The Right Handed Player

Yesterday was my third baseball game of the season. As of now, I’m working on 1 game/month, which isn’t too bad. I’m relaxed, and I feel pretty good, despite the lack of practice. Yesterday was up near Boulder, and I might have bailed like most of my team if I hadn’t had to be in Golden during the afternoon already. I raced up there, getting there about 20 minutes before game time, just long enough to change and throw a bit.

We were short, only 7, but two younger guys from the previous game stayed back to play with us. We were playing a 45+ team, and I thought they might protest, but they wanted to play, so no big deal. One of the players was a shortstop, so I was relegated to left field. Fine by me, and I made a catch, watched one go over my head, pulled up on another that I thought might run me into the wall, and picked up a few grounders that came out from the infield. A pedestrian day out there. With a sore left elbow, I played right handed so I couldn’t be throwing.

However batting was something else. I warmed up a bit right handed, and was worried. I haven’t taken any game swings right handed since I was a teenager, and relatively few then. I’d had a few in batting practice the last few years, but not many. My first at-bat showed it. I watched one, missed one, and then fouled two off. The last one was low and outside, and a ball, but I was having trouble judging from that side and swing. Strikeout.

The second time up I went back to left handed. I’d left two people on base the first time, so I decided to try a bunt. I laid it down in the thick infield grass, but too close to the pitcher. He easily threw me out.

The third time I came up with bases loaded. Unsure of what to do, I knew a bunt wouldn’t work. I decided to go right handed. I swung and grounded to third. I beat out the home to first play, getting on with a fielder’s choice. Eventually I made it around to score.

The fourth time I got a third strike up and in. The umpire had been calling them in, so I pulled my arms in and swung, grounding to third. It hit the bag, and I made it safely on an infield hit.

The fifth time I led the inning and got a good swing, grounding hard to third. I was thrown out, but I felt better.

All in all, a good day as a right hander. I’ll try to get some swings in this week before next week’s game.