The elements of softball reflect the elements of literature: the embodiment of human triumph, tragedy, and desire, the song of the soul. The conflicts within softball- within an at-bat, a game, a season, a career- and those which inflame authors are the same: the battles between person and person, person and nature, person and self, person and fate. In softball these battles rage simultaneously in an unscripted operatic ballet staged on dirt and grass.
Except when it rains. In the case of softball, the conflicts between humans and Nature are one-sided, and for the former, unwinnable.
For the fifth consecutive season and seventh time in the team’s 10-year history, Harmony Sea Kittens’ Opening Night is headed for a rain-out. The forecast isn’t even worth hoping against. The linked forces of Nature and Fate are not trifling.
The first scheduled game in Sea Kitten history- May 12, 2010- was rained out, decisively and dramatically. Nature washed away the following season’s opener. In the third year, Nature invited the team to play, and Sea Kittens romped to victory in what would become a championship summer. The following year Nature invited the team to play again and Fate (as well as Tommy Tom Tom Seahorse Shabidu Cichosz, Jr., Gretchen Hansen might argue) delighted in reminding the Kittens to be careful about what they wish. A seminal moment in the Sea Kittens opera ensued and inspired Man-Aaron Jossart to pen “Out at Third,” and Balls and Dolls cruised to a 19-8 extra-inning (!) win. The following year (2014), in the thick of The Schneid Grant Thornton simply drubbed Los Gatitos 17-6, and the team hasn’t played a scheduled opener since.
In summary, with the foregone conclusion of Wednesday night’s game included, Nature has tallied seven wins, opponents two, and Sea Kittens one in this franchise’s 10 scheduled Opening Nights.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.
-Calvin “Nuke” Laloosh
On the bright side, May is the only month in which Sea Kittens have a losing record (10-12), and Sea Kittens are 5-1 in their make-ups of rained out Openers. To date in 2019- by self-aggrandized “manager” JM Hennessy’s count- exactly four of 13 rostered Cats have swung a bat or fielded (or attempted to field) a ball since October 2018, so maybe fewer May games are better and the rain renews a chance for a practice or scrimmage…
A crusty old German once said (actually he said it often), “you know what they do in the old country when it rains? Let it rain.”