Let the season begin!
It's official: today marks the beginning of one of the most exciting and heralded sports seasons in DC--softball.
People in this city are simply obsessed by this summer pasttime, and I must admit, I've caught the fever.
My first introduction to DC softball was my senior year of college, as a lowly press intern in a Senator's office. On game days, full-time staffers would dispatch one or more of us grunts around 3:30 p.m. to go claim our field space on the Mall. Out we would trudge, shorts and T-shirt clad, carrying our ball gloves and a cooler full of beer, to stake out a small plot of land somewhere between the Capitol building and the Washington monument. Then for three hours, we would wait, watching the other unfortunate field claimers mark their own territory, waiting for the rest of our staff and the other team to arrive.
When the weather is nice, it's actually not a bad job.
On any given spring or summer weeknight, you can easily find hundreds of softball players fanned out across the Mall, the tidal basin, and the Ellipse. Just about everyone plays on at least one team--sometimes even more than one. Hill offices, nonprofit organizations, corporate offices, alumni leagues--no matter where you work, you can find a game. Softball is THE sport in the summer.
During my years at a PR agency in town, we fielded a team in a so-called "PR League." Of course, my office being staffed by women and gay men, we weren't as competitive as some would have liked, but it was still a good after-work diversion.
Last year, I broke down and joined my alumni team, which is part of the Capital Alumni Network of sports leagues. With 40-plus teams competing, the play is typically pretty good, even on our little team. Personally, I've never been an outstanding player, excelling at beer-drinking and cheering rather than hitting and scoring. And I'd even argue that in this town, those two activities are just as important as good play. (Actually, I'm not a bad fielder--I can catch and throw--but I can't hit worth a damn. That in itself earns me a coveted spot as first-team, all bench.)
Well, wherever the coach plays me, I'll be happy to be there. Today's our first game of the season--a 14-game commitment that stretches clear through August. And though the weather is a bit cool, I can practically taste summer.
And the beer, of course.
People in this city are simply obsessed by this summer pasttime, and I must admit, I've caught the fever.
My first introduction to DC softball was my senior year of college, as a lowly press intern in a Senator's office. On game days, full-time staffers would dispatch one or more of us grunts around 3:30 p.m. to go claim our field space on the Mall. Out we would trudge, shorts and T-shirt clad, carrying our ball gloves and a cooler full of beer, to stake out a small plot of land somewhere between the Capitol building and the Washington monument. Then for three hours, we would wait, watching the other unfortunate field claimers mark their own territory, waiting for the rest of our staff and the other team to arrive.
When the weather is nice, it's actually not a bad job.
On any given spring or summer weeknight, you can easily find hundreds of softball players fanned out across the Mall, the tidal basin, and the Ellipse. Just about everyone plays on at least one team--sometimes even more than one. Hill offices, nonprofit organizations, corporate offices, alumni leagues--no matter where you work, you can find a game. Softball is THE sport in the summer.
During my years at a PR agency in town, we fielded a team in a so-called "PR League." Of course, my office being staffed by women and gay men, we weren't as competitive as some would have liked, but it was still a good after-work diversion.
Last year, I broke down and joined my alumni team, which is part of the Capital Alumni Network of sports leagues. With 40-plus teams competing, the play is typically pretty good, even on our little team. Personally, I've never been an outstanding player, excelling at beer-drinking and cheering rather than hitting and scoring. And I'd even argue that in this town, those two activities are just as important as good play. (Actually, I'm not a bad fielder--I can catch and throw--but I can't hit worth a damn. That in itself earns me a coveted spot as first-team, all bench.)
Well, wherever the coach plays me, I'll be happy to be there. Today's our first game of the season--a 14-game commitment that stretches clear through August. And though the weather is a bit cool, I can practically taste summer.
And the beer, of course.
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