The library can't afford home-run hitters...

Unshelved strip from yesterday

Saturday training (cross-posted from my LJ)

Softball practice at Clapham yesterday.  We had ten players - a good turn-out, possibly the best this year.  Also had four bats between us. The threatened rain held off, though it was bitterly cold.  Worked on grounders, cut-offs and relays, and played a practice game.  Interesting how a couple of people pointedly walked through the game, giving us dirty looks, as if we had no right to be on their lovely British common playing our wretched American sport - even though we were on the designated softball pitch.  Darren reckoned this happens quite a lot.  The frisbee-ers were back, too - no-one won the extra "Wolf points" Richard offered for hitting one of them with a ball, though.
Afterwards, went to the George, identified by Darren as a bat-friendly pub, for a natter and drink.

Softball training at Clapham Common

Very good session on Saturday at Clapham. Ben, Richard, Kate, Alison, Jane, Emily, Manjiv, Julian, Paul all present. Practiced throwing, catching, pitching and managed to play some small scale matches as well. Useful drills organised by Ben. Afterwards some of us adjourned to the pub.

Another Bat for Team Collection

This cheeky 4 oz bat, was given to me recently by my brother. He didn't bother to scour the depths of the internet looking at US or Dutch sports equipment websites. No, he apparently picked it up for £1 at the local 'Pound store'. Thanks Matt.

Seriously, I'm not sure if it would even survive hitting an indoor 'training' softball, let alone the real thing. However, I believe that it may be useful as a training aid. One can work on the batting stance and correct swing, even using it indoors without risking smashing anything valuable.

In print

The article I wrote for City News ended up in print, after some editing.
The article.

"That's a good weight!"

The opinion of coach Darren on my new bat.
Softball practice on Clapham Common yesterday. A sight easier for me to get to than Finsbury Park (one bus ride away). The softball pitch isn't as obvious as at Finsbury, and it's a little more exposed, but it's good. Better class of mud, too. Nowhere near as squelchy. did some good drills on cut-offs and throwing, got some useful coaching on how to field high balls coming to the outfield. I have to get into the habit of stepping back whenever a high ball comes towards me. My throwing was woeful, I'm afraid. But batting was fun as always, especially using my very own bat.
A load of people turned up at mid-morning to practise frisbee throwing, and colonised over half the softball field. Very odd. We managed not to bean any of them with long balls, though.

[X-posted from my LJ]

Nicknames!

We need nicknames folks! Why not try the "Which Star Trek character are you?" personality test which Andy links to on his Livejournal?

Yours,

Geordi LaForge

Batter up!

My softball bat finally arrived at work today. I'd ordered it from a Dutch company, specialising in US sports, Forelle. They sent a 23 0z fastpitch bat by mistake, so I had to send that back, but the 30 oz one I ordered has now turned up, with a "one big sorry" apology. I was arriving at work just as the courier turned up with it.
Also, an American friend who's over here for work brought a cool-looking book on baseball for me to a BookCrossing meet-up last night. It's occured to me that we as a team have more books on baseball/softball than we have gloves of our own. True to our natures as librarian Loan Wolves, I guess.

[X-posted from my Livejournal]

Training at Latchmere

Andy Ben and Julian went along on Sunday 5th February for a 3 hour training session. We practised throwing and catching and some in-field work on trying to get runners out between bases. Played a number of games which enabled us to pratice pitching and batting. Ben hit the ball high up and hit the roof of the sports hall dislodging a loose bit of the structure with near fatal results for those of us underneath.

Indoor training, and how I avoided decapitation.

Good training session at Latchmere yesterday afternoon.
Three Wolves (Ben, Julian, myself) in attendance. Good coaching from Darren (in-game tactics) and Tim (playing techniques). Played a very tiring practice game. Enjoyed batting, tried pitching, and somehow struck several players out despite (or somehow because of) my wild inaccuracy. Managed to tag Darren out in a rundown drill.
I was in the field when Ben hit a pop-up that dislodged a 2' long metal ceiling slat from the roof and sent it hurtling down towards me. I stepped back, with as much dignity as I could muster, so the overall effect was more Buster Keaton than The Omen. Thankfully.

Practice in the cold (X posted from my LJ)

Softball practice on Saturday. Got up, made porridge, dressed warmly and set off for Finsbury Park. The ground wasn't too squelchy at first, but that was only because it was frozen solid. When the sun came out, it thawed into goo. The sand they’d put down at the bases just made it stick to your boots more. Very cold, but once we'd warmed up with a run and some throwing practice it wasn't too bad. Lots of throwing, played "pepper" (batter hits ball softly to a semi-circle of fielders, catching fielder throws it back to batter, lather, rinse, repeat), and did fielding and batting practice. My catching's still my weakest thing, but I had a pretty decent, and fun, turn at bat. Some decently placed grounders, a few big hits, none of them caught out.
The guys from the other dev team were there again, and doing much chest-beating. Sometime we’re going to have a closed training session, without the “Cobra Kai” in attendance.
Good beer and chat at the pub afterwards. We all felt we'd earned it.

Softball Practice

Saturday was very very cold but things improved after a warm up. Lots of throwing practice and batting. Jane, Peter, Kate, Ben, Richard, Andy, Vic and Julian all turned up. I had a go at pitching. Ben and Peter made some good catches, and I think Vic did as well. Richard's batting looked good and also Jane, Ben and Peter. I found batting using the equivalent of a golfing tee rather difficult and managed to miss the ball altogether on a number of occasions. Also I need to improve my fitness.

My New Glove!

Well I won the bidding for the glove I was after on ebay. It was very satisfying to be crowned the winner! (there's some very subtle consumer psychology going on there I think - I can see how people get addicted to ebay)

Here are some pictures.




The guy I bought it from is an established ebay trader from St. Louis, Missouri. Here is a link to his online shop if you fancy a look.

The glove cost me $41 (about £24) and the p&p was $22 (about £13). The guy was directly selling these gloves for $47.99 (with the same p&p on top) so I made a slight saving through the auction.

Now I can't wait for that package to arrive!

Going batty in NYC!

I can officially declare we are the proud owners of a softball bat!

(Or rather I am until I get some money....)

My 2005 award for "most intimidating stance with a softball bat on

the public transport system" was given a workout in New York, as

I took the newly purchased bat onto New York City's subway and

into various shops along Fifth Avenue. Karen and I walked into

one electronic goods store where four men promtly stopped their

conversation mid-sentence as I walked in with the bat. In addition

I discovered the bat was too long to fit in my suitcase, and Karen's

too, and so I rang the airline and asked if they'd mind if I carried it

onboard. Their reply: "Are you crazy?! A softball bat?! In these

times of heighened security?!" So I had to purchase some

packaging and check it in to the hold....

I got us a bargain too, price-wise! Paragon Sports on Broadway

had a 40% post-Christmas discount on DeMarini bats! So I'll let

you know once I've worked out the exchange rate. Manjiv - do you

think Brendan would pay for it for us on production of a receipt?

So we should all meet up some time to celebrate the New Year and

for the official presentation of our DeMarini bat. (And colour highlights

on the bat might suggest a uniform colour should we wish....)

Cheers,

Jane.

Birthday

Thanks to Julian, Benjamin and Peter for turning up to my 40th birthday bash yesterday. Good to have a Loan Wolves presence there - and sorry about my friends repeatedly asking accusingly ; "was it you who broke Andy's finger?"

Softball training at Latchmere - December 11th

Three Wolves turned up this afternoon for a pretty intensive indoor session. Peter, Ben and Julian. We practiced catching, throwing, fielding balls running along the ground and batting. Learned some more about tagging. A batsman who leaves a base when they dont have to is called Unforced and the only way a fielder can get them out is by tagging.

We played some actual games as well and I was able to have a go at pitching - although indoor pitching is very different from the real pitching as you do not have to throw anything like as far.

It was a very useful three hours.

Softball Party

Really enjoyed the meal in Islington on Friday evening. A good turn out by the Wolves. I was very pleased with my certificate. Thank you to all concerned for taking so much trouble.

A group of us repaired to a local pub afterwards where probably because I wasnt sufficiently plastered I got rather cold. Headed home about 11.30pm - no trouble with the trains

Shall be turning out for the training on Sunday in Battersea

Simpsons

The old Simpsons episode with the works softball team was on C4 last night. I found myself taking the sports side seriously, watching to see how they animated the pro baseball players' throwing movements.
Also spotted that they were playing fastpitch:
9 a side. No women playing. When Homer gets hit by a pitch, he gets a walk (and wins the game) - in slowpitch, it's just counted as a ball if a pitch hits the batter.
And enjoyed Mr Burns's managing style:
"Strawberry, hit a home run!"
[Daryl Strawberry hits a home run]
"I told him to do that!"

Early Xmas present for Darren

A large-ish wolfpack turned out last night to present Darren with tokens of our appreciation for all his coaching. We met at Firefly, a very shiny bar off Clapham Common. Darren seemed very happy with the bottle of Jameson's we got him, and kindly shared round the Oreos and Hershey kisses. As always, we hung on his every word for tips and advice (squashing your glove under table legs etc is apparanetly good for breaking it in, and outfielders should either have good arms or be very fast). A good time was had by all, and the party didn't break up till chucking out time (where's 24 hour drinking when you need it, eh?).

I caught this morning morning's softball

A useful training session this morning for the faithful Wolves who showed up. Alison, Manjiv, Kate, Peter and Julian. A beautiful bracing frosty day. The brilliant Darren was there to help us practice throwing - much tougher than it looks to crack that.

The throwing warmed me up well and then during the game I froze again. Too much standing around - at least there were some gorgeous hunks batting.

Alison made a fine catch, Manjiv was her ever dependable and enthusiastic self. Julian hit the ball too high and got caught out All in all I enjoyed it very much in spite of the mud and the nippy weather. There is a lot for poor me and the rest to practice before next spring.