Baseball Season Is Underway!

It's April and that means the conclusion of March Madness (now I'm torn between my Big 10 Roots and my new Tarheel home), and of course baseball. Baseball has always been my favorite sport. To me it really is America's National Past Time. The smell of the freshly cut grass and the feel of Spring in the air means baseball.

As many of you may know I joined the local adult baseball league here in the Greensboro area last year. This year at age 42 I am doing it again!

Even as major league baseball starts again today, so did my season. Since my season started a few hours before the Major League season, I get to talk about me first.

Today my team, the Pirates, of the Triad MSBL league played against the Padres. Although we did not come out victorious today, it was nice to be playing baseball again.

I batted twice and went 2 for 2 with both hits being line drive singles to the outfield. A great way to start off the year.

I started at First Base, pitched an inning of relief, and even played an inning in right field. Not a bad day.

This was the first time that I have pitched in a "real" league game since playing in the Warren, OH AA League in 1986 (Some current Major Leaguers weren't even born yet). I wished I could have done better, but it was fun to be on the mound again. I struck out one batter, did not walk anybody and gave up a couple of unearned runs.

Hopefully I will get to pitch some more this year. Last year, I didn't pitch because I hurt my shoulder early in the season and it took most of the season just to throw a ball without pain (It's tough getting old!).

Now that I am leading the league in hitting after the first weekend with a 1.000 batting average I will be a little cocky. It can only go downhill from here.

No matter how the season turns out, I will report how each game goes and update you on my stats as I blog my way through the year. It will be interesting as we had a large turnover from last year and only 4 players returning from last year's team.

We have 18 days until our next scheduled game, due to the Easter holiday, so I will bask in my glory and turn my attention to the Cleveland Indians and hope they get the year off to a good start.