Gary
Author Comments aka Comic News
Three strikes and your match is probably broken
Someday, I'll find the time to color all of these in, but sadly, today is not that day, for it is already midnight. This comic was inspired by @ColleenDoran's tweet, about her post here. Go, follow her, she tends to post some good stuff.
So I just had an amazing softball game, the first of the season for me, the second of the season for many others. So, going into this, my shoulder is still a little messed up. I hurt it taking a bad fall at a martial arts seminar, and then I crammed into an airplane and returned to Denver. So, Monday, I was basically incapacitated. It hurt to look at, basically, anything. To get back into working shape, I slept, and I slept a lot. My body is pretty good at patching itself back together, so Tuesday (the day I'm typing this), my shoulder hurt, I as a little sore in general, and I was tired all around, but my head was working again. To say the least, I wasn't in the best of moods heading into the game. Thankfully for my team, I'm not a star player.
The coaches get called over for the coin toss. We win, we're home. This is a good start, it means we field first and bat second, so we always have a chance to recover. We get out there, and they start hitting. I run to second then a double. Two-zip and then a foul ball. [I play catcher, because I'm not that great with fly balls, and because I barely understand the game. Remember, I'm a geek. I read as a kid, and climbed trees] So, the foul ball pops up, it's an easy catch, I catch it, and I drop it. I feel like the fool I should. They get one more run, and we're up to bat. A hit, and we have a man on first, then a hit and a catch followed by two more caught popups. 0-3.
The second inning starts with a bang as they hit five strong hits, and we have error after error. We're all just getting in each other's way. They then get two outs and another homerun. During this time, one of our players injures his leg. We get the last out, and we're up to bat. We get a lot of base hits, but no scoring. 0-9
The third inning starts and we hold them. I get up to bat [No I don't tend to hit homers, I tend to hit strong, low line drives, I'm not spectacular, but I'm pretty consistant.], and I hit a line drive, it bounces, the short stop gets it, I'm running as hard as I can, he hands it off to the first base man, and I'm out. I go back to the bench, I look at the score, and I think "Oh man, first game back, and it's going to be a shut out." We get a couple more base hits, but no home run. 0-9
The fourth inning starts, and they get one home run, we basically hold them for the rest of it. There was one play at home due to an error, I get the ball, make it to the base with the pitcher and third baseman, I look for the runner, but with three people running towards me, I don't spot which one he is, they get the run. Other than that, we held them. Then it's our turn at bat, base hit, base hit, out, out, then one home run. "WOOT! At least it won't be a shut out!" I think to myself. [Yes, I really do think "WOOT" sometimes] I half think this will turn it around, but it doesn't, we get another base hit, and then another out. 1-10
The fifth inning comes along and they score a few base hits, they get a couple outs, then they get three home runs before we finally stop them. [Now in our league, we play to six innings, but, if at the end of the fifth, one team has a lead of more than ten, slaughter rule applies.] As the first person goes up to bat, our coach yells out, "WE NEED TWO TO STAY IN THIS". Base hit. Base hit. Walk. Then we start scoring. One run, two runs, three runs, four, five, six, then it's my turn at bat. My heart is racing, and I think it would be really cool to use up our one home run right now [in this league you're only allowed one out of the park home run per game, after that it's an out]. The pitcher pitches. *SWOOF!* "STRIKE!" He pitches again. *WIFF!* And I strike out. [This league starts one and one, so two strikes and you're out] I hang my head in shame and walk back to the dugout. Two issues are here, one, I just struck out in softball, and not just in softball, but in slow pitch softball, and two, I probably just broke our streak. As it turns out, I didn't break the streak, we got six more runs and two more outs. 13-13
The sixth inning starts, and they immediately get two runs. We hope this isn't the end of us, but at least we made one hell of a comeback. Then they hit a popup, the outfield runs and makes a long catch. Next person up hits towards second, we make the play at first. Then comes a power hitter, ball, ball, then he hits a line straight towards the pitcher, he grabs it. "OUT". It's thirteen to fifteen, and we're at bat. We need two to tie and three to win. First person up hits to the short stop and they make the play at first. Then, I'm up. This time I'm calm, but I sure as hell don't want to be the second out after such a comeback, so I get up to the plate, and the pitcher pitches, waaay inside. I back off so it doesn't hit me. I hope I'm not walked. He pitches again, it's a little low, but I connect, my standard line drive, and run. I make it to first before the play. Probably only by a second or less. "YES! We're still in it." I think. I turn to the first base coach, and tell him, what I normally tell the first base coach "Let me know when I should run." [Remember, I'm only partially familiar with the rules, so we only had one out, that means if it hits the ground I should run, or if it's a popup, I should give the runner some room, but not really run, because I have to make it back to where I was if they catch it, or something like that.] The batter hits the ball long and flat. He's half way to me when I'm given the go to run. I run, as fast as I can. The other batter is right on my tail, we round second, third, home. It's now tied, and the pitcher is up to bat. They pitch. Ball. Foul. Ball. *CLINK!* and it's an in park homer. We win. 16-15
It was a really cool and unexpected softball game.
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