Thank God it's Mother's Day. The 13-and-under kids I coach thus didn't have a game today. After having to play a doubleheader, I really needed to get home and relax. (I could also use a shower, but I haven't gotten that far yet.) We lost the first game pretty badly, but won the second one in the bottom of the 9th. I wound up with the game winning fielder's choice. It isn't a hit, as it was weak contact towards the second baseman. Any other time, I would've been an easy out. But the game was tied with one out and runners on second and third. Get me and we still win, so the defense has to make the play at the plate. They failed, we won. I would've really preferred a solid uncontestable base hit.
The craziest thing I've heard in a long time came up over lunch. Nate said to me, "I think you should learn to pitch. know you have a weak arm, but it's only 60 feet." It's true, I do not have a lot of power behind my arm. It's one of my weaknesses as an outfielder that I can not shoot down a runner at the plate. I have to relay through a cutoff infielder. What's crazy about it is, in the division we play in, it would be effective. The hitters are good enough to handle faster pitching, in the 70s and 80s. If you come in unable to throw faster than the speed limit, then everything you throw is off-speed to them. Everything fucks with their timing. And our team knows this intimately. We've seen some really slow pitchers the previous couple of weeks. One had very good mechanics, very good control, but zero velocity. And we couldn't do shit with him, everybody's swing was way out ahead, we must've popped out a dozen times that game last week.
Even crazier, I'd actually like to try it.