Nous Avons Perdu

We Lost. Last night, our Church League soft-ball team had their first game. The official games won't start until next week at the earliest, but we decided to scrimmage with the people that practice the hour before us, New Jerusalem. We have played them in the regular season before, but it was a couple of years ago. The time away certainly did not hurt their game. They skunked us just as they always had before. We didn't keep score since it was more or less just a practice, but they definitely won. Even the little girls on their team, and one little 7 year old or so boy that was filling in because they didn't have enough, got on base. It certainly didn't help us that most of our really good players didn't show up. Few of the people that were there were actually playing the position they usually play in order to cover important positions like 1st base and short-stop. I played at second and did get one great hit that went well into the outfield. Those of us that were there tried our best, but it's hard to win when half the normal team is gone. This also represents a problem when our actual games start up. We have now held three team practices and many of the "starter" players haven't even made an attempt to show up. The problem, then, is whether we should be more concerned with competition or sportsmanship. If we are trying to win a game, we shouldn't bench some of our best players, but then if we care about fairness, we can't bench hard working yet less talented players that have made every practice. Another dimension is added to the problem when you take into account that we are a church league and we all wish to represent our church and Christ as best we can.

Despite our horrific loss, we did have alot of fun. New Jerusalem is an extremely nice team, and we laughed and joked with them throughout the game. If you must lose a game, they are the best opponents you could wish for. The schedules for the season have not been finished yet and we may have an official game next Thursday, but if we don't, we are planning to scrimmage again. We'll have to see who shows up next week, and see if we do any better. At least we are getting plenty of practice with a team that is tougher than most of those we encounter in our regular season.