Fundamentals

Yesterday was the first family camp softball game, a men’s game between the staff and campers.  This year I have been given the role of team manager.  Due to various circumstances it happened that we were without five of our regular missionary staff players…key players.  I was scrounging to find enough players to make a staff team, and we ended up having ten players.  With four outfielders that was just enough and everyone would have to play the whole game.  From a realists perspective, I thought we were toast.  One staff member informed me that we always lose the family camp 1 game.  Oh well.  I encouraged the guys to just make contact and not try to kill the ball…and guess what!  That’s just what we did.  While the camper team had a few home runs, we hit none.  However, we hit a lot of solid base hits and some doubles.  I had a triple but the third base coach told me to go home.  It feels sick to be running home and see the catcher get the ball in his glove when you’re still five steps away.  The ‘Pete Rose’ dive was not enough to earn us a run.  Nevertheless, solid hitting and GOOD fundamentals in the field gained us our first win of the season.  Our early first inning lead of 5-2 helped us hold on to a 9-7 W.  It’s all about the fundamentals.