Softball is Hard

Last night was our semi-summerial (that means two times in the summer and if it wasn't a word before, it is now) company softball game. We play our law firm on the common and it's a pretty fun time. The law firm provides the beer and pizza and the occasional softball glove, not to mention the bats, the use of the field and their presence in non-billable hours. We all just sort of show up appropriately dressed and liquored up. The outing in June was a great time. We lost but the game was close and we didn't care much because we drank the free beer and it lessened the sting a bit. This time was much, much different.

We arrived to find out that the beer had been confiscated by the authorities. They left the pizza but pizza with no beer is like...well...softball with no beer. So while we all waited for someone to come up with a cooler and tell us we'd been punked we also took notice of one other minor detail. No lights. The lights were eventually turned on but we remained very thirsty throughout the entire game. Foreshadowing at its finest.

We lost. But, unlike the first game of the season, we lost hard. The score wasn't even close and there was no beer to take away the agony of defeat. We felt every run our lawyers scored like they were personally bludgeoning us with bats. We didn't go out there expecting to be great but we did at least harbor some hope of not having our asses handed to us. Here is what we learned from the experience:

1) You can't possibly play softball twice a year and expect to kick ass against a team that plays weekly. Next year we practice.

2) Beer is a necessary element to good softball. It's absence was felt by all.

3) We need better lawyers. Good lawyers could have talked the coppers out of taking the beer in the first place.

So lessons learned. We'll show up next year, mark my words. There are pictures of the massacre below.

Nil says a little prayer which was not heard by the softball gods.

Their team's pitcher. Seriously.

Our Fan.

The wave.

Me doing my best impression of Jason Varitek.

Don't be sad Nil!