Pt. 4: Season Summary and Gratitude
Adjustments: Blood Sugar, Stance, Hydration
They say that baseball is a game adjustments, especially in the battle between pitcher and batter. I’m sure we’ve all seen a MLB rookie come flying out of the gate, only to be smacked down by the sophomore jinx (or much more quickly than that in this age of high-tech stats).
Batting wise, the season started slowly for this rookie, but as the weeks went on, there was some improvement. But I began to see a pattern emerge. In my first at-bat, I smacked the ball very well, followed by a couple of weak right-side grounders (I’m a lefty).
This became so consistent that I knew I had to do something. One thing was quite obvious: I was standing too far back in the zone, so I moved up a good 6–10 inches. I realized that I’m not at a place where I can adjust my swing that readily, but if I could meet the ball a little bit higher, good things, such as line-drives, could occur.
I’ve seen this observing other players, whereby they lunge a little bit too forward, reaching for a quickly dropping softball. This puts way too much weight on the front foot and inevitably results in slow dribblers to the shortstop. Some pitchers are sneakily canny about this!
But that wasn’t the only problem. I sensed that the good rush of energy from breakfast was slowly withering away and left me feeling just ever-so-slightly weaker. This would result in a tad later reaction to the pitch and again, a crappy grounder. Then in the 2nd game, after some food, I would seem to hit much better. Hmmn.
Then I remembered Barry Bonds.
Every time the camera zoomed in on Barry (or one of his teammates), he was chomping down on sunflower seeds, keeping the blood sugar consistent. Aha!
Since that epiphany, I started eating a portion my lunch around 11AM, in time for the 2nd or 3rd bat of the day.
And wouldn’t you know it, between moving up at the plate and timely eating, I began to become more consistent at bat, and opportunities number 2 and 3 in game #1 had better results.
Informally watching other players, I also have noticed the same thing at time, killer drives in the first at-bat followed by soft ground balls in subsequent at-bats.
Water, Water Everywhere But…
Another thing that I had to be extremely aware of was dehydration. Damn, those hot and humid July/August games can really do a number!
I remember someone stating that, as part of survival skills, one should eat and drink prior to the actual feeling of hunger or thirst before or during an extremely challenging task. Of course, we all have different capacities in reading our own bodies.
I’m pretty sure that dehydration doesn’t bode well for hitting, fielding, or running, especially at our ages. So another precaution I’ve taken up is to drink before I feel the slightest feeling of being run-down.
On the other hand, there’s an old baseball superstition that one should never drink prior to getting up to bat. Just in case that is true, I’ve avoided that. Call me crazy.
“Feeling Sexy”. What?
There was a great natural-born hitter in the 90s named Jason Giambi, who played for the Oakland As and NY Yankees. He had the “it”factor as a hitter, for sure.
Jason used to say that sometimes he would feel “sexy” at the plate, likely another way of saying in the zone. That is also something pretty big in basketball — you shoot and turn away from the basket, because you know it is going in.
There have been times that I’ve felt that way, like, “man, this ball is gonna fly off the bat!”, like I could go up to the plate with a curtain road and smash one. But that doesn’t happen often.
Sometimes the gods of baseball or softball grant you this feeling. And fickle as they are, they’ll pull it back as quickly as they dish it out. We can only humbly beg for their blessings.
More Adjustments
With numerous rain delays in September and October, I was getting not only restless but rusty. I found myself in a two game slump, going 1 for 8. What’s more, what I was hitting were dinky ground balls to seconds; something was off. So I called upon Lexi at Frozen Ropes once again.
In this session, Lexi found a number of things that needed adjustments, so much so that I told her that I was going to mike her up next time, because I couldn’t remember them all.
But one was extremely useful to me. She had me adjust my grip on the bat — normally I would hold the bat with the top sections of the fingers lined up. She had me dial my hands such that the second knuckles lined up. It felt a bit odd, but wow!!! I was nailing line drives all over the place!
It appears that with my normal grip and swing, I was swinging over the ball, hitting the top part of the ball, resulting in measly grounders to second. With this new grip, the alignment of my hands made the bat raise ever-so-slightly in my swing, providing much more clean contact with the ball.
With this new grip, and a good night’s sleep, I went 6 for 7 in the next and final game of the season, and my only out was a fly ball to right. While at the plate, I heard the other team say, “watch out, he’s a line drive hitter!”. Ah, that was great to hear!
Another tip was to try to hit the inside third of the ball to aid in hitting up the middle or to the opposite field. It can be done.
Diet Changes
Around the time of the March meetup, I received some disturbing news regarding some blood tests for my annual physical. My fasting blood sugar was getting up to high in the pre-diabetic range. Time for a big change. So I began a fairly strict no-sugar and low carb diet and stuck with it all season (with no plans to stop).
In the 7 month span of this season, I lost over 15 pounds and it stayed off.
None of my teammates mentioned anything, since the weight came off gradually over the weeks. But I did notice improved stamina and fleet footedness in the field and base paths, without a significant loss of strength. All good.
Batting And Running Yearly Review
I batted .535 for the season, just a hair under the team average, which pleases me to no end. Note that the batting average in senior softball combines hits and errors, a quasi-OBP (sans walks). I certainly took advantage of some sloppy play by weak-fielding right-siders and using my speed, I was able to beat out many a ground ball. As age renders us all a bit slower, it appears that I’m one of the speedier folks on the team, or at least, one with healthy legs.
I look forward to more sessions this winter at Frozen Ropes to keep me sharp and aid my improvement.
Running the bases is without doubt the most stressful part of senior softball regarding the body. Zero to 60 asap, then having to put on the brakes pulling up to a base is tough on even young guys, let alone us seniors. And thus, the aforementioned quadriceps and hamstring muscle pulls.
Ouch. During mid-season, I found large bumps on both front thighs which I thought at first were tight, pulled muscles. But it turns out, one can develop muscle mass, from all that sprinting, even at this stage in life. Gonna do some wind-sprints prior to next season to get in shape!
Over the season, I only made two running mistakes, one trying to stretch a double into a triple (only to be thrown out by a perfect throw) and another, thinking it was two outs instead of one, I easefully pulled up to second, only to race safely back to first. Last time that will happen!
With respect to the bases, the basics in senior softball is this: one can often take chances given the less than optimal fielding and throwing of seniors. But you have to be careful, some guys have guns for arms!
Fielding Review, Ugh
I’ve never played outfield in my whole life. Never. And it showed. Hell, I have a first baseman’s glove.
I can understand that it makes sense, given I have healthy legs, to play right field (note: right-field, where the weakest fielders or newbies are placed). While I made a few running catches, I had so much trouble, especially with balls hit over my head.
One of the toughest plays is the low sinking line-drive. I had two skip right past me, which looks ugly, since I’ve seen it happen to other outfielders. However, it is not the heart-attack inducing event when it is two outs in the bottom of the 9th in the final game of the 2014 world series, as Gregor Blanco demonstrates here:
Another really difficult item in playing outfield is tracking the ball while running, so that one can run down a fly, knowing where it is going to land. I’m just getting the hang of that, except when hit directly overhead. There have been a number of instances where I took the wrong track to the ball and looked pretty foolish.
One time, a screaming liner was hit exactly in-between myself and the right-center fielder, Paul Costa at the time. While he took the hypotenuse of a right triangle track approach, I ran the other two sides of the triangle and got to the ball later than Paul.
I guess that with practice, I can improve. And I will improve. I’m motivated to find a softball coach between now and next season to hit me a few hundred fungoes. I’m willing to pay!
Final Thoughts: Improvement for Next Year
It is difficult to put into words the level of joy and fun that I had playing softball after so many years, being on a team, meeting so many good guys along the way. The mere fact that I can bat, field and run at my age is a fortune that some, perhaps many, do not have at my age. I’m lucky. Like Joe Salzano, I have those good Italian genes, bolstered by all that garlic and olive oil.
Gratitude Is The Attitude
Despite the pains and stresses that I endured during the session, I consider EMASS softball a blessing. In a world where so many of our compatriots have been overcome and overwhelmed with sickness, old age and death, there are a few of us who can still play this game, and play it at a relatively high level. Hell, two of my best friends from high school have been deceased a long time. And here I am, nearing 70, playing a boy’s game. We’re still vertical and spry and that is just f*cking amazing.
When you play or visit an EMASS senior softball game, you can see and hear the camaraderie, intensity and seriousness of the game. You’ll hear a lot of shouts of encouragement to other teammates, good natured ragging, bantering against the other team, whooping it up when someone makes a stellar play.
While there is a lot of testosterone flowing in these games, don’t get fooled by the wrinkles, pot bellies, baldness and slightly slower pace. This is not a bunch of older men playing a game, these are 28 little boys acting it out in very adult bodies. And loving it.
“To be in love with baseball to be forever young” -Dick Clavin
In any case, with the winter season coming on, it’ll be time to dream of next year with the boys of summer.