Not Illegal, but Frowned Upon Part 3

Welcome to what I intend to be the exciting conclusion of the CAN Softball Tournament Saga. Did you miss parts 1 and 2? Check 'em out!

Part 1
Part 2

So my ribs. It is now Friday afternoon, and they have progressed from agonizingly painful to only sort of painful. Great success! Still hurts, but it doesn't make me want to lay down and go to sleep anymore.

Except for an incident Wednesday night. I'd discovered if I lay on the couch on my right side with my left arm extended over/resting on my head, I could breathe mostly pain-free. I was feeling better, and I got a little cocky. I felt a sneeze coming on, and instead of holding it in as I had been since Sunday, I let it come out.

Oh. My. God. It was so painful I actually got dizzy from it and had to lie down to keep from passing out. Incredible. So that happened. I'd never experienced the whole "seeing stars" phenomenon before. Yikes. Still improving though. We're getting there.

So we lost to Cornell, eliminating us from the tournament. Howevah! My goal going into the tournament was to win at least one game since there were going to be PLENTY of teams who couldn't say they won a game. I thought that would be a solid accomplishment, and we did it. Great success.

Our game was done by 1:30, and there were a ton of games still going on, so we moved our tent back from the dugout to the chairs we'd set up and commenced the drinking-and-relaxing portion of the tournament.

We saw some pretty exciting games that day, but really the best part was our tent was squarely in the shade with a clear view of the field. So we didn't need to move at all to watch games. It was fantastic. The beer was flowing, and the weather was excellent at the moment. Our tent was close to Central Florida's tent, and they had a cornhole set.

Lindsey had the brilliant idea to ask them if we could play. Cornhole for the WIN. It started off with Lindsey and Carnell against Brent and me.

Here's the thing about Lindsey and cornhole: she's a machine. She lands three bags on the board every round. It was incredible.

She was clearly the best player of the four of us who were playing at any give time.

I'm a much streakier player. I'll get one or two on the board each round. I very rarely miss the board entirely. But then I'll throw three cornholes in a row in the same round and make up for my streaky play. I just wish I could harness that power more often. Alas, I probably won't.

I did that in two separate games Sunday. Let's go. The first picture in this post seems to be my "IT'S IN THE HOLE" celebration. If you notice, Lindsey appears to be looking for something with which to hit me. Please, just not in the ribs.

But that could be in retaliation because Brent did throw a beanbag at her. And he missed and struck some kind Indiana folks under the tent behind us. Our bad! We brought them beer to make it up to them.

Lindsey and Carnell won the first game, and I mixed and matched partners for the rest of the afternoon. I believe it ended up with a 2-2 split between them and me and whoever was my partner at the time.

I love this picture because you can see my toss in mid-air. Excellent timing by Amy with the camera. This is probably very soon after Brent tried to peg Lindsey with the beanbag. Hey oh.

Sunday was just a really good day. I was feeling much more like myself (aside from the whole rib thing).

Hard to go wrong with the beer truck, hot dog/hamburger buffet, great softball games and cornhole. We were FAR from the only cornhole group going. There was a whole section of grass that sort of became the cornhole playing field (pictured below).

So! While we were playing cornhole, discussion turned to next season. We want to get jerseys for next season -- or at least T-shirts with some kind of printing on it. They don't have to be legit baseball/softball jerseys. That might get too hot anyway. We want numbers and nicknames on the back.

Lindsey and Brent started coming up with nicknames for people based on things from the season. Previously, I only wanted "BG" on my jersey because that's what most of my friends call me anyway, and I rather like it.

Then, Lindsey (maybe Brent? I don't know. Fuzzy memory) said she could see my nickname being "Late Night." Well that's a pretty kick ass nickname. It has to do with a few things -- two things specifically, I believe.

First, one night during the season at the Exchange, I lost track of time playing flip-cup and ended up missing the last red line train. It ended up costing me $60 to take a cab to my car from downtown. Second, obviously, going to sleep on Friday night at 2:30 a.m. with the 4:30 a.m. wake-up call the next day. I like it.

Other team nicknames and their reasons if I can remember them:

• Evan: The Ripper because he totally clotheslined a girl while tagging her out at home on Sunday.
  
• Brent: Right Eye because he needed stitches after getting hit in the face with a ground ball. Yikes.
• Marty: Mimosa Marty because he promised to bring mimosas for us on Sunday and then did not. Fail, Marty. Fail.
• Sean: Iceman. This one I'm not sure about. Thoughts?
• Matt: Ghostface Killah because he is Irish haha.
• Lindsey: Hoover because she is pretty damn solid at second base. But you know. There was drinking, and this one turned quickly. Yeah. Lindsey, if I'm in charge of the jerseys, we can probably work on a different name for you if you want haha.
• Carnell: No-Show! Haha because he overslept on Saturday (though truthfully, I thought for sure it would be me oversleeping) and because he showed up for the last inning of our game on Sunday. Better late than never!

I think that's all the nicknames I heard. There may have been others, but I don't recall. Let me know though!

That's pretty much how it all went down. Carnell, Dale, Caitlin, Lindsey and I were the last ones remaining. We decided to go watch the intense Michigan/Penn State game going on. We played and lost to both of these teams this season. They were both really good teams, so this figured to be an awesome game. We actually sort of became friends with Penn State after we played them.

They have a girl on their team named Missy, and every time Missy saw us, she'd run up, make the wolfie hand sign and say how much she loved N.C. State. So we went down to support Penn State. Then the sky opened up. Thankfully, Georgia Tech was set up at the field with a tent, and we were able to get some shelter there.

It was a crazy rain storm, and it ended up leading to the cancellation of games for the weekend. They moved the rest of the game to this coming weekend. We don't need to go back out there though.

So, as you know, I was a huge nerd and kept track of my stats all season. Here's my final tally: 26-for-42 for a .619 batting average, 10 RBI, 7 runs scored and a slugging percentage of .857 and OBP of .613 for an OPS of 1.470. And I ended the season on a 10-game hitting streak, although there were only two of the 15 games I played in where I didn't get a hit. I'll take it!

Now I was just going on memory from each game, and in the time between the game and when I got home to record the stats, there was often heavy drinking. Those numbers represent my best recollection though. I promise.

We'll hopefully have plenty of opportunities to practice since many of the people on the team are looking into playing Fall softball in DC. That would be awesome. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy flag football very much, and I'm sure we'll all have a great time playing, but softball is my jam. I don't want to have to wait eight months or however long before the next season starts.

Now that the softball season is over, I'll be back next week with weight-loss updates. Briefly, all the softball that happened over the past few weeks led to more drinking and junk food than usual. I haven't gained any weight at all, which is awesome. But I'm still treading water at 194-195. And I'm hoping this rib thing will go away soon so I can get back in the gym and crank that up again. I might need to give it another week just to be sure though. We'll have to see how it goes.

Anyway, I'm out. Thanks so, so much, as always, for reading! Heading downtown to the Bottom Line tonight! LET'S GO!

-BG