Smalltown Fastpitch ended its season last night with a victory in the league tournament championship over the Twin City Gray Sox, 10-9.  With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, our pitcher took a hard one hopper off the face. While he split blood, we looked for the tooth, but didn’t find it.  His brother came into the game to strikeout the final batter for the win.  Just before we snapped a picture, I asked B if the tooth was knocked entirely out or just broken off.  He said, “I don’t know,” proceeded to show me.

“Your tooth isn’t missing,” I said.

It was still very much there in his mouth, but there was a much larger gap than normal.  I suspect the tooth is pretty loose and may be fractured below the gum line, but no wonder we didn’t  find the tooth in the dirt around the pitcher’s mound.

In the last five days we took home a lot of hardware.  Church league tournament champs, NAFA world series A consolation bracket champs, NAFA world series AA-major 3rd place.

Final season record was 28-26.  The Gray Sox finished their season 25-2 and as the MASA D-state champions.  Not bad for their first season together to say the least.

There may well be something wrong with me. Yesterday I was one of roughly 75 people watching a men’s fastpitch softball game between the Argentina national team and the Hill United Chiefs of Kitchener, Ontario streamed live online. And all the while wishing I was playing. I suspect at least a few of the others watching were wishing they were playing as well.

Next weekend.

For some reason, most men’s fastpitch leagues and tournaments refuse to use those easy to see neon yellow softballs they use in the women’s games I’m watching hour after hour on television this weekend.  When they make me president of the world of men’s fastpitch, I will declare that forever more these easier to see balls will be used. 

Having played in a few tournaments where these balls are used, I can say that major difference comes during the twilight hours in the field when it can be very difficult to see a batted ball.  And that’s where the game is most potentially dangerous with third basemen and pitchers exposed to rocketed line drives. 

When I write my book about men’s fastpitch softball, there will be a chapter dedicated to the ball itself, its evolution, its varieties, its color.  It will be a substantive chapter.  I’m serious.

Tomorrow is opening night for the Smalltown Fastpitch season.  We play in Bremen.  I look forward to seeing you all out at the ballpark supporting us this season.  Additionally, I look forward to monkeys flying out of my rear end, the day when Bethel College has a 5 billion dollar endowment, and a world where no one on the Fox News network ever says anything bombastic and asinine.

We’ll have fun playing whether you show up or not.  I’ve been taking batting practice in my backyard since mid-March, and I got new batting gloves.

p.s. Morgan responded well to the 24" chicken wire and has lived to chase wiffle balls another day.

Last night we played two innings before the storm hit. I went 2-2 with a three run homer. We were ahead 6-1.

Season totals: .428, 12 HR

We play tonight in Bremen. Then I play with the Outlaws Thursday at 4:00 p.m. at Belleville complex in South Bend in the ASA Men’s Major.

I had a rough day hitting-wise on Saturday. I went 3-13 with an inside the park homerun as we went 2-2 with my pick-up squad. Virtually every time I hit the ball hard it went right at someone. I have a theory about this: it evens out over the course of the whole season. I have stretches where almost everything I hit finds a hole, too. Maybe I’ll have one of those stretches during the last month of the season. Hope so.