Bad baserunning, softball recap

It's the second inning, I hit a hard grounder to third and beat out the throw. That's my first hit of the season. (woo!)

I play first for a few innings. No problems. And we're totally in this game after the first three (which is a new thing for us, we're usually down by twelve or so by then).

Jump ahead, it's late in the game, we're down by two runs, no outs, two men on.

I step up to the plate. I swing and ground the ball sharply to the third baseman who fields the ball and steps on third for the force out. This brings my average down from .200 to .167.

Now, you may remember the story I told last week about a jackass who walked onto the field and took the ball from the pitcher. I think we've all agreed he's a jackass.

Well, it's not just us, readers, it's the rest of my softball team, too. They've started leaving him off of team-wide emails, and "forgetting" to give him a schedule, hoping he'll miss as many games as possible.

Well, he showed up last night. And he was hitting behind me in the batting order.

And folks, it's not about him being a bad player. That's ok. I'm a bad player (one error and a .167 BA four games into the season, ugh). It's about him being a jackass.

Earlier in the game he'd made a nice catch in left field, and he's a good solid hitter.

What he's not, is a team player. What he's not, is a listener. What he's not, is a smart baseball player.

To recap: It's late in the game, we're losing, but still in it. Runners on first (me) and second (some girl), one out. Jackass guy comes to the plate.

He hits the first pitch for a single to left field, a solid line drive over the shortstop's head. The runners are off on contact, and, almost immediately, the third base coach, and everyone on the bench throws their hands in the air. "Stay, stay!" they yell, and, to the first runner, "Hold at third!"

The left fielder had handled the ball cleanly on one bounce, the lead runner stopped at third, I stopped at second, and as soon as my foot touched the bag I turned around to put my hands in the air and yell "Hold at first! Stay!" to make sure the jackass guy knew what was going on.

But as I turn, what do I see, but the kid barrelling around first base, head down, running full-out, trying to get himself a triple on a short line drive!

"BACK!" I scream, "Get back to the bag!!" and then, I say

"uufff!!" as he RUNS INTO ME!! THE GUY STANDING STILL ON SECOND BASE!!

He knocked me off the bag!

At this point the left fielder, only about ten feet from the infield, had tossed the ball to the shortstop who promptly tagged the two of us near second base for an inning-ending double-play.

I couldn't believe it! I still don't believe it! Everyone in the park knew it was a one-base hit, everyone was yelling for the runners to hold. What the hell?

I stood there, totally bewildered. I was just staring at the ground as the other team trots off the field, this kid gets up, dusts himself off, and says "You should have been running."

I couldn't even look at him. "They were holding the runner at third," I said, with as much menace as I could muster through my shock.

"Well," he said, "she should have been running."

They were holding her at third! There was one out! YOU HIT A ONE-BOUNCER RIGHT AT THE LEFT FIELDER!

I couldn't believe it. The next inning they opened the game up and we lost by the slaughter rule in the sixth. But we had a shot until this moron ruined our chance at a rally.

I'm going to pop his tires before the next game.

-t


Season so far:
3 games, no wins
Batting average: .167 (1 for 7)
One error