I coach my church’s softball team. We’ve a got a group of well-intentioned 30-somethings and a few 40-somethings like me, most of whom have seen better playing days. Basically, we think we’re pretty good, but we’ve only won two out of 13 games. I’m not gonna say we suck, but you’re allowed to think it.
In our second game today, we had a real barn burner going. By the time we got to the bottom of the fourth inning, our opponents were up 12-4. But we fought back. After nine runs in the fourth we were up by one. Then the other guys took a four or five run lead heading into the bottom of eighth. We started chipping away again. Even yours truly drove in a run and scored.
And here’s where it gets weird. I grabbed the scorebook again after scoring my run. I looked up and noticed that Player K (let’s leave him anonymous), who preceded me in the batting order was suddenly on base again. I start asking people, what’s Player K doing out there? Nobody knows. After the inning is over — I’m actually kind of pissed — I ask Player K what the heck he was doing out there.
You can’t believe the answer. After he scored early in the inning, he decided to take a turn as first base coach. The guy who was coaching at first (Player C) had been over close to the bag, and when he saw Player K approach he left the bag and walked back to the bench. For some reason, Player K thought that Player C had been on base and so he just took his place and stood on the bag. Before anybody realized it, the ball was in play and Player K was off and running again. He eventually “scored” but we told the other team about it and had them remove the run.
Luckily, there was no real consequence. Nobody was forced out because this unusual “substitution.” Nobody batted out of order. It was just a … mistake (OK, I’m being generous). We ended up taking a 21-18 lead after that inning. In the top of the 9th, however, the other guys scored four and ended up winning, 22-21.
Damn, it was one of the weirdest things I’ve ever experienced either in a game or watching a game.