My Softball Career

Softball. Played a couple of years of adult church softball in Macon, before staying in Atlanta permanently. I was the youngest, at 18 and 19, so I played outfield. Had one of my few inside-the-park home runs then, as I was pretty much a singles hitter. Once coming off the field, the base umpire calmly said not to wear the first-baseman’s mitt in the outfield. I said ok, and we started joking around, near the shortstop position. I was blaming the glove, saying ‘you stupid glove, it’s your fault!” I wheeled around and threw the mitt on the ground. Then the plate umpire, leaning against the backstop, threw me out of the game. He wouldn’t reconsider.

At Tech I played intramural softball with roommates and friends. Actually won the one statewide tourney we played, in Carrollton.

Around 1979 I started playing for the blue church team with Steve Norman, and the same group played together into the early 90’s. Mainly played LF, and a little RF and 3B. We played both spring and fall seasons. The team turned one triple play…a conventional double play, then 1B Norman nailed the runner trying to score from third. At summer camp one year I pulled out my shoulder playing water polo, and lost my decent arm (after years of playing catch with Will, it’s much better – but nothing like it used to be). We played up the road from the OK Café, at the tiny field where Northside Drive splits. Hit it over the fence and it’s only a double. That’s another reason why there weren’t many inside-the-parkers.

In the early 90’s I played a couple of seasons with a team here at work, way out in Lilburn. Ceil was having trouble conceiving, so I was to have late-April outpatient surgery to help things along. The night before I was playing 2B, and a low line drive skipped once on the dirt and hit my chin. I heard a crack, and it swelled up. Though two months later I ran in the 1992 Peachtree Road Race, that may have been my last softball game.