Kentastic (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} madmanotl) wrote,@ 2009-06-30 18:02:00 |
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championship game and thoughts
Yesterday my niece played in her league championship game which was rescheduled from Saturday.
When I got there just before seven and parking on the street since the lot was full, I heard an awful sound emanating from the speakers: Whitney Houston's long, way overdone version of the National Anthem done before Super Bowl XXV where she sounds like she has a vibrator inside her and is having an orgasm.
Anyway, four minutes later, I closed an open gate in the outfield fence to the thanks of someone there and waddled to where my sister was sitting. I then noticed the sun was shining beyond the left field fence facing the batter which is dangerous. (Note: It is common practice for a baseball field to face towards the east so the afternoon/early evening sun is not in the eye of the batter. This field faced northwest.)
The sun in the batters' eyes, the strong west wind blowing in, and questions about a rule and the strike zone (which made an ump eject a loudmouthed fan from the stands) made the first few innings interesting as a couple of hard hit fly balls by their opponent hung in the wind allowing them to be caught and two other potential hits turned four hits into 5 outs as poor base running created a couple of double plays. In spite of that my niece's team was down 4-2 after four innings since the other team was using their best pitcher and my niece's team made a bunch of errors in the field.
I got into a conversation with someone at the neutral site park about the field set up and found out that the mayor's office in Glendale Heights decided on the direction of play without considering input from coaches. He also stated they would have preferred an instrumental version of the National Anthem but could not find one.
While talking to him, I noticed my niece's team settled down defensively along with the wind and their offense started to hit the other teams second pitcher as rules only allowed four innings pitched per player per game. A hard hit fly ball which would have probably been an out earlier in the game got past the outfielders scoring three putting my niece's team up 7-4.
After a second 1-2-3 inning, my niece led off the bottom of the sixth in her final park district at bat. Just like in her first at bat which I saw years ago, she got hit by a pitch. She scored the teams eighth run and with one more, they were up 9-4.
My niece had the view from center field as her teammate threw another 1-2-3 inning to win the title for the second straight year.
I was concerned about my niece playing softball when I saw how she was in her first game and now I will be seeing her play in high school next year.
Yesterday my niece played in her league championship game which was rescheduled from Saturday.
When I got there just before seven and parking on the street since the lot was full, I heard an awful sound emanating from the speakers: Whitney Houston's long, way overdone version of the National Anthem done before Super Bowl XXV where she sounds like she has a vibrator inside her and is having an orgasm.
Anyway, four minutes later, I closed an open gate in the outfield fence to the thanks of someone there and waddled to where my sister was sitting. I then noticed the sun was shining beyond the left field fence facing the batter which is dangerous. (Note: It is common practice for a baseball field to face towards the east so the afternoon/early evening sun is not in the eye of the batter. This field faced northwest.)
The sun in the batters' eyes, the strong west wind blowing in, and questions about a rule and the strike zone (which made an ump eject a loudmouthed fan from the stands) made the first few innings interesting as a couple of hard hit fly balls by their opponent hung in the wind allowing them to be caught and two other potential hits turned four hits into 5 outs as poor base running created a couple of double plays. In spite of that my niece's team was down 4-2 after four innings since the other team was using their best pitcher and my niece's team made a bunch of errors in the field.
I got into a conversation with someone at the neutral site park about the field set up and found out that the mayor's office in Glendale Heights decided on the direction of play without considering input from coaches. He also stated they would have preferred an instrumental version of the National Anthem but could not find one.
While talking to him, I noticed my niece's team settled down defensively along with the wind and their offense started to hit the other teams second pitcher as rules only allowed four innings pitched per player per game. A hard hit fly ball which would have probably been an out earlier in the game got past the outfielders scoring three putting my niece's team up 7-4.
After a second 1-2-3 inning, my niece led off the bottom of the sixth in her final park district at bat. Just like in her first at bat which I saw years ago, she got hit by a pitch. She scored the teams eighth run and with one more, they were up 9-4.
My niece had the view from center field as her teammate threw another 1-2-3 inning to win the title for the second straight year.
I was concerned about my niece playing softball when I saw how she was in her first game and now I will be seeing her play in high school next year.
