Our first game as the Sierra Mariners of the PSSBL was on Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately, we came out on the short end of that one.  Much like the real Mariners, we got buried in one inning and could never quite crawl out of the hole. 

What was great was that my teammmates absolutely embraced me being there. I thought there would be some weirdness around me just kinda hanging out but there was none of that at all.  There were lots of pats on the back and words of encouragement the entire time. 

I did everything I could to just go about my routine as usual. I had my rubber tubing out to stretch my legs out.  I did my wind sprints. I stuffed myself full of Big League Chew.  When the team was doing. batting practice with whiffle balls, I was out there chasing them down and making one handed grabs. When the team took infield, I caught for the person hitting grounders. 

Best of all was just being out there with the team. It felt great to wear the cleats and to get the glove out of hibernation. It felt great to just yap about baseball with my teammates and to analyze the opposing pitcher. It was fun to see the umpires miss calls and bitch about the on the bench.  We're never wrong by the way. 

It was just flat out fun. Sure, there was a big part of me that wanted to pitch, but I have come to terms with that. I realized that what I really wanted to do was contribute and I felt I did that. Sure, I'd prefer to contribute with some scoreless innings, but I can't. Hell, I couldn't even grip a baseball until last week.  

It's better to be a part of something in the best way that you can rather than just forget it because you can't be part of it in the way that you want. It would be easier just to not worry about it and stay home every game but I won't do that. Even if I'm just shagging balls or keeping score, I am still contributing. And I am happy to contribute however I can. 

*side note*  I just heard George Sherrill is going to be joining the TJ fraternity.  I think this is the only frat in the world where I hate seeing new members coming in.  Good luck George!