I suck at softball….

I hate sucking. I know, who doesn’t? But when you’re an athlete, chances are you’re competitive. And if you’re like me, you hate to lose. (Hence the name of my blog) And the kicker? Softball was the first sport I ever played. Granted I gave it up in high school to run track, but I still was pretty good when I decided to play my freshman year in college. (I ended up getting hurt and not playing the whole season out, but I still made the team and played in the first few games.) I got hurt because I’m an idiot and couldn’t stay away from playing indoor soccer with my soccer team. Needless to say my softball coach was pretty pissed at me…and I wasn’t asked to play the following year. But that’s an entirely different story.

My game was at 7:30, so I decided to go for a walk after work to kill some time. Although I had planned to take a full week of from running, I decided it was just too nice of a day not to run. The weather was perfect-sunny and 72*. Although I purposely didn’t pack my new running sneakers or my Garmin OR my normal running attire, I still ran. And I was happy. It was only for about 45 minutes, so it wasn’t too long of a run, and I headed to the field feeling ready to swing a bat.

After striking out at my first at-bat, I grabbed a ball and yelled to one of my teammates, “I need to practice hitting. Here, pitch to me.”

I kept whiffing and I was getting SO.PISSED. So finally he said, “Nicole, you keep looking at me, not at the ball. Keep your eye on the BALL and I promise, you’ll hit it.”

“OK,” I thought, “Keep your damn eyes on the BALL!” and low-and-behold, I hit it. I made him pitch it to me about 10 more times to be sure it wasn’t a fluke, and it wasn’t. But I still never made it on base. I grounded out three times.

AND I suck in the field.

The ball was hit to me in the outfield, and it was hit so hard and fast, I just froze. I had my glove up in the air ready to catch it, started back stepping, and I don’t know what happened but the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I slid across the grass with my arm stretched out and the ball went flying past me.

Awesome.

I was so embarrassed. Everyone just laughed at me and I had no choice but to get up and wipe the dirt off. “Sorry guys!” I yelled, but it was too late.

My competitiveness has been compromised.

I’ll just have to put it back toward something I know I can do…run anyone?