Youngest guy on the team!

So, I said I was going to try to get on a softball team this year and try to get back into a 'ball playin' frame of mind and alas, I was finally successful! The County of Salt Lake has the good taste to have formed a softball league for 50 - 55 year olds... I was so surprised to hear this. So I got a list of managers from the county and sorta let my intuition pick a a few of them to call so I could see what the reaction would be to me just calling and asking if they needed a player. I went from being really bold and courageous about just finding a team to really timid about it when I actually dialed the phone... and much to my delight, the calls went to voicemail! So I left my info and story about wanting to play and left it at that. It took 3 weeks but last week when I was in Seattle taking a Heathy Weight Management class I got a call out of the blue and it was coach asking if I wanted to play. The rules made my sit out 1 more week but last night I was able to play!!!

Claudia went downstairs and pulled out the last uniform pants I have played in and I did my best to pull them on... OMG, I looked like Chris Farley in a leotard! I was able to get them done up but it was a maximum load on that heavy duty fabric. No good. So I stopped by Sports Authority and super sized my pants and headed out.

The cool thing about this league is that as my softball career has matured, every five years or so I found that I would have to shift from one skill position to the next because I was older, slower and there were younger guys coming out of high school or college with really good skills. So, over the years I moved from Short Stop to 3rd, then to 2nd base and finally I figured if I was going to play at all I needed to learn to pitch and play 1st base!

I told the coach I was a middle infielder (hoping desperately he wouldnt put the new guy in the outfield) and much to my surprise he started me at 2nd base! This was great, it would give me a chance to start out slowly and regain my 'sea legs' so to speak. So, out on the field I run... yep, run. I felt like a kid, all my old fundamentals kicked in. Stuff like always run between the lines, (that means whenever you step across the first base or third base lines onto the field, you hussle, no slacking). I'm happy to say that on the field as well my hussle and solid fundamentals really inspired the team.

Anyway... bottom line is, by the third inning the coach asked me to go over to short stop!!! by then I had just hit my 2nd triple and scored my 5th RBI. It was great! Not only am I not to old and slow to play on this league, I'm the youngest guy on the team!!! What a great day! In fact, during the game the coach pulled me aside and said "we're just a pretty good team, and you are going to get recruited be one of the other really good teams. So, if you want to go, its ok with me"... well, I was quite surprised. I told him that I appreciated him picking me and I wasn't going anywhere. But it might be nice to get picked up by a tournament team to play on weekends! We'll see.

As for my trainging... I ran this morning for 5 minutes... it still hurts so bad to run. When will it stop hurting and be fun? I haven't run since the second week in April, bad dave... but, I really did feel lighter and quicker last night than I thought, so just the little bit of working out I have done was noticeable last night on the ball field. Awesome!!!

Stats update: I've lost 4 lbs, but I feel much better (except for the long distance running), I felt great on the base paths. I'll write about the Healthy Weight Management class in my next post. But whats working for me are the 'balances' and the Hunger Scale... more later.