Let's play ball (again, again and again)

So my slo-pitch team played in its first tournament this past weekend in Ajax, Ontario. This tournament was the first one our team had ever been involved in and the first one I had played in since I was a teenager.

Worst 5 Baseball Movies of all time
1. Major League: Back To The Minors
2. Summer Catch
3. Mr. 3000
4. Ed
5. For Love Of The Game

Tournaments are always an intense affair as your team is forced to play short games sometimes back to back, sometimes a couple hours apart.

For this tournament, in disgustingly hot weather, we played a game at 10:15 (we won) and then another right after at 11:30 (we lost).
We then had a couple of hours to kill before our next game. As is the standard for some reason with tournaments, our team chose to have some cold refreshments (eg. cold beer) at a nearby watering hole.

The third game of the day proved to be another loss but it was clear that we were still going to qualify for the semi finals the next day. The final game of the day was right after. Not a lot of effort was put into that as we were all exhausted from the strain of playing and the heat. As the team's manager I rested whoever needed it and made sure people didn't get hurt.

The drama was saved for the semi final game the next day at 1 pm. Our team started off slow and were down 4-0 after the first couple of innings. The team we were playing were a rather nasty bunch. Everytime one of our players was getting ready to catch a popfly, they would yell "no glove, no golove" over and over. Our team prides ourselves on being good sports and we were rather shocked by this display. Equally nasty comments were directed at our hitters. But this seemed to incite our team as we exploded for six runs in the fourth and another 4 in the fifth.

Going into the last inning, we had a fun run lead. However, it was not to be as we gave up 6 runs to lose a chance at the finals. I am not sure our team had enough energy for another game. We pretty much gave it our all and would not have had much left to play an even better team an hour later.

This tournament that we entered was a rather last minute decision and meant that J-Mac and I missed out on the Polo for Heart. We usually go every year and it is a lot of fun and not as snobby as you would think. Really, it is just hockey on horses. Plus it is on private property which means you can bring your own food and drinks to enjoy during the games.