bat resulted in embarrassingly weak pop-outs
• The game was followed up with beer, wings, and nachos at a local restaurant

   I had a decent outing considering the circumstances, the competition and everything else.  But now I realize I am not quite ready to go to bat against Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay's pitching, run the bases against Carl Crawford or Alfonso Soriano, snare a hot-shot at third base off the bat of Albert Pujols or Josh Hamilton, or strike-out Derek Jeter or Kevin Youkilis.  I would probably just end up leaving the field crying after being totally schooled by these real baseball players.

   So for now, I will just be happy to play recreationally.  I'll play in more company softball games, hopefully we can have games against some of our other offices (show that our office has the best team).  If they want to go bowling, or play basketball, or soccer, I'm in.  It's great to play the games and keep them a part of my life, but I'm not about to turn pro anytime soon.  I know we all want to keep everything dear to us nice and close, and that includes our favourite sports.

   Here's hoping championship blogging one day becomes a professional sport.

   Cheers!