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i think all the guys who play this lady's sport, haven't been on in a while.

we have our first game tonight. as the 5th year coach of this church team, I've made a decision. Next year, i am not accepting sponsor money to pay for league fees. why?

at first, you think, hey i'm helping everyone out. they aren't out 25-30 bucks to play. who doesn't think that is awesome. well the problem is that i get dedication from about 5-6 guys and then the other 5-6 guys are like "whatever" we'll show up when we feel like it. my monday's are a pita to get guys to commit.

2 texts i received last night

"wife is going grocery shopping, won't be home until 8, i'll be home with kids" WHAT THATS NOT A VALID EXCUSE

"am going to blackhawks party will not be there" ITS THE FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS AND IVE NEVER HEARD YOU EVER TALK ABOUT HOCKEY.

its basically like this every week. next year, you pay to play. that way you have something invested in the league. whats funny is that every year, we go on a streak that puts us somewhere in the tops 5 teams in the league (17 teams) then they all want to get serious.

last year we were #4 seed for the tourney and won our first 2 games before getting beaten. that was with 3 automatic outs in the backend of the lineup who also happened to be defensive liabilities.

with all the things i have to do this summer, i cut back to 1 league and only a few tourneys.

i have held 3 practices so far this year as well. 1 of them, we had 7 guys show up, the others? 3. this should be fun tonight if the rain holds off. (which by the way i'll have to text everyone to tell them that YES THE GAME IS STILL ON or at least 1 or 2 won't show up)





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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

Dude--get the 3 most reliable guys and have them be responsible for talking to 3 or 4 guys each on rainouts and subs( which by the way should be the responsibilty of the player who is not showing up that night) Saves you a ton of work and gives ownership to more people, increasing the odds of fielding a full team without the friggin headaches.

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In remembrance of Walter, D-Day veteran and my friend. Never forget.

everyone on the team texts so i have the group, i just shoot them out. every week i get 8or9 immediate yesses. then i have about 4 guys who i have to wait on. finally i'll see some texts late in the evening. and i usually have 10-11 guys. of course its always the 10th who is sprinting to the field from the parking lots. i've in 5 years, never had a forfeit.

like i said, these guys pay nothing and i bet they would care more if they had to. or i could just get rid of the riff raff that way.

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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

I agree with that logic...

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In the beginning the universe was created. This made a number of people very angry and has generally been considered a mistake.

Douglas Adams

"what position am i at tonight?"

"rf, why?"

"i just wanted 2 make sure i was not catching b4 i decided to come or not"

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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

god i cant imagine

i try never to organize things because getting people to commit is so hard.

i'm really hoping that this is my last year coaching. once i get 10 guys there they are usually pretty awesome. with the exception of a few, hardly anyone complains about any position they are put in, or any spot in the batting order.

had one guy come up to me and go. " hey uh....can you not put me at catcher",...i'm like, um ok. play right field. grass was a smidge wet, he's wearing tennis shoes. things did not go well. it was actually worth it as it was quite hilarious watching him try and run around out there.

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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

that's some weak shyte dude.

"eanted to make sure I wasn't catching" wth is that mess?

We have our second game tonight. We got jelly rolled last week 15 - 4.
We will get jelly rolled tonight 25 -2 most likely. After that we will have a hard time getting guys to come play.

It's a work team where anyone who wants to play can sign up and we rotate who gets to play so one week we may field a decent team and the next maybe not. We are dead last every year.

But I play because I it's still fun and is better than sitting around watching TV.

lol. game just got canceled 2nd week in a row. it hardly rained today too.

yeesh.

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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

This is precisely why I stopped being the manager of the team and eventually stopped playing. It was just too much headache.

It actually wasn't so bad after I wasn't the one trying to get people to be there. Then we started having kids and I was always on travel (was probably only in town for 3 or 4 games in an 8 game season) and my free time went down to zero. I've got plenty of free time now, but my body would fall apart.

I watched my buddy's league team the other week. They compete in tournaments too, one of the better teams on the east coast from what he tells me. He's been trying to get me to play but I just don't get the joy out of it. At that level everyone basically is just rocking the ball, placing it wherever they want for the most part. It's like batting practice. Boring to me and while I don't get the draw I guess I understand it for some. Good excuse to drink, get out of the house, stay active.

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at 30, i can play about 2-3 games in one day and be ok as long as i'm not playing the next day. tourney's kill me. especially if i'm in the outfield. i'm either hitting easy singles, easy doubles, or hr's anymore. i hate it when guys up behind me hit doubles and i'm on 1st. turn at 2nd base and see the base coaching waving....i hate that guy.

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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

because placing it where you want isn't as easy as it looks?

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currently consulting my FF appraiser/advisor

HND sounds exactly like me 15 years ago. I spent several years managing a softball team, and every week after getting home at 4:30 in the afternoon I'd be scrambling around calling the rec center to make sure the games were still on, as well as calling all the players to make sure I'd have enough people to field a team. Remember...I said this was 15 years ago (or even more) so it was before everyone and their brother had 10 email accounts and cell phones. Getting in touch with people was FAR more difficult.

I would become every bit as stressed as HND is these days. My wife and I were preparing for our summer wedding, so she suggested that I give up managing the team for one year to avoid additional stress. I reluctantly agreed, but once I did I never looked back. My life became SO much less stressful. I thought I'd miss playing and running the team, but the truth is I didn't miss it at all and I still don't. I never went back to playing. Now I can go and relax with a beer while I watch the guys I used to play with beating themselves silly as old men, desperately trying to convince themselves that they've still got their youth.

Hope you find a solution that suits you, HND. Mine was to simply walk away. I don't regret it for a minute.

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This is my clever signature

At this level it is. It isn't church ball or random joe-schmo ball. This is competitive tournament league. You go 0 for 2 the managers bench your rump. You hit a HR when the bases aren't loaded, you don't get no high fives. The best teams are ridiculously good to the point it's silly stupid. That's why I was saying I don't get the draw. Now for some decent not so great knock it around players, sure I can see where it's fun. 2 different types of softball I guess.

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