What Softball Teaches

Well we just had our first slow-pitch softball game.  It was a little frustrating, and I am largely to blame for that.  My team is all student-age players, and we faced a team mostly of middle-aged, experienced players.  I was pitcher and it was the first time I have pitched a slow-pitch game.

Our first inning was fantastic, and we went up five runs.  After that the game got frustrating.  In this version of softball, there is a small mat behind the plate which the ball must hit in order to register as a strike.  The ball also has to go 6-12 feet off the ground, a substantial amount of airtime.  These rules together mean that it is difficult to throw strikes.  So I didn't throw a lot of strikes, which was mostly OK because the amount of air I (and every other slow-pitch pitcher) put under the ball means that almost every pitch is hittable, strike or not.  Which is the point of slow-pitch softball.

However, the older ladies and gentlemen on the opposing team were very picky with their pitch selection and often ran up the count on me.  Mind, I am NOT trying to strike anyone out.  I am just trying to pitch hittable balls.  The batters watched hittable pitch after hittable pitch go by and racked up the balls.  This really got me flustered, which was the point, and I made two costly infield errors and walked one batter.  This entire time, all of my teammates were very supportive of me.  The opposing dugout, however, joshed me with "hey batter-batters" and so on.  When I finally elected to intentionally walk the final batter in their lineup, and thus end the inning safely, cries of "SPORTSMANSHIP" rose from their dugout.  So I threw to him and--wow--he hit a 2-run triple.

So I feel as though their team was less sportsmanlike than ours was.  But that does not excuse my attitude.  The language I used under my breath was unchristian and reflected my response to a stressful situation.  I'd just read earlier in the day a verse from Philippians about letting one's gentleness show.  I did not.  I threw my glove a few times in frustration and anger.  As much as I want to berate the other team for its lack of sportsmanlike conduct, I was no better.

So softball teaches us humility in defeat.  But it also teaches, by example, both how to act and how not to act.  I will choose to act like my Pauline-gentle teammates, who dealt with the stomping amicably, instead of like the opposing dugout, which was less than gentle.  And I will seek forgiveness for my anger.