By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
It’s been a few years since I laced up the spikes and swung a bat consistently, but I recently joined a church softball league with other like-minded people.
We’ve played three games thus far, and we haven’t won yet.
It’s been fun, and we’ve been practicing social distancing, but I haven’t been this sore in years.
Sprinting for short bursts around the bases, running to the outfield as a cut-off man and fielding grounders is a lot different than getting on my bike for an hour.
I was given the task of playing shortstop, a position in softball that gets quite a bit of action.
During my first game a few weeks ago, the first batter on the opposing team hit a ball right at me, and I made the play – it felt good.
Two weeks later, I’ve probably had 20 chances, making a majority of them.
I even caught a wicked liner to my right with a diving stab.
It garnered some “nice catch” comments from the opposing team.
During my first at-bat of the season, I drilled a fly ball over the left fielder’s head for a double.
I felt like Robert Redford in the baseball movie “The Natural” and thought maybe I knocked the cover off the ball.
I also currently have skinned knees, a pulled quad muscle and a bruise on my inner thigh that’s purple from a bad-hop grounder.
When I told our pitcher I was a catcher for many years in baseball, his response was, ‘That explains a lot.’”
I also heard through the grapevine he called me an “animal in the field.”
Catchers in baseball have a different mindset – they sacrifice their bodies for the good of the team.
Even though I’m now playing shortstop, I use the same mentality – get in front of the ball and knock it down.
So far, I’ve saved a good many runs taking this approach, but it’s been tough on my 47-year-old body.
One year, on my men’s league team when I was 40, I was bowled over by a runner at the plate.
He was ejected, and my teammates went wild in celebration.
Oddly enough, I felt lucky to be in the situation helping my team win.
After our games on Sunday, I feel decent on Monday.
Tuesday and Wednesday bring more soreness before I start to feel better on Thursday.
That will be the cycle for a few more weeks – that, and some ice and Advil.
I told my daughter after our last game I’m not sure how much longer I can do this – maybe I’ll hang it up when I turn 50.
Others will tell me to take it easy, but I can’t do that.
The only way I know how to play is all out, even at my advanced age.
As for now, I’m going to ice again and look forward to Sunday’s game.