Softball Tournament

As part of the Independence Day festivities, there was a softball tournament but rain caused it be pushed back a week. The Judiciary fielded a team and I got to play alongside Todd, LB, Christy, Judge Miller, former counsel Garth who is now the public defender, and a half dozen marshals. Softball and baseball are popular here and there are two nice fields with huge lights, stands, press box, and other amenities. The first game I played right field. It had been a while since I had played, but it came back pretty quickly. I've been told the Judiciary has not fared well in prior tournaments, so my expectations were not high. In the first game we pt up a fight, but ultimately lost. I had one hit, but otherwise didn't contribute too much. The tournament was double elimination, so we had another game two nights later. We fell behind early to the point where we were almost mercied, but we scored a few runs and then in one inning pulled ahead. We won the game in dramatic fashion, meaning we had another game the following evening. Once again, we fell behind by a lot, but we chipped away until it was 11-8 in the bottom of the sixth with two men on when I got to the plate. I finally got a hold of one and hit it into the gap and was able to score for a game-tying home run. We won in extra innings.

The tournament attracted a lot of high government officials. The President played third base for the Executive team, a bunch of senators and legislators played for the OEK team, state governors played for the governors team, and we had Judge Miller. We didn't get to play the Executive, who won the tournament, but they played before and after us a few times. In our final game I was at the plate and fouled off a ball to the third base side that went over the fence and into the backyard of a nearby home. That happened to be where the Executive team was watching our game, so my foul ball nearly hit the President and/or his big black SUV. I hit well again that game, but only singles. We fell behind once again and began rallying late for the third straight game. This time we came up just short and lost by two runs. Overall we finished fourth, which was a great showing for the Judiciary. It was a fun tournament and a good way to get to know some of court personnel, see some dignitaries play softball, and for me to play softball. Although, I was sore for days afterwards.