Sammy, Tammy, and Me

"Comments from players will be welcome any time. Halfway through the season we'll have another Saturday afternoon meeting to review the first half and entertain changes.

"Any questions?" Nobody spoke up.

Todd thanked Harry and invited him to stay for the rest of the meeting. Todd then went down the team roster as it was at the time. He and Sarah would be our coaches, and if nobody volunteered to manage, then Todd would to it. Jim and Doris, a married couple who had been strong proponents of the co-ed league, were next. Dave, Sammy, and Tammy were definitely in. The other unmarried couple, Tim and Joanne, were both in. Hank would play. His wife, Helen, couldn't play because of an old injury, but would be the scorekeeper, recording that the ball went to the left fielder, the shortstop, the second baseman, and finally to the catcher, and so on. Bruce would play and his wife, Suzy, was willing but needed instruction and coaching.

Sarah spoke up. "I have some friends who are still active in phys ed. They might be able to round up a few girls who have played the game, but aren't on varsity teams. They might be players who didn't make the grade, or intramural players. Another possibility is that there might be high school players who would be interested. Do we have a minimum age?"

Harry fielded that one. "We're trying to get insurance coverage for our games, and the insurers I've talked with would require that everyone to be 18 or older. Even though we haven't signed with an insurer yet, we'd better hold the line at 18."

Helen, our scorekeeper, said, "My sister Mary seems interested, and told me that if we need another woman, she'll play. She's good, played a lot of softball. Let's count her in." That put us at the minimum to play, plus one woman on the bench.

Noting the sudden silence, Todd spoke up again. "Let me remind you that we need your playing names and numbers, and shirt sizes. Please fill out the info sheets and give them to me when you leave here tonight. We'll hold a team practice this Saturday afternoon at Jefferson High School field at one. We'll have tryouts for the various positions, and I need to know who'd like to tryout for pitcher, catcher, first base, and shortstop. I think if we can fill those spots we can work out something for all the other positions. Anybody want to pitch?"

Bruce said, "I'll do it but I don't want to pitch every game. How about you, Doris? I've seen you pitch in sandlot games."

"Sure, count me in," said Doris. So we had our two starting pitchers. Making progress.

Todd said, "Suppose we figure on you two to switch between pitching and third base. Sound okay?" They both agreed.

Hank said, "I'll catch, unless you've got somebody who can do it better. You get some 18, 19 year old kid with good legs and long arms and he'll keep all the stray pitches at the plate. But I'll do it till somebody else comes along."

Sam said, "Tammy, you'd make a good shortstop. You know the game and you can do a good job of relaying the ball from the outfield. Besides, you're quick."

Tammy nodded and said, "Okay. I'll try my hand at shortstop. Dave, the first baseman needs to have a good reach. You're not left handed but you're tall and you've got long arms and you move well. Why not you at first?"

Dave said, "Okay. I can play first. Todd, we've been grooming Sammy. Her fielding is coming along, but she's already dynamite with the bat. I suggest we put her at right field. That okay with you, Hon?"

"Sure, any place where I can help out."

Todd said, "Hey, this is coming together. We'll try to confirm the positions on Saturday and set the batting order. Now just one more thing that I need. Does anybody have a connection with one of the high schools? We need a high school team to scrimmage against for a practice game. We'll furnish soft drinks and hot dogs for the players and even their parents if they want to come and watch. If you find a team, let me know."

Everybody had been sitting long enough, and we all stood up. I walked over to Harry Simpson and introduced myself. "I'd like to see what's involved in the team statistician job, what software you've got, what has to be done, and how much time it takes. Could I get together with you some day next week?"

"That'd be great, Dick. Here's my card. Give me a call, and we can sit down and go over it any time you're free."

* * * * * *

Harry Simpson was an Assistant Director of the city Parks and Recreation Department. The Mixed Recreational Softball League was his baby, something they had talked about a year earlier but didn't get enough interest to start if off. To get it off to a good start this time, and thus give it a good chance of becoming perennial, he had handed off all his other responsibilities to other employees so he could give our league his undivided attention.

He explained, "We're doing a lot with kids of all ages, and the serious adult athletes all have their opportunities, but we haven't done enough for adult couples. We've had a couple of mixed bowling leagues in the wintertime. They seem to come and go. There's been ballroom dancing and square dancing, but people who want to get out and play in the dirt together have been missing out. So for our department this is a very important league, and yet we don't want to bring in ringers to fill out the rosters unless we absolutely have to. We could run the league with ten teams or even eight, but below that it's pretty tough. So we value every volunteer we can get, anything to help make a go of it."

The software for keeping the statistics was excellent, a derivative of what's used in major league baseball. The suggested procedure was for the statistician to sit with the scorekeeper during the game, taking notes of anything unusual, and making sure that substitutions were properly noted. The scorekeeper would fill out the two scorecards for the game, and from them the statistician would later extract the innings played, bases reached, hits, walks, strikeouts, and so on for each player.

The conventions for scorekeeping have evolved from the earliest days of baseball, and softball scorekeeping has essentially imitated it. A difference is that, like a lot of softball leagues, we would have ten players on the field. Although some teams place their four outfielders side by side, others put the left, center, and right fielders across the outfield like baseball players, and put the fourth one in front of them, as a short fielder or rover. That means that the outfielders can play back toward the fence, and not have to back up to make a catch, which causes a lot of injuries to amateurs who are not good at running backward while looking up. While leaving the choice up to the team managers, Harry recommended the short fielder approach for our team, particularly if we wind up with three girls out there.

So based on what we knew at that time, I guessed that our lineup would be:

#1--P--Bruce

#2--C--Hank

#3--1B--Dave

#4--2B--Jim

#5--3B--Doris

#6--SS--Tammy

#7--LF--Joanne

#8--CF--Suzy

#9--RF--Sammy

#10-SF--Tim

Bench---Mary, plus?

That cleared up some of the confusion in my mind.

Harry gave me a disk with all the appropriate statistical software, to run on Windows or Linux operating systems, plus a computer version of the scorecard, which we could use at the game if we could find a laptop with a real long battery life. As I walked to the door Harry promised any help I'd need to get all this up and running.

It seemed to me that the easy part of the game is playing it, and the hard part is keeping track of what happened. Then it occurred to me that the ideal way to handle this would be with a backup video of the whole game. I turned with my hand on the doorknob and asked, "Harry, do we have electrical outlets at these ballfields?"

"I need to check, because it's hard to keep them in operating order, but there are outlets there. They're switched on and off in the utility shack, where we turn the lights on and off. Why, do you want to use the laptop scoring?"

"Maybe. That's for Helen to decide. I was wondering about making a video of each game. Has anybody done that?"

"Glad you asked. One of the baseball teams did that last year. I'll get the name and phone number of the guy who did it. I know it was tricky. Shooting through the chain link fence, for one thing. And the lighting. But he did it. I'll give you a call."

* * * * * *

Tammy and Sammy were all smiles and giggles when they got home from work. Tammy had been the big celebrity with her new ring, and all the girls had wanted the full account of what happened. Then after she had filled them all in, Grover Haley got wind of what was going on and he wanted to hear all about it too. He congratulated her and said he wanted an invitation to the wedding.

Grover's request sort of tumbled Tammy's gyros. She had looked at the ring as a token of our undying love, proving that forever really meant something in our lives, or should I say in our collective life together. But the reality of a wedding had somehow passed her by. Weddings were things that she went to or even participated in when somebody else was the bride, and the thought of sending out invitations to her own was a task she hadn't thought about. So, according to her account, she smiled at Grover and said, "Of course!" but her mind was reeling.

"When I got back to my own office, I sat and looked at papers on my desk, while I fooled around with a pencil. But it was an act. Dick, I didn't know what day it was. I don't know how I lasted till quitting time, when Sam came to me and asked if I was going home."

"How do you feel now? You must have talked about this with Sam on the way home. Have you got hold of yourself yet?"

"Dick, do you know that I've never even fooled around with my married name? That's something that girl friends usually do way before they get engaged. I'll be Mrs. Richard Stone. I'll be Tammy Stone. Or more formally, Ms. Tamara Stone. I'll be Dick's wife. We'll be Dick and Tammy Stone."

"How do those names make you feel?"

"Wonderful, but I never even thought about any of them before. Maybe if I had, the notion of being a bride would seem more real.

"I thought a lot about living with you, being with you, true to you and not messing around with anybody else, for the rest of my life. Remember our arithmetic night? That's when I got it all planted into my mind, and since that night I've accepted the idea of being with you forever, and never even questioned it. But I never had a single thought about marriage.

"I've know so many girls who got married, thinking the ceremony would mean as much to their husbands as it did to them, sort of chaining them together, and then to their surprise the whole thing fell apart. So maybe I sort of dismissed marriage from my mind because it didn't guarantee future happiness, and instead I concentrated on the basics - living together forever, being true to each other, making each other happy. So now, on top of all that, we'll do the whole deal, promising in front of our families and friends, saying 'I do' and slipping wedding rings on, being Mr. and Mrs. Stone! Wow!"

Meanwhile, Sam was taking all this in, her full attention riveted on Tammy, about the way you'd glue your eyes to a ten car pileup in a NASCAR race. Maybe Sam hadn't fully grasped the idea of marriage, either. But she had maneuvered and fought to get herself attached pretty firmly to Dave, so what was the difference? I guess it must seem different to a woman than to a man.

For instance, I was pretty sure that Sam wanted to have kids. No matter how liberal you think our society is, and no matter how many celebrities may have kids but no wedding ring, It's almost a necessity for regular people to get married and for you and your husband and kids all to have the same last name. Maybe necessity is too strong, but it sure is a huge convenience. Anything else requires an explanation every time you meet somebody, and explaining away the details of your personal life can get pretty old before long. So then, if you're a woman, do you get the feeling that your mate is holding out on you? Like, how come he can give me his sperm but not his name? Is he planning to run out and leave me to raise the kids alone? So on top of keeping house and fixing meals and balancing the budget and raising kids you have this extra question gnawing at your vitals.

Dave sure as hell got the idea. As soon as he found out about our engagement, he seemed to get the hint about going through that himself. His question, "What are you getting me into here, Dick?" probably was just blurted out, but I was sure that he was speaking what was on his mind. So he was already thinking of marriage as something that Sam would want. How had he acted toward Sam? Well, he gave Sam a whole lot of close, personal softball coaching. And he seemed proud of her fielding progress and her ability with the bat. From the conversation at the Saturday meeting, they both seemed willing to display their closeness in front of their friends. Tammy had already become friendly with Dave's friends, or at least some of them, and Dave seemed pleased about that. So in many ways, Dave and Sam had become closer. Sam, in getting involved with Dave's sport, was buying into his ideas and value system. But was Dave reciprocating?

Time for another episode of the Dick and Dave talk show.

* * * * * *

Harry put me in touch with Terry Morrissey, who had videotaped a season of baseball games for his team. He was the proprietor of a small restaurant and bar named the Half Time, out on the north end of 35th Street, and would have time to talk with me as soon as the lunch crowd had left. So I got there at two. He brewed a fresh pot of coffee and we relaxed at a table. He brought in the camera he used, which had an aftermarket lens system. "Look, this is a hobby with me, and I set up this camera in an optimal configuration just because I wanted to be sure of getting the games all onto disks so the guys could study them and know what to work on in practice. If you just want to catch the action, see who does what to whom, you wouldn't need this fancy a setup.

"I tried shooting through the backstop, but it didn't work out well. It was hard to keep the camera looking through the openings, instead of looking at fence wire. And it wasn't a good place to shoot from. Anything beyond the pitcher was hard to see. I learned that the best definition is from above, and as high in the stands as you can get is the best place to shoot from. But then the players on the far side of the field were hard to see, so I got this fancy lens setup to reach out across the field and yet zoom in to the near side."

"Did you shoot from the first base side or third?"

"That's a matter of personal preference. I tried both and decided that I liked the first base side better. But later I talked with a guy who did this a while back, and he preferred the third base side. In fact, after talking with him I think I'll try third for a couple of games, if I get another chance. Maybe I was too hasty. Here's the thing - most of the action is on the first base side, and he found he could cover that best from across the field. He didn't have to move the camera as much to get it all in, once he'd settled on a medium range zoom. He could actually use a tripod unless the play was around third base, and then he could pick the camera up off the tripod and use it hand-held. You need to have a zoom that you can control with one finger, because things can change so fast. Reconcile yourself to the fact that you're not a professional sports videographer, so a lot of your video will be jumpy, but you're trying to help the team, not entertain the nation."

"Can you show me how to hold this so the movement is somewhat smooth, and how to handle the zoom?"

"Sure. Look, we'll go out the side door and up on the fire escape and use the stores in the strip mall, and the lot in back of them, as our ballfield."

And so it went. I was impressed with his camera, which wasn't all that much bigger than a baseball. Actually, it was dwarfed by the lens system. The whole thing was so light that it was easy to move with it and zoom at the same time.

"Look, Terry, I know this outfit is perhaps an overkill, but if it's so easy to use it might help a novice like me to get decent video of the game. How much would a rig just like this cost me?"

"I laid out just about a thousand bucks for it. But I paid at least twice that for all of the earlier versions put together. If I do it again, I know just what I'll get, and it'll be about another grand. But wait a minute. Look, Dick, if you're serious about doing this, I'll let you have this whole setup, including the tripod with its clamp-on attachments, for five hundred. I'll keep on buying fancier and fancier cameras and lenses anyway, and this would just sit on a shelf gathering dust."

"It's a deal if you'll come out and coach me for two games. Would you do that?"

"Sure. They'll have to be at times when I can get away from here, but that's the only hangup."

"We're going to try to play a couple of practice games on weekend afternoons. Our regular games will be on Friday nights, which would be hard for you, the early game at 5:30 and the late one at 8:00."

"Then the practice games will definitely be the best for me. So we've got a deal?"

"Sure. Let's go back inside and I'll write you a check right now."

"Beats hell out of a handshake."

I took the whole outfit home with me - camera, lens system, and the fanciest tripod I'd ever seen. Terry had shown me how the tripod clamps worked on the metal steps of the fire escape. I went out the next morning to the nearest of the three parks where we'd be playing, and got set up near the top of the bleachers on the third base side. Terry had cautioned me against working at the very top or the very end, where it's too easy to step off into thin air in the excitement of a close play. The camera had a nice flip-out color viewfinder, which made it easy for me to select zoom levels and to review what I'd just shot. Over beyond the ballfield was a small tree that gave me an idea of how big a ballplayer would be, so I could see what zoom I'd want to use for a first base play. Then I set a zoom level that would show half of the baseline from home to first. I had decided that I couldn't get enough of a closeup to call balls and strikes, and still change the zoom fast enough to see the batter run to first. As long as I had the batter, catcher, and ump in the picture at home plate, I could rely on the ump's arm signal to tell when the pitch was a strike, and then just swing the camera slightly to catch the base runner, and then zoom in to catch the action at first base. So I had an idea of what to do when our team was on offense. When we were in the field it would be different, and I'd need to get into a game to learn how to do that.

Controlling the zoom, moving the camera, and snatching the camera up off the tripod for close-in action, seemed complicated at first. But I compared it to learning to drive, especially on the old truck I'd learned on, with four on the floor and a foot shifted transfer case. I was just a kid but I learned to drive it, and I got quite good at it, so I guessed with enough practice I could learn to be adequate as our cameraman. Time would tell.

* * * * * *

We had a practice session for Dave, Sam, and Tammy that evening. I stayed home to fix our supper, roasted chicken with golden gravy, mashed potatoes, dressing, and Brussels sprouts. When I could see that everything was within 40 minutes of the dinner bell, I phoned Tammy and our splinter group of Haley's Comets came trouping home to get quick showers and come to the table.

"How's it coming along?" I asked the players.