The OW's Remain Undefeated

This is going to be one for the record books, if anyone could be bothered to keep records for the Queen Anne Recreational Softball League. Our ump tonight could hardly be bothered to keep track of the outs. But, for the first time ever, the Oscar Wildes have not lost two games in a row-- a historic start befitting a team bemascotted with a historical literary figure.

In tonight's well-fought non-loss, the Oscar Wildes proved for the second time this season that more so than last year, they are capable of not losing every game. In fact, they were dangerously close to actually winning their second game ever, up by 4 going into the final inning after battling back from an early 5 run deficit, but fortunately I made sure that didn't happen. Letting that hit get past me in left field in the top of the seventh to let the tying run score had nothing to do with my innate inabilty to field hardhit grounders and everything to do with my not wanting us to become complacent and take it for granted the we could just coast through this season and walk away with the title* again.

But despite a less-than-ideal final inning, when all was said and done, our fans still loved us. Granted, our fans tonight consisted of parents of Oscar Wildes (Rebecca's parents and Christie's mom) and children of Oscar Wildes (our two smallest benchwarmers, Abi and Mari, who, despite referring to the dugout as the "cutout" and despite being small children, actually seemed to be picking up the finer points of the game better than most of the team (j/k, Oscar Wildes, j/k!).)

But even objective observers, like, say, players on the other team, were impressed by the Oscar Wildes' come-from-behind almost-victory. Not that we still don't have a few areas that we could improve on as a team. Like dugout chatter. Stepping up to the plate at some point around the third inning, I distinctly heard an Oscar Wilde yell, "Pop one up!"

Perhaps this Wilde had recognized my tendency to perform the exact opposite of what I intend (like believe it or not, that one time when I was throwing a foul ball back in, I actually was aiming in the general direction of the pitcher's mound and not at the trees on the other side of the left field fence) and so was telling me to attempt to pop it up so that I would actually hit a line drive over the shortstop's head. Although, I know me criticizing someone else's choice of things to yell encouragingly at one's teammates is much like, say, Oscar Wilde calling the kettle flamboyant, as I have exactly three phrases that I repeat: "you can do it!", "you got it!", and, another blatant pot-kettle example, "wait for your pitch!"

Unfotunately the exact details of our amazing comeback are a little fuzzy, not for any particular reason (tonight I actually managed to eat a post-game ice cream without getting hit in the face), but because oddly enough I have a horrible memory for sporting events, which is why I write lengthy post-game recaps that somehow fail to mention any of the actual plays of the game. But I do remember the quote of the night, which came from Herr Coach Toffer "Coach" Lehnherr when questioned** about the massive scrape on his knee: "Yes, it did bleed, but I did not cry." I think we can all apply this lesson to tonight's game.

So, in conclusion, while some Wildes may have been disappointed with the outcome of their second contest, we must keep in mind the words of our always relevant (and oft-taken-out-of-context) mascot: "A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life."

Stay tuned as the Oscar Wildes gear up for their next opportunity to not lose on Wednesday, June 17 at 7:45 PM on their lucky field, QA #1. Go OWs!


* This title being the title of "Best Team in the Queen Anne League Named After a 19th Century Irish Writer."

**The exact line of questioning, which came from Abi, was: "Did it bleed? Did you cry?" Although I think the quote is much funnier out of context, which is why I am hiding the context in this footnote seeing as it is unlikely anyone will read this far.