Monday's Gone

"Hey man, mind if I bum a smoke?" I asked my friend Max just before we left the field tonight.

I don't smoke much any more except for special occasions: weddings, holidays, reacquainting with old friends, etc. Tonight seemed like a special occasion. 3rd & Girard had just lost its final game of the season.

Why was a loss a special occasion? Losing sucks, especially when you feel like you could have won...and the fact that we felt like we could have won says a lot about what's happened with this team over the last 3 months.

Let me backtrack a bit: One cold, Winter night - it might have been a Thursday, I'm not sure - my roommate and I were at 3rd & Girard playing pool. For one reason or another, Max was there (likely it was an Open Mic Night that turned into casual conversation over hockey and/or football, but who knows?) and we got onto the subject of playing competitive sports. He and Freddy (the bartender) happened to mention that there was a bar & restaurant league, and the bar was always looking for new people.

Tipsy Steve (I wasn't drunk - I never get drunk. Ha...) jumped at the idea, and surprisingly, so did my roommate. I mean, why the hell not? We talked a lot more about it once Fred and Max both realized we were serious, and even after Max happened to mention that we didn't win a single game last year, we weren't discouraged. He also said how much fun he had just being a part of the team, on the field, in the bar after games, and most of all, wearing a cool t-shirt every week - this dude's a hell of a salesman.

Despite knowing going in that the odds were stacked against us, Max was right. We struggled all season for various reasons, but the main point is, it was fun. I found myself looking forward to the games every single week, and over the course of the season, I noticed something: we got better. We even won a couple games. YEAH!

Flash forward to tonight. The stars weren't aligned and we didn't have enough women to field a full defense (league rules specify you need three, and we only had two, despite having four or five consistently throughout the year - fuck you Monday). Playing short one player, it's absolutely amazing that we only lost by five runs. In reality, it could have been a lot worse, which says a lot about how much better this team has gotten. In the first month of the season, we would have been easily 15-runned by the end of the third inning.

We really have come a long way, and all of us came together from different backgrounds. Some people really enjoy softball and they're actually pretty darn good at it, others just wanted the chance to play. Some just wanted to have an excuse to forget about work or the rest of their life for a few hours a week, others just love the outdoors. We were all there for different reasons, but nonetheless, we were together.

So tonight we lost - all due respect to our opponents because they still had to put runs on the board - but it didn't feel all that bad. Disappointing, for sure, but I stood outside the right field fence tonight with Max feeling grateful that I was a part of this season. Grateful that, barring something stupid or unforeseen, I'll be a part of next season. And the season after that. And...well, you get the idea.

Max and I talked for another minute or so. We said goodbye and I hopped on to my bike to make the 3ish mile trek home. I rounded the corner on 6th Street and heard music playing: Tuesday's Gone by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I looked up to my right, and a man in the second story window where the music was playing calmly affirmed "Yeeeeup!" Having a good time while listening to a sad song - seemed appropriate.

I finished the cigarette, paused briefly to throw out the butt, and rode on down the line...thinking.

Thinking about writing this blog post as soon as I got home, of course. Thinking about all the new friends I've made. Thinking about all the good times I've had with them. Thinking about how strangely good it felt to be sore on a random Wednesday morning. Thinking about nothing. Thinking about everything. And, as a true Philadelphia sports fan, thinking about next year.

Cheers, 3G. Let's do it again.