The Old Man Can Still Rake

(I'm sitting at Honest Coffee Roasters having a latte before work.  "HCR" is in the Factory in Franklin.  I discovered it yesterday when I stopped in at the Factory for lunch.  Pretty cool place, where you can watch them roast the coffee beans on site).

Last night, I made my much anticipated (by me, anyway) season debut for our softball team in the Nashville Bar Association.  By my rough count, this is my 25th season playing in the league.  As anyone who has read this blog knows, I love the softball league.  I've played with the same nucleus of players forever, or so it seems, and we have been through a lot of life changes together.  For example, one of my longtime teammates lost his mother, unexpectedly, over the weekend, and I'm going to stop by the funeral home this afternoon to see him and his family.  I bet I won't be the only one.  It's that kind of team.

It's been a strange season, with a lot of rainouts and a couple of games rescheduled for other reasons. I had missed our first 4 games, actually, due to scheduling conflicts.  That has never happened to me before, as I've always made it a point to get to all of the regular seasons games, if possible.  This year, I had a couple of mediations that ran long and practice or games with J.P.'s Dodgers that conflicted with the softball schedule.

Predictably, we were short on players last night and had to start with eight, although our ninth arrived in the second inning.  Although we lost 13-5 (our first loss of the season), it was a big night for me, in my first game in my 50's.  I was 4-4, all singles, and hit the ball harder than I have in a couple of years.  I have no idea why, but it sure did feel good.  My third hit was a line shot in the gap between left and left center field.  I hit the ball so well - right in the sweet spot - I barely felt it at all as it jumped off the bat.  Suddenly, I felt 30 instead of 50.

Maybe that's what it's all about, after all.  Running, playing softball, laughing and having fun - just doing things that make me feel young, or younger than I am.  I felt that way last night, for sure.