I came off the disabled list and got back onto the field with the Research Renegades softball team this week. With a game in the near-100-degrees heat Tuesday and another on cooler, cloudier Wednesday, my hands were continually switching from glove to camera to bat.
We lost a tough one Tuesday, 9-8, but prevailed in a mercy-rule victory on Wednesday. Hoping for some Tim Lincecum juju, I switched to a team-supplied Miken “Freak” bat and got immediate results. I started hitting the ball out of the infield, and I reached base several times in each game. I claim a few hits and a few “reached on errors.”
One of the joys of our league, the lower of the two divisions, is that players don’t take the game too seriously. We applaud one another’s good plays and share laughs when the ball takes a funny bounce or a runner wipes out unharmed on the base paths.
One of the most entertaining aspects of the games is to watch our colleagues who are newcomers to softball learn the game, some of them experienced cricketers. It happened again Thursday that while playing first base, I had to remind the runner to drop his bat the next time he leaves the batter’s box. It was also kind of touching to watch our Wednesday opponent’s catcher, a graduate student still learning the rules herself, show a rookie how to stand properly and swing the bat.
In the reverse, a young woman opponent on Tuesday told me it was her first game. After she made it safely to first a second time, I said, “This really is your first game?” “For slowpitch,” she replied. Aha! She had played fastpitch, which explained how well she was doing at bat and in the field.
In between stints on defense and my turns at bat, I took as many photos as I could. The one topping this post is of my colleague Michael about to rocket a ball into the outfield.
I try as often as possible to get the ball into the photo, and I cropped in tightly on the photo below of Brian making contact. But the ball doesn’t always need to be in the frame for a good shot. Consider the photo that shows Chi swinging, hair flinging. No ball is in sight, but there’s energy in the shot.
I’ve also been catching runners in action, and there have been some good moments. The next photo shows Kyle, playing in his first game for us, rounding second on his way to a home run. We hope he comes back! 🧢
The Ball Caps Blog 
Fantastic Dan! Both the article and the photos. I love the way the team and league is filled with as you say cricketeers and other people who don’t know all the rules of baseball and of course, there are so many of them. Strikes me as a great project to write about, adults learning baseball.
The expression on Kyle’s face is gold. He looks determined and excited. Great shots!
Thanks!