2008 In Review....Part 2

SUMMER
The summer began with much expectation. The time off for my wife and I was dearly needed. The warm weather was going to help with all of the life changes we were about to make. I managed to make it out with some friends to check out Hanzel Und Gretyl at Skully's in Columbus, Ohio. It was a the first time in about a decade that I was able to see them live. The show was awesome and I loved every minute of it.

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate played an extremely entertaining and exciting U.S. Open solidifying my interest in golf.....as long as Tiger is playing. The Indians played through a lackluster season continuing my expectations of the descent of my teams from a stellar yet championshipless 2007. I continued through mediocre seasons in softball although my play was far below mediocre. The Celtics won the NBA Title adding to my anger towards Boston fan. But the Cavs signed a key free agent in the offseason in Mo Williams who would fill a dying need. Also, Ferry managed to work his magic in the draft to get a couple of key big men that show a lot of promise if they can develop enough in time.

My family dealt with a tragedy and I blogged about the grieving I went through. I was able to move on and grow from the experience but the effects of that event are still manifesting themselves in subtle actions and much of my thinking. While I repeat the steps that led to that horrific experience, I can't help but fall back to those feelings and deal with much of the fear and paranoia that is still present as a result.

With the residue of that experience still around, my wife and I put one foot in front of the other (actually two feet since there was two of us) and tried to celebrate our first anniversary with a trip to West Virginia. It was a nice little trip together where we enjoyed some couple time. We also decided it was time to really push to get the house ready for the market and move into a house that would truly be ours. We felt like we were still living in the past with the current house. So we began the process of fixing the countless little problems with the house and trying to improve the look. I almost lost my mind due to frustration from my lack of Mr. Fix-it skills.
In between the the home improvements I made a trip out to Evanston with my dad to help move my brother's family from one apartment to another. It was a cool weekend to share with the men of my immediate family moving furniture, eating some good barb-b-que and sampling the campus hang outs. Doug was able to show us around and let us peek into his life a little bit.

Just as we put the house on the market and witnessed the cats' stubborn resistance to all the change, I left for Las Vegas to celebrate my good friend's upcoming marriage. I left for Los Angeles to meet two other good friends who also were contributing to the Vegas bachelor party and began a week of good times with good people creating memories that we will relive for a long time.

When I returned, it was back to the grind. School was ready to begin the house was on the market. Football season was ready to start and I finished my first year in a new fantasy baseball league in a very respectable second place. The school routine was back up and running. At the same time the presidential election was heating up and I began to blog more and more about my political views and my hopes for the future.

AUTUMN
Ohio State lost in embarrassing fashion to a superior USC team. It reinforced my fears that OSU was overrated and over hyped. There was very little if anything to realistically take from the game as positive. The weak schedule only gave Penn State as an opportunity to redeem our reputation but while that game was hard fought and showed some glimpse of hope, we lost that one too and went on to beat teams we should be including bitter rival, Michigan who had one of their worst seasons ever under new coach Rich Rodriquez.

The Browns looked absolutely horrible and quit more often than not. They mailed in the last 1/3 of the season after it was obviously a lost cause. "Romeo must go," I kept saying before the season. 2007 was fool's gold in more ways than one and was probably a really bad thing. 2008 proved me right.

The Cavs on the other hand came out guns blazin'! Since you don't win NBA titles in December, the 25-4 start means absolutely NOTHING!!!! It is a good sign. It has been fun to watch. But it will be interesting to see if they maintain such a rate of success.

I was able to take a trip out to Evanston, Illinois again. This time it was to watch my Ohio State Buckeyes dominate a solid Northwestern team. It was cold. Oh so cold. But it was a fun weekend with my brother and his wife's family. Anytime I can catch the Buckeyes on the road and knock out another Big Ten stadium, I am happy.

My wife and sister-in-law and I ventured out to see Trent Reznor, better known as Nine Inch Nails, play a show in Columbus. The visual effects were outstanding. He had an interactive screen at times behind him and at other times in front of him. It was pretty cool and creative. He played an ok set. There was a bit much of his instrumental slow stuff but he doesn't seem to be as angry as he once was. I guess money will do that for you right?

Obama was elected president of the United States promising change and giving hope of unity and improved pride in ourselves and country. In the end it will be up to us to make any effective changes. My hope has been that Obama will be charismatic enough to lead the change and motivate us to make the right kind of changes. But as I obsess over 2012 and armageddon, I worry that Obama may be the antichrist. I have problems.

Basically, this is where I stand right now. 2008 wasn't my best years. I still think it wasn't my worst either. I have a lot of changes I need to make in the way I behave and think. I am working on that. What happened in 2008 has led me to these things. So maybe 2008, while being difficult at the time, will prove to be a year that led to better things and much needed growth.

Softball pt 2.

I have deliberately avoided posting my weekly softball updates. Partly due to the fact I doubt anyone cares. But mostly due to my absolutely, no question about it, HORRID start to the season.

I ended fall ball in '07 discovering some hidden power. Not fence busting power but gap power that allowed my so so speed to race around the bases for stand up home runs. At first, I thought it was a fluke but it happened numerous times on two different teams. So I entered this season with excitement and eager anticipation.

I promptly started off with driblers back to the pitcher, swings and misses and easy pop outs. I NEVER SWING AND MISS SOFTBALL PITCHES!!!! So I have played with my stance, tried to analyze my swing, begged teammates for observations and advice but ended up with the same crap. And I noticed my teammates in the same quandry as they were hitting into easy outs. Oh, this was frustrating.

But my friends!!!!! Tonight that changed. BAck in my familiar surroundings of Hilliard, Ohio, I let loose for several hits, a lucky error by the shortstop and...ladies and gentlemen drums please: A homerun to the opposite field...kinda. It was right center but that counts for scrubs like me. They played me for a punk and I made them pay.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeah. They better recognize!

Softball '08 Log Part I

Since so many people are at the edge of their seats waiting for scrub league softball wrap-ups. here is the beginning of a log of my two team's summer 2008seasons.

I am playing Tuesday nights in Westerville with Westerville Wahoos. I didn't name the team so I am not going to count this against my new effort to ban the Chief Wahoo symbol in my life out of respect to Native Americans around the country. Therefore, I will try to refer to this team as the "Westerville" team instead of the Wahoos. This team consists of some good friends of mine from past teams and past experiences as well as current situations.

I also am playing on Wednesday nights in Hilliard where I have been playing for almost a decade now with Horizon. These guys are friends from softball teams of WAY back. The cool thing about this league besides the guys I play with is the fact that I will have a nice rivalry with a team that consists of most of my Westerville teammates from Tuesdays. That is going to be interesting.

Before I start let me mention a couple of things.

First, THANK GOD I am not managing. Nothing against the leagues or people, I just hate signing the team up, gathering money, fronting the money, dealing with rules and schedules, representing the team on questionable calls when guys blow up, feeling bad about who I put at particular field positions or batting order slots and so on. Playing with the lineup is fun but I can do that on my own for kicks and giggles. Keeping stats is fun but it is not worth people knit picking you over them when you don't really care all that much in the first place out side of having talking points to discuss and analyzing trends or whatever. It is so much more enjoyable for me to just show up with my stuff, play where the captain tells me to play and hit where the captain tells me to hit. Then I can do my thing, talk my stuff and have stress free fun.

Secondly, Westerville is very clean, nice and professional.

Third, Norman is a master pitcher. He puts the ball where he wants it. He is unafraid of throwing balls or walking batters. A 3-1 count is nothing to him. He just throws inside to outside, long to short, high to low, straight or with spin. I love watching it. It is a thing of beauty when he has his stuff working. Seriously. This is only softball but dude......

So here we go:

WEEK ONE
Tonight was Opening night and the weather was good sans the sun in my eyes for the first 5 innnings. Fortunately nothing was hit towards me. I was nervous. I am playing 2B and I have not played well in the infield the past couple years and worry I lost whatever little skill I had. I pray that some reps there will help improve my play.

Most importantly, we came out as a team and won in convincing fashion 13-4. I am not sure this team is a good representation of the competition we will face in Westerville but we handled things well tonight. You can never base your projection on the first team you play. And I am NOT saying we are a better team or anything. We just were tonight...on the scoreboard.

It was good to see the team interact well and look comfortable in their positions. Baddeley has catcher on lock down. Our outfield hustled and caught what was hit to them. The infield made plays. We didn't throw the ball all over the place. And that's not to say we won't in the future. Just not tonight.

Me? I sucked. I never got into a rhythm at the plate. I swung at bad first pitches. Rule #1 in my book of hitting: NEVER swing at the first pitch. There are obvious times to swing but you need to go into it thinking never to avoid what I did tonight. I went 0-2 or 0-3 with a BB and RBI. Each out was a weak ground ball in the infield. It was bad. I was fortunate to have a guy at third to get the RBI. Really it was weak. I was thinking way too much at the plate. I tried to just go hit and ended up swinging at two first pitch balls.

Hopefully with a game under my belt I will be better at the plate next week. But really it matter little...we won. I am happy because that is the point. I would just feel a little bit better if I contributed to the win more than two put outs at second.

A Great Analogy for ME!

I was thinking about the upcoming softball season here in Central Ohio. I thought about how I will most likely end up pitching for one of the teams I plan to play with this summer. Apparently one member of the team thinks I "want" to pitch. Not sure how that got in his head since that is not the case but it's cool. I keep saying I'll play anywhere and I will so whatever. I just like playing. Some positions are more fun than others but I try to be a team player (another thing this particular teammate seems to disagree with).

To my point, I do not mind pitching and therefore find myself doing just that...pitching. I don't ask to be the pitcher, I just end up doing it. (Unless of course that is my way on the team) The reason is not because I am any good at it. There are much better pitchers than I. Let's face it, pitching in softball is not a thing of great skill or athleticism. You just lob the ball over the plate. And I have neither of the aforementioned traits.

But I think it is very difficult to be a good softball pitcher. We had a guy, Eddie, who was a good softball pitcher but physical limitations have gotten the best of the poor guy. On the other hand, it is very easy to be a bad pitcher. For example, you cannot strike guys out in softball really, but you sure can walk a ton of guys. There is nothing much worse for a fielder than to sit out there helpless to the endless parade of opponents walking around the diamond scoring run after run with no chance to get an out. Trust me. I have been there. And it is worse when they are bunch of "softball guys" that look like jackasses in the dugout talking about it with their Oakley's on and barbed wire tats and four wristbands up and down their arms.

My point to this post is that I fit right in the middle. Not skillful and tricky like Steady Eddie, the wiley ol' vet, but not the merry-go-round pitcher from my first years in Hilliard. Not the hockey goalie Jeremy from our champion year, but not the boring walk-a-thon that led to mercy after mercy. This seems to mirror me in real life. I can't claim to be good at anything. No trophies, awards, accomplishments or stories to brag about, but for the most part I have been good enough to belong on the field. Or at least in the team picture as they say nowadays.

King of Mediocrity I suppose. Doesn't sound too flattering does it? Well, as long as I get to keep playing, I'm good. People and experiences. That is what it's all about my friends. People and experiences.