Eight weeks to nowhere

Trying to get into the habit of going to the gym by telling myself that from now on I would go at least 4 times a week and exercise for at least 30 minutes on something, anything, wasn’t working. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t constantly thinking that I really ought to make … Continue reading

31 candles

PEOPLE! It is my birthday. For the past few months, inspired largely by my the desire to not be huffing and puffing my way through my Friday evening softball sessions, I have acquired some really fabulous habits (an addiction to running on the elliptical at the Y, uber-healthy eating, tracking my activity and food intake) … Continue reading

9 ½ weeks

I took my first softball lesson less than a month after the fall softball season ended. Now we’re a week into February and pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland in a month. My season usually starts the first week of May, which is closer than it sounds. Anticipating my own propensity to procrastinate, I’ve begun … Continue reading

Doing everything you do, in a skirt, or, Some thoughts on being a girl, doing boy things

1. A few days ago, Tim Carmody sent James Fallows’ wonderful “Throwing Like a Girl” my way. In typically superb Fallows form, he unpacks and challenges what it means to “throw like a girl,” and why, if it’s not exactly gender specific (because plenty of women throw correctly) it’s still largely female examples we see … Continue reading

In which I have a hard time keeping a straight face (That’s what she said)

“He’s got a mean streak,” says his manager, Sparky Anderson. “As mean as Pete Rose. That’s saying the best thing that could be said about a ballplayer.” There are a lot of weak aspects to my game – hence hiring a coach to convert me into a real, badass third baseman, aka #Project3B. But despite … Continue reading

Project 3B

I don’t have time to be angry away from the field. So I brush it off, bottle it up and drink a tall glass of it before taking the mound. —Brian Wilson, Giants closer and general badass When I was a kid, the standard-bearer for bad-ass preparation tactics was the Siberian training montage in Rocky … Continue reading

The hot corner

Perhaps I am of the softball-playing age where I should begin to think of being put out to pasture—pasture, in this case, being the desolate expanse of the outfield known as right field. I have been a centerfielder for much of the time since returning to Lansing’s beer league co-ed rec division post-the birth of … Continue reading