Kickball, Week 5: ...

This week was the worst week of kickball ever.  Not only did our co-captains not show up (one of them had a last-minute assignment), we got destroyed by a team that sucked all the fun out of the game.  Half our guys didn't show up...and we only have 8 or 9 guys on our team in the first place.  Since most of our guys are capable of covering more ground and catching more fly balls than most of our girls, that put us at a distinct disadvantage. 

To make matters worse, we played the least-fun team that I've ever seen.  While on my team, a guy will often allow a girl to take his place; our opponents treated their team's girls like obstacles that were in the way.  They bunted, even when the game was well out of reach.   They always had the minimum number of female fielders (4) in the field at any given time.  they made sure all their major positions in the field were manned by athletic men.  They argued with the ump's calls on more than one occasion, and they yelled at the few girls that were on the field if (god forbid) they actually dropped a fly ball or got in their way.  they didn't joke around with us (or even with each other, really).  It was like playing some machine that only cared about scoring and winning.  Given the circumstances, it's a miracle we didn't lose worse than we did - I think the final score was 10-0 or something. 

But you know what the icing on the cake was?  I caused our team to forfeit.  That's right: this was my week (and my week alone, apparently) for me to be a line ref.  Instead, I went to a post-game Lost viewing party at a teammate's apartment.  I didn't realize I was supposed to line ref this week until we were already on our way to the party in cars.  Turns out that when we were working out the line ref schedule, one of my co-captains asked if I could do June 20, or Week 9.  Sure I could.  Then she sent out an e-mail to the whole team with our schedule...and she had moved me to May 23.  Kinda confusing, considering the previous e-mail she sent.  Whoops.  Even weirder, most of the team (including me) stayed at least 15 minutes after our game ended.  Usually after an early game, the ump for that game or the next one will indicate that he needs a line ref from our team.  Nobody mentioned anything to any of us.  By the time I left, I was wondering about it - but the umps were nowhere in sight.  They had left our field, and left us alone.  So I took off, figuring that someone would say something - but without our team captains and without any umps around, that didn't happen.  

Well, we got blown out anyway, right?  The damage comes in with the fact that each team is only allowed two forfeits per season; any more than that, and you are disqualified from the playoffs (and every team makes the playoffs).  Since we are now officially the worst team in the league at 1-4, and since we got killed anyway, and since we usually have very strong participation, I don't see us forfeiting any more games this season.  But my mistake was the capper on my first shitty kickball experience.  Hopefully there won't be any more weeks like this.

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