When I was young, I played softball in a community league. It’s been over ten years – closer to 15 actually – since I’ve played on a team, and I’ve REALLY missed it. Every time I drive by a field where kids are playing I get very nostalgic. Those were good times!

About a year and a half ago, I discovered that there is a Pittsburgh Sports League for adults. They have a wide range of sports, from basketball to volleyball and everything in between, including – you guessed it – softball!

The problem is this seems to be incredibly popular. They play three seasons a year (spring, summer & fall) and every time I’ve attempted to sign up, it’s been sold out. In fact, it sells out within mere hours. Of course, I could have marked my calendar for the day (and hour!) they open registration and made sure I was first in the virtual queue, but did I do that? No.

Why not? I attribute it to two things: laziness and fear.

I’m sure you can figure out the lazy part. No need to harp on that. Let’s talk about the fear.

As I’ve mentioned, I haven’t played softball in a long time. And I don’t mean just a real game – it’s been better than ten years since I’ve even played catch with a softball. The fear is that I would make a fool out of myself or lose the big game for the team. It’s hard to admit that, because I always talk and act so “big” but there it is.

Last week, I tried to register for softball. Again. And it was sold out. Again. Upon closer inspection, though, I saw a small note that said they had a few openings for individual females (there has to be a minimum number of women on each team). Even though my husband wanted to play with me, this felt like my opportunity. So I sent an email and asked about the opening.

The coordinator emailed me back later that day. It was mine if I wanted it.

Did I want it? I hesitated. That old fear of failure thing reared its ugly head. And then my husband – who was disappointed he couldn’t play himself – talked me into doing it. He convinced me that not only would I not be terrible, that I would in fact be better than I was when I played a decade ago: I’m thinner and fitter than ever. I can run further and faster than ever. I have better balance and hand-eye coordination than ever.

All I needed was that little push. I joined the team. Since then, a friend from Kung Fu has joined as well, taking the final female spot of the team. We had our first practice this past Sunday, and I wasn’t terrible. Just out of practice. And my batting needs some extra attention.

I’m more excited now than ever. It felt so good to be out on that field, running around.. It even rained during our practice so I got nice and dirty! Another practice is scheduled for Sunday, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

I’m still a little scared that I’ll lose the game for the team, but at least now I can go back to talking trash.

I really like to talk trash.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Personal Stories, Softball, Trials and Tribulations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.