UNTOUCHABLES 15, PC BRICKS 12

Mamie saved us from a forfeit but
she couldn't save us from ourselves

Just about everything that could go wrong in yesterday's game did just that. We already knew we'd be playing without Mandi (honeymoon) and Rita (detailed to downtown SF). But Nina, Taylor, Kedi and Stephanie were unavailable too. We were in danger of forfeiting but we were able to pull together just enough women to play, thanks in particular to Mamie Berry who came out of softball retirement to save us.

As it turned out, we may have been better off with a forfeit. Gabrielle injured her knee and had to be taken away in an ambulance. (Brandon informed me last night that nothing was broken and Gabrielle has been released from Kaiser Hospital.) The fright of Gabrielle's injury was bad enough. From that point, we had to play the rest of the game with only eight players. We lost not only Gabrielle but we had to pull one of our men from the game because we can't have more men than women in the lineup. Despite these setbacks, we fought back valiantly and kept ourselves in the game.

Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, the umpire was forced to call the game because a scuffle broke out after a shameful display of poor sportsmanship by participants from both teams. I'm not going to cast blame. I'll just say the entire incident was avoidable if those involved had just played ball. I'll leave it at that. I captured it on video and I will upload it tonight.  (I've been asked not to publish the video.)

After the game was called off, I heard at least a couple of people say they were quitting. I don't blame anyone for choosing to drop out after yesterday's incident. But I ask you to please sleep on it for a day or two before you decide. This could affect others beyond us, particularly if we no longer have enough players to field a team and we have to drop out of the league. Still, I will respect the decision of anyone who decides to quit.

For those of us who wish to continue playing (count me in), I think we need to have a team meeting once the dust has settled. We have a lot to talk about. There were areas of dissatisfaction before this incident occurred and I think we should get everything out in the open so together we can decide what we want to do.

It has been increasingly difficult to get our players together for anything but a game (and even that has been problematic of late). I am asking that we PLEASE make every effort to come out to practice at 5:00 sharp next Monday (Washington Park). We need to talk before we play again. I feel this is very important to the direction of our team. Even if you can't stick around for the practice, please come out for the team meeting.