gangsta

my alarm went off to the tune of a simply sweet song. but then it broke down into a rap.

i woke up smiling because i understand. on an average day, i’m like the first portion of the song: nice, sweet, and melodic, but sometimes, oh yes, sometimes you just want to unleash your gangsta side.

playing sports does that for me. especially when my team is the underdog and we’ve made it to the playoffs.

like tuesday night.

my work (beer league) softball team was up against the #1 team. the competitors played not to lose. we played to win. and guess what? we did. even though it was the first round of the playoffs and in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that monumental, we celebrated like it was. we all rushed the infield. we threw our gloves in the air. we screamed. we yelled. we cheered. we high fived. you see, we had taken down the #1 team. but more importantly, we had made it past the first round of playoffs. this hasn’t happened, well, ever, so our celebration was completely warranted.

but my point was not that impromptu celebration, but rather what came before it.

there was an incident on the field where one of our players was trying to stretch his hit into a home run. maybe he should have stopped at third. maybe he shouldn’t have. either way, he motored around third base and headed home. the ball flew in from the outfield. the catcher, blocking the base, caught the ball but bobbled it. our player ran into the catcher because there was no other way to get to the base. the catcher, who, since he didn’t have complete control anyways, dropped the ball. the “coach” of the other team came flying over quoting the rule book that this is a no contact sport, etc. etc. it’s true. this is a no contact sport, but we’re playing to win, buddy, and we need every run we can get. and your player was blocking the base. there was nowhere to go but through. so why are you now reciting softball regulations when you were jovial and jolly a minute ago? why are you suddenly so uptight? when did you become an expert on rule 3.459-1/2? is the score getting a little too close for comfort? are we making you nervous?

if i had a better grasp of what the rule book said, i probably would have gone out there and yelled. i know, me, yelling. HA. but this is my team and i have to defend our actions. as luck would have it, i happened to be on the mound pitching when one of their players ran into our catcher the very next inning. we didn’t have a play, so that wasn’t the issue. the issue, for me, was that how come rule 3.459-1/2 of the “no contact, no sliding” that was implemented an inning ago is all of a sudden off the table? i don’t care if we weren’t making a play. no contact is no contact. at any time. at any base.

and i told him so*.

*in a passive aggressive way where i was talking to my “coach” in an intentional-i’m-trying-to-be-overheard loud voice saying “what was that about no contact?”

but seriously, if you aren’t going to play fair, you can’t be surprised when i break out my rap girl attitude.

i know, threatening, right?

yeah, you should back up now, son.