Return to Cap Hill

I've been busy with actual client work the last week-plus, so I'm a bit behind on the blogging. But I'm taking a break here, so here is the tale of the Return to Capitol Hill.

As mentioned earlier, Bobby Morris Field at Cal Anderson Park (not quite as catchy as "Oriole Park at Camden Yards," but way better than the convoluted and corporate "Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium") had been unplayable for a while following a July 4th vandalism spree involving fireworks and a bonfire of Lime scooters. People are stupid. So games were relocated until repairs could be made, but as of Monday we were back in action on the hill, the city parks department having made numerous patch repairs to the synthetic turf.

Apparently, the absence of softball for a while was welcomed by the soccer contingent, who had, when not impeded by turf repair crews, taken to dominating the space at will. When I arrived to set up the diamond Monday evening, the biggest impediment was getting both the large soccer goal and the large bunch of soccer players out of the way. They weren't overly hostile about it, but it did take some time and we didn't get underway until about 15 minutes behind scheduled start time. I didn't miss the soccer hooligans while we were relocated to Interbay. Nor did I miss having the sun in my eyes for much of the 7:00 games—I once again curse the city planner who laid out BMFaCAP with home plate in the southeast corner of the park at this lattitude—nor did I miss the many sirens, the spikeballers, or the frequent interruptions by various intrerlopers.

I had three games Monday, scheduled at 7:00, 8:15, and 9:30, so having been delayed at the start, then interrupted a few times midgame by errant soccer balls and oblivious wandering folk, my 8:15 game got going around 8:45, the 9:30 game around 10:00, and then we had the interruption apex perpetrator, some guy on a clunky bicycle who rode back and forth through the field for the sole purpose of disrupting our game. Whenever he got out of the way and we restarted, he'd come right back, yelling fake apologies as he went as if it was an hilarious prank. Eventually he'd had enough or other people took him away, not sure which, but we didn't finish until about 11:20, and with lights going off at 11:30 it was a bit nerve-wracking.

As for the games themselves, the only bit of drama came about when one of the teams began the game with an illegal lineup—too many consecutive dudes—and when I and the other team called it out they said no, no, it's not three men, there's a non-binary person in there. Wait, really? That guy? Or that pick-your-preferred-designation? Seemed pretty suspect to me, but I'm not about to get into that sort of an argument with someone, so I let it go, which the other team wasn't happy about. I was already parsing out in my head how to report this potential abuse of the rules when, much later in the game, ambient conversation clued me in on the fact that they were actually talking about a different person on their team, one not in that batch of batters in the lineup. So I took it back to their captain. To his credit, he was embarrassed, he had ID'd the wrong player on his team when filling out the lineup, a generically-presenting beer-bellied hairy dude rather than the actual trans player. We corrected things, but by then there would only be one more turn through the lineup at best and the other team was still annoyed with me for not figuring it out sooner (not that they did either). And there was no clear effect on the game outcome, it's not like the third dude in a row batting had parked home runs or anything, I think he popped up and grounded into a double play.

Yesterday's shift was only two games, but it was playoffs, so you know there'll be more intensity. Setting up the field was comparatively easy, no soccer hooligans around until later, so we didn't have delays to contend with. The first game was a semifinal, winner moves on, and it was a nailbiter. The eventual losing team was staging a comeback, and in the 7th (final) inning put the tying run on third with only one out. It sure seemed like they were going to at the very least force a bottom half of the inning, but a couple of weak dribblers ended it there. Afterward, I approached the losing side to commiserate, and one of them got in my face. "What have you got against us?" I thought he was kidding, in a sort of "hey, you could have somehow tilted the scale in our favor so we could win this one" sarcasm, but he was serious, he went on about calls I'd made in prior games that he thought were bad and that he said cost them runs, and I had no idea what he was talking about. I don't even recall the last time I had those guys for a game. It was pretty weird, but I had to move along and start the next game, so I did and they left. Then came the championship game, which was also close but not nailbiter-close, which was played with good humor all around by players I generally like, but there was one bit of conflict when a guy with the appropriate initials KG hit one to deepest right field, which is a much farther reach than deepest left field and had to cross the soccer players, that hit the ground very near the boundary of the turf, which is the demarcation for home-run or not-home-run. Not having seen it clearly (damn soccer), I initially called it a ground rule double, but I got pushback from players I generally trust, so I listened, asked both the batter's dugout and the first baseman what they thought, and before I had a chance to conclude anything the pitcher got mad, saying I couldn't change the call. Well, aside from her, the consensus was home run, so I ruled home run. I didn't know for sure and reps from both sides saw it better and said it hit past the turf. This pitcher is actually someone I like a lot, so I was a little annoyed, but let it go. Next time she came up to bat, though, she apologized, so no harm no foul, as it were.

For once a Cap Hill shift ended on time, even though bicycle guy was back again. He only did one lap around with his Joker laugh before leaving, though, so no appreciable delay.

I'm back at that field again on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully things will be more like yesterday than Monday in terms of interlopers.

Meantime, the bingo card form yesterday was fuller than the one for Monday, which doesn't make sense. I blame the randomizer for what squares were chosen and how they were placed.