Carroll County Senior Softball History: November 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Spirituality

On Sunday November 1st, All Saints Day,four Blue players went in search of Sunshine.
Junior, Hank, Pete and Greg were surprise attendees of Pastor Jim Pugh's church, Mt. Carmel United Methodist in Sunshine, Maryland. We were warmly and cordially received by the parishioners who all seemed to know of their Pastor's softball addiction. We can all rest assured that Jim indeed does serve in the pulpit and provides an enlightening sermon.

Introduction to the Archieves

Before I get to the historical substance, I wish to share a few of my personal observations. I have many memorable moments from my years with Carroll County Senior Softball (albeit, I am still in my infancy compared to the careers of Harry Griffith (17 years), Henry Lichtfuss (15 years) and the majority of my teammates.

On my first day of indoor practice in 2009 I discovered I knew only a half dozen of the players. The majority of the known men came from sports competition that I hadn't seen in thirty plus years. Wanting to make a positive first impression as a "rookie" I fearlessly took my turn at bat. With my decades long friend, Larry Bair, serving up "fat" pitches, I preceded to whiff on four of ten pitches (W-H-I-F-F, SLOW pitch, OUCH!). What followed were words of encouragement from each man on the squad. I thought, "at least they are mannerly even if they intend to cut me after this display". What I grew to learn is that you respect the wisdoms of your elders. Their axioms were true such as it takes more than one practice to get your batting eye back and every first year player experiences pulled muscles and even worse (i.e. torn achilles).

Relief came several weeks later when they asked my uniform size (Whew!). I have learned not all Yankee diehard fans are JERKS, that you need a thick skin, that my 60 plus year old body can't keep pace with my adolescent mind, and that every teammate is a true friend and 98% of our opponents are really good guys. My new sports hero is George (Parkville's 87 year old first baseman) who is truly amazing. I didn't accept his invitation to meet on the parking lot after our game to settle our dispute (it was just good natured bantering).

Hopefully I will be capable of gradually building into this blog site news articles, photos, statistics and other items of interest that Harry has shared to help preserve CCSS history. It will give me something to do in the off season and perhaps keep the interest of our followers keen during the Fall and Winter for Your Memory Madness!