Softballs...

...aren't really all that soft. Nick and I both got hit by softballs at our last practice - I've got a big ol' bruise on my left shin. 

We have another practice tonight, and probably one tomorrow as well. There's some notion going around that if we "practice" more we'll be "competitive" ...

...

...

HAHAHA! Oh dear. 

This is a "co-ed" team, which means that we are required to have four women on the field at all times. You may recall that I was pretty confident about not needing to worry about actually playing in the games...? Turns out I was probably wrong, because there are so few ladies on our team. If we have fewer than four ladies playing, we forfeit the game; but there are only five or six ladies who who regularly make it to practice (including me) ... I might get more game time than Nick! 

The funny thing about the co-ed-ness of the team is that the ladies are tacitly understood to be a kind of handicap. Really, it's a six-person men's team with built-in obstacles: they don't seem to expect the ladies to do much but get in the way; but every team has them, so it's fair. It's old-fashioned in terms of gender theory, but our team practices tend to prove that it's correct... 

we'll see how it goes once the games begin! 

Clarification/update: six (men) plus four (ladies) equals ten - sounds like one too many, but we have four outfielders - boy, girl, boy, girl, from left to right.