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Sunday, August 1, 2004

It Feels Good

My knees are scraped, my ankles are bruised and my voice is hoarse after a long weekend of softball. My pride is very much intact, though.

My team went into this weekend’s year-end tournament with a seventh-seed ranking… Seven out of eight. Not so great. On Saturday, we lost the first game of the day to the second-ranked team. In a double elimination tournament, that put us halfway to the end of our season. But in the second game on Saturday, we played a good game and won, bringing us back for more on Sunday.

To put it succinctly, today we kicked ass. I’m too tired now to describe the energy, the emotion, the affection, the joy that I — and my teammates — felt for our team. Physically, it was rough. We played four games in hot, humid weather, three right in a row with no breaks. But we won the first three by playing the best games we’ve ever played, and with the most spirit we’ve ever had. The last game we lost by one run, but fought hard. In the end, we brought home a second-place trophy.

Not that the trophy matters. I wouldn’t have been any happier if we had won first place. I was proud of the spirit of my team, regardless of our wins (though those were nice,too). After the tournament tonight, when I had time to process and rethink all that had happened today, I also realized how grateful I am for being part of such a fun, decent, interesting group of guys. When I moved here 10 months ago, I knew no one. Now, these dozen or so people are among my best friends.

I know many of you who read this site probably don’t care about the Lost Sox. But I think we can all relate to the feeling that comes when hard work pays off.

It’s pretty damn good.

Posted by Aaron on August 1, 2004 11:28 PM