We had our first church softball league scrimmage yesterday. It was the first time I’d played an organized game of softball since junior high (excepting one game at the Computer Science picnic, which was marginally organized, and everyone playing was a geek, except for their signifigant others). We were thoroughly womped; the game was definitely a learning experience:
* I love playing this game for fun; though I hate watching baseball on TV, there’s so much more going on in the “slow” moments if you’re actually playing. What do I do if the ball comes to me? If the ball goes to the left fielder? Where are the force outs at?
* I don’t like playing the game with ultra-competitive people, or at least those who can’t tone down their competitiveness to the appropriate level. There always seem to be a few, even in a “non-competitive” co-ed league. The competition aspect always seems to subvert and dominate the Christian fellowship aspect.
Right now, there is tenison between those two bullet points. I had fun, but not nearly as much fun as I could have had.
May 17th, 2004 at 3:22 pm
Ah yes, I remember my days of CRC softball. Of course in Maryland there is only one CRC so we had to play against non-CRCers. We were never that great, but we had a nice rivalry for last place with a presbyterian church. One church had a team of ringers that I don’t think even attended. I was of course competitive, but I think I toned it down to manageable levels.
May 21st, 2004 at 2:54 pm
Of course, I never played softball with you John, but my guess is you were the type of player that was internally competitive, ie, you were hard on yourself when you screwed up, but not as hard on others. It’s the people that affect others with their comptetivness (chastising them for a mistake or whatnot) that annoy me.