Adult (More Like Baby) Co-Ed Softball

In a galaxy far, far away….

I once was under the illusion that playing adult co-ed softball was a good idea. Looking back at the money that was wasted and the aggravation endured, I would’ve never signed up. For some reason I thought that people were mature and could handle a one day a week commitment to a team. Strike One! I thought that since we are past high school that the drama would end. Strike Two! I have spent the better part of the last year dealing with babies masquerading around as adults.

My first clue should’ve come last August when the team I was playing on could not even find enough female players to field a team. Every game day we held our breath, making sure that we would have enough to play. You have to love people that guarantee they will play only to drop off the face of the Earth come the second week. Did I mention we sucked? Oh boy, every game was a blow-out. Walking off the field before the 3rd inning every week was embarrassing and so frustrating. It really left the whole experience with a bad taste in my mouth. Fellow teammate Dave was equally frustrated and promised that if he ran the team, it would be different.

Well Dave was no better than our previous manager. Looking back, he was a complete asshole/dick/prick. The season first starts and we had the previous season’s manager. Everything was going okay until Dave orchestrated a “fight” with one of our new teammates. He complained that she was trying to control the team and that all of us who were on last year’s team would be pushed to the side. My fellow teammates and I actually believed this at the time. From the back and forth on Facebook, it seemed legit. So the teams split into two: The Honey Badgers and the Killer B’s. The only problem our new team (Killer B’s) were short on players. With the threat of a season down the drain, I went into action. I started to go online and look for softball players. I spent almost two days scouring sites looking for someone…then I found a girl was interested in playing and the best part her husband wanted to play too. We finally had our team!! It looked like it was going to be drama free!

That didn’t last long. Looking back I should’ve known this guy was flaky. It was two hours before registration and he emails everyone on how he doesn’t “feel” people would be committed to the team. Well after everyone pumped up his ego and said that we would support him, he said he “felt better” and decided to register the team. Once the season started, it went all downhill. He preached having practices for everyone… we had one before the season began. He pushed the idea of having fun and no drama… he caused all of it. All the more, he became more withdrawn from everyone else and copped an attitude. Now I’m not a good player and he was well aware of my capabilities from last season. Having “fun” on his team meant sitting out one game each week (we played doubleheaders). He started throwing around the idea of “cutting” a girl from the team since we had more than enough players. I raised concerns because if you pay to play then “cutting” someone off the roster should not even enter the equation.

Unfortunately for me, I put a huge target on my back. Somehow by disagreeing with him and asking why week after week I was sitting out, I was causing a disruption on the team. Next thing I know I was kicked off the team and my $75 team fee was gone too. I tried to appeal to the park district and no luck. Any team fees are decided by the manager. My teammates who I thought had my back, just turtled because they didn’t want to get kicked off the team. In other words, it was goodbye money because no one was going to lift a finger to get it back.

At first I was pissed. Really pissed. How does someone kick you off the team when you pay to play? Then I was disappointed in my teammates. People who I knew for years, never said anything or stuck up for me. They all took the attitude better it happen to you than me. I was pretty much dealing with this on my own. This whole season went from being fun to turning into a nightmare. I was even asked to play for another team but after all that happened, I became disillusioned with the whole league.

I did learn a lesson though. The older people get, the more immature they act. Something fun like Wednesday night softball turned into an ordeal I never want to go through again. From now on, I will stick to tennis.