Softball Rant

Since I started graduate school I've found myself in need of a good de-stresser every few days or so.  I've tried baking, walking my dog, meditation, gardening, sewing... there is a long list.  I am missing a very important component that I had throughout the rest of my young life, which is a steady softball team and league to play in.  There is something about throwing, hitting, and running (short sprints, of course) which is the best way to forget about how crappy your day has been.  I miss that.  Not only was softball my main de-stresser, but it was my favorite way to exercise.

Now for my (probably short, I have to get to the lab pretty soon) rant.  Parks and Rec decided a year or so ago that they just could not afford to run various sports leagues anymore.  They got rid of women's fast pitch softball, along with a summer slowpitch league, and who knows what other sports were ditched.  This completely ruined my hopes for playing what I like to call "Old Lady League" over the summer.  When asked how to fix the situation, the parks and rec folks told us that even if money came in, women's softball would only feel a small trickle of the funds, and probably would still not be happening.  What the heck?

My main issue here is that there are not enough opportunities for women's fast pitch players to play their sport once you get over the age of 18.  If you were lucky, as I was, to play fast pitch in college then you got to tack on an extra four years to the lifetime of your competitive softball career, but then what?  I have been subbing in slowpitch softball for my true sport of choice, fastpitch.  Slowpitch is alright, it has kind of the bare basics of the sport in there, but hitting a ball that was pitched up into the air probably about 12 feet high?  So not what I had trained, almost 16 years of my life, to do.  Nope, I'm craving fastpitch, where playing in your sneakers is not okay, and batting helmets and catchers gear is a must.

I was recently offered a volunteer position to coach JVB at my old high school.  This would get me back into my sport! I thought, what an excellent opportunity!  But coaching is a job which requires you to be at practice 5 days a week, probably around 4 or 5pm...  I thought about it some more.  There is NO WAY that I can get myself out of the lab by that time, and there is no way that practice would ever be over in time for me to get back to campus and teach two night labs.  Shoot.  I had to turn down the gig.  And boy, it was depressing.  I dont have the time to get the practice in that I used to get.  Man, high school and college were awesome.  I was "forced" to practice 5 or 6 times a week, and I whined crazy bad about it. I wish I had someone forcing me to practice now!

"the good times" playing college ball.