Mama's House

Skill Levels
B+ Exceptional Players/Expert Abilities
B Good /Very Good Abilities
C+ Average/Good, Competitive/Recreational
C Recreational, Entry Level Abilities

So says the Spring/Summer 2008 fact sheet for the LA Parks and Recreation softball leagues. Now everyone check their schedules when they have time and check what skill level we've been assigned.

Now tell me this how does a team that's been doing this together for six years qualify itself as having entry level abilities? Doesn't entry level imply (fuck implied, it's explicit in and of itself) mean by its very nature beginner/novice and not someone who has been doing it for six years in a row? Like when a job is listed as entry level isn't it assumed that all applicants would have little to no experience for that job? Also, they weren't very good. But weren't they at least average? Is it even possible to do something six years in a row together and not acquire a skill level above entry level?

And what the fuck about recreational? Last I heard, the word "recreation" meant something fun and relaxing. Now what kind of recreational attitude has a team take every pitch until they have two strikes against them? And what kind of recreational attitude has a team continue doing that with an insurmountable lead? And what kind of recreational attitude has one of their players trying to run through one of our own to reach base with that insurmountable lead? Simply put, the team we were playing was not there to play recreational softball.

And it's not just the team we played. Looking at the other teams that played after us, it doesn't look good for us. One of the teams may have had girls on their team like we did but they're nothing like the girls we have on our team. Their girls definitely played varsity high school softball and may have even played college ball.

Now there's nothing wrong with being average to good at softball or even wanting to play it competitively. But there's a league specifically designed for those type of players. And that's not the type of league we signed up for and were supposedly assigned.

So who the fuck is to blame here? Is it the douchebag teams that are sandbagging - and really why would a team sandbag into a entry-level/recreational league, other than that they're obviously douchebags - or is it the LA Parks and Rec for not properly classifying teams according to skill level? Both probably.

Rant over, continue your day or vent along.

PS - What the fuck was up with the ump rushing us to start the game before the scheduled start time? And what the fuck was he looking at? I thought when the ball hits any part of the extended home plate it was a strike. Annette and Brian said he missed at least 3 called strikeouts and it wasn't just our game but in the game afterwards a pitcher was rightly complaining about balls and strikes.

PSS - If my bitching didn't make it clear, we got our asses handed to us and the mercy rule came in full effect.