No Last Hurrah

This past weekend was supposed to be my swan song in "competitive" slow pitch softball. I was to have played at the Minnesota USSSA Corporate State Championship with a collection of talented ballplayers, most of whom played on the multiple league championship-winning Eagan corporate team, The Militia, plus a few others, a couple of whom were teammates of mine on state and world championship-winning teams. Sort of a Dream Team if you don't mind my saying so.

But the tournament never happened. Rain out, you might guess. Nope. Lack of interest.
I don't know if it was an exaggeration, but I was told two teams signed up. For the State Championship.

I'm sure I will compete again some day, like when I'm 50, perhaps at the 40+ level (because of foolish pride, refusing to accept that I'm getting old, no doubt), and probably sub one ceremonious game per year with work colleagues until then, but I am officially retired (again, for real) from playing against the young punks. I will not pull another Brett Favre. (Yes, I know Mr. Bentsen, Brett Favre was a friend of yours and I am no Brett Favre, but I'm just talking about the un-retiring part...the comparison stops there.)

So the previous four weeks I spent actually working on my swing with a batting tee again, something I did religiously as recently as 2002, plus the workouts with the free weights to get my strength back up, went for naught.

This is very sad. I have in front of me the Minnesota USSSA annual Guidebooks from 1992, 2002, 2003, and 2008. Here are the number of teams entered in the Corporate Championships for the previous years per each Guidebook:

1991 - Class A: 11; Class B: 11, Class C: 43!
2001 - Class B: 7 (won by my team, The Norms; interest in Class A had dwindled to the point of no more Class A tournament starting in 2001); "Recreational" Class (No longer calling it "C"): 16
2002 - Class B: 5 (The Norms took 2nd that year, but went on to win Worlds in Panama City, FL); Recreational:12
2007 - Down to one class only; 7 teams

So now, two years later, only two teams signed up, and the tournament was therefore cancelled. I have multiple theories as to what has caused the drop in interest, and it probably cannot be pinned down to one or two reasons, although admittedly I've lost touch with the game in recent years, so it is largely unsupported conjecture on my part.

I think technology is still largely the culprit, plus any combination of factors, such as different lifestyles today, and just a general change in the landscape of "corporate" softball. Ironically, I like what they did with the technology aspect in Eagan league play, using lower compression balls, which my old single wall hit just about as hard as the new-fangled composites. But I also think the State and Local associations are to blame, and I don't like how the combination Sports Bar/Softball Complexes seem to have taken over, or at least become so prevalent.

It's extremely disappointing, and I'd like to comment further in future blog entries. But I'll end this one by commenting on an earlier statement, that I'd like to return to perhaps play 40+ softball someday again:

According to the 1992 Guidebook, the state 40+ tournament of 1991 had 20 teams competing. In 2001 and 2002, it was 12 for both. In 2007, only 7 competed.

I guess if I want to be part of another State championship-winning team someday, I can't get old quickly enough.

Too Lazy to Really Blog

So many things to Blog about, so little time, or desire. So I'll just write them down so I don't forget them, in case even one subject "makes the cut" and I find a half hour to spend on it.

- Favre to the Vikings
- MLB umps sucking again
- Mauer .400 talk resurfacing
- State Corporate Softball tournament cancelled for lack of interest (WHAT?? There were three divisions not ten years ago, with no problem filling the field at the "B" and "C" levels)
- Town Halls (and the lies an unfathomable amount of people believe about universal health care)
- My sons are driving me up the flippin' wall right now, and literally laughing at me as I try to discipline them
- My thoughts on the PGA Championship after being there for two days
- My golf game (my latest "fix")
- My 3-year-old son's 34 MPH golf swing

Boy, if that list doesn't inspire me to write something soon, then...neither will a box of nightcrawlers, or something.

Up Too Early for No Reason

I have absolutely nothing to say right now, although I do plan on a PGA Championship experience update soon. I went out for Monday's practice round, and could have posted something about that, but I am going again tomorrow and will wait until that's over with.

It figures the day I'm up at 5:30 with less than five hours of sleep is the day my wife is attending the PGA early to get some good looks at Tiger Woods. At least if I sleep in tomorrow, most of the guys I want to follow, including Tiger, tee off in the afternoon. But I did want to get a round in myself before heading off to Shakopee (to catch the bus to Chaska).

Oh well, here I sit...to stare at the ceiling until the boys wake up, or blog about absolutely nothing? Maybe a little bit of both, until I, hopefully, bore myself to sleep to get maybe an extra hour of it.

Harry Must be Proud (Not)

I'll try to make this brief. I have made some of my opinions about MLB umpires known here before, and right now do not really feel the need to rehash a great deal.

Let me also preface my post with this: it is not about winning or losing because of the umpires.

OK, that said, it is time for MLB to use replays on more than just home run calls. The egos of the umpires, and union protection to boot, are too strong. Throw in riding Daddy's coat tails into a career, and you get the comfort level of someone who is too lazy to try to call a good game, not man enough to admit it (100% corrct? Yuh-huh...), and a huge black eye on the reputation of the game.

Two "red flags" a game would be a good system to experiment with. Each umpire gets two red flags to throw during the game to challenge calls. You lose the challenge, you lose the flag. No more than four challenges allowed per nine innings, however (games are long enough).

Again, this is about the integrity of the game, a subject I am especially sensitive to since taking Clark Griffith's Sports Law class in law school.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm referrring to the latest in the Ron Gardenhire v. Hunter Wendelstedt saga. Google it if you don't know. I promised to keep this short.

First-Time Seller on eBay

After nearly ten years of buying on eBay, I have finally posted something to sell. Whether this is the seed to my entrepreneurial future, I do not know. (I doubt it.)

Last year, I purchased two full grounds passes to the 2009 PGA Championship. Between my wife and me, we plan on using only the Monday practice round, Thursday round, and Friday round tickets. Saturday is "moving day," and of course Sunday is the final round (weather permitting), so hopefully those will sell at a decent price. I started both pairs at $120 with a "Buy it Now" price of $200. I'll be paying the USPS Priority shipping, nice guy that I am.

If we can fetch close to $400 for the two pairs, that will be nice. It will be worth going to Monday's round, my wife and her mother going Thursday (and seeing/stalking Tiger), and I with a friend (and perhaps my oldest son...kids get in free) on Friday for a net cost of $200 or so.

If it ends up costing more, oh well. The money was spent a year ago, so it'll "feel" like free money when the tickets sell, for whatever they end up going. Sorta like a tax refund...sorta. But they have to sell first.

Plus, the experience will be worth it. I've got an old softball bat that is illegal to use in today's game, but would still probably go for a cool $100. I have some 20-year-old bodybuilding magazines as well, including the rare Bob Paris "coming out" issue of Muscle & Fitness. (What? You don't remember that one?)

Then there's the baseball cards, postage stamps, DVDs....time will tell if selling my PGA tickets creates an eBay selling monster out of me. I'll settle for it paying for my golf habit.