The slide

In the post about my first slo-pitch league game, I mentioned that I had two slides and sustained nasty scrapes on my elbow and shin. Well, here's the photographic evidence to prove it, courtesy of Muffin's camera.

First, Muffin somehow managed to capture this gem highlighting my lightning-fast baserunning. I'm not sure how she could even capture me at all, given my blazing speed, but she's a master photographer!

I think this pic was actually taken just before I made my first-ever slide. I mean, I'd never even tried sliding before in practice, but somehow was cocky enough to give it a try it in a game. Slightly risky : ) But in actuality, I don't think it was even a conscious thought process and, instead, I just knew I had to slide. Truth be told, I had to slide in this case because I made a fatal error in hesitating before leaving 1st base. I realized I had to slide to actually have any chance of being called safe at 2nd. But alas, I was called out and my slide was for nought -- but it prepared me for my next attempt at glory.....

At our first practice, my captain had warned us that he never slides unless the game depends on it and/or it's the playoffs. Still, I guess my first attempt at sliding had shown my captain (my good friend Sindee, by the way) that I had some idea of what I was doing -- although how, I'm not exactly sure. Anyway, a couple of innings after my first slide, I was again on base (did I mention I went 3-for-3 at bat?!) and then eventually hightailing it towards 3rd. Sindee was in the coaching position just beside 3rd base yelling at me to.....

"Get low!!!
Get lowwwww!!!
Sl-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-de!!!!!"

I slid, I evaded the tag, I was called safe, and I drew blood. Wicked!! And the results:

Now you'll have to trust me: it looks waaaaaay worse in real life than in that picture. Seriously! The scrape on my elbow is ugly and scabbed up and realllly delightful to look at -- not. Still, I wear my injuries as a badge of honour! And the scabbiness is terribly butch important to the healing process.

While we lost that game 15-13, the weather was perfect and it was a great first game of the season. We've got our second game tonight, weather permitting -- which isn't a given at this point. It's against our sister team -- the same team we played in our practice game last week. We didn't really worry too much about the score that time, but I think it'll be top of mind tonight.

Go Blue team!!