Monday, June 29, 2009

Softball karma

Before softball last week, I warmed up with a teammate, tossing a ball back and forth. Usually, I wouldn't classify playing catch as a hazardous activity. But one throw clipped the top of my mitt, the ball bouncing up onto the rim of my sunglasses. My brow got smacked pretty good. It didn't take long before I felt the warm blood ooze.

I went to the bathroom to take a look, where I saw the decent-sized gash. I probably needed stitches, but I had games to play. Luckily, we had a first aid kit on-hand. The cut required a single bandage and I was good to go.

I returned to the field. The guy who had thrown the ball asked how I was doing; the other guys didn't give a shit. Okay, it's not like I had to have something amputated; but if it had happened to one of them, I would asked if he was alright.

Besides that, the night was a normal one. After two stellar weeks of play, I regressed. (I blame the eye.) Christ, I even struck out. Twice. Who the hell strikes out in slow-pitch softball? Heading back up to bat after the first strikeout, one of the guys implored, "Keep your eye on the ball." I actually found that funny since I was working with only one good eye, the band-aid pushing down on my left eyelid. So, instead of channeling my anger like the previous week, I proceeded to strikeout again. Piss me off and I'll get on base; make me laugh and I'm quickly back to the dugout.

And it was another week of unsolicited pointers from practically the entire team. But I've already talked about how much I love that.

The following morning, the cut was a bit swollen and my lower brow and eyelid were red. I swear I was going to wake-up not being able to open my eye. But the worst of the damage was hidden unless I purposely showed off my wound. What fun is that?

A week later, my eye has just about healed, not a bad recovery considering I was popped pretty good. The cut is still noticeable and, given my body's propensity to scarring, will probably leave a mark. But I was in need of a facial scar anyway, you know, for street cred.

Here I am looking tough after arriving home from softball:


P.S. The sunglasses weren't even scratched. Good thing because I was wearing the Oakleys.

1 comment:

Brian said...

I'm hoping for a hot, barely noticeable, scar.