Play along: softball builds community

By Laura Clark

Published: June 26, 2008

Watch the ball. Watch the ball. Get the glove ready. Oh, what a pretty sunset, all gold and blues – No! Pay attention to the batter.

I chanted advice to myself as yet another lefty got up to bat for the Vito’s/Good Ol’ Boys team. We (the Ronald LeNeave Construction team) had led 12-9 going into the bottom of the seventh. But our opponents had chipped away at the lead and managed to tie when the last batter hit a home run over the shorter right field fence.

With the tie, we were sweating. Well, I was definitely sweating, heart pounding as I prayed that the batter would not aim for me, the weak link humoring the competition in the outfield between the ninth and tenth positions. I guess that made me the 9-½ woman.

I had already been caught on my heels once by a streaking grounder to outfield. Not knowing how to field a grounder or catch a fly ball, I was convinced my defensive zone was about a three-foot radius.

Covering softball — okay, I got that. But everything I knew about playing softball I learned in the hayfield beyond the Nelson Center 20 minutes before the opening pitch.

I’d come out to play in the men’s softball league on June 18. Two nights a week during the season, the field sees four games, each with a 55–minute time limit. The games move fast, so they’re pretty entertaining – and competitive, especially as the season winds down, Gary Cody, Nelson County’s Recreation Technician, said.

“You all are playing the hardest hitting team in the league. They were undefeated until Monday night,” Cody said, and then made me sign a waiver as he explained how a pitcher got nailed last week.

Hmmm. Maybe I underestimated this column idea.

But as soon as I started meeting the team, I felt right at home. I warmed up with Harley Burnley and his son, Mike, tossing a softball back and forth and taking some pitches. I couldn’t help but laugh along when my teammates chuckled at my batting stance and wild swing.

Butch Archbell led the suggestions: Step into the hit. Keep your hands close together. Later, when I was actually up to bat, Archbell coached me through the pitches.

The only time I got on base, I did it by running into the first baseman, who dropped the ball after the tag. In my nervousness, I was even more confused when my team told me I was safe. Then Archbell hit an outfield grounder, which popped off the outfielders glove. I rounded second, but was tagged out at third.

“Next time you slide into third base,” Archbell said.

I nodded vigorously, but hopped I wouldn’t be tested – I don’t know how to slide.

Burnley, Archbell and Marvin Martin were the leaders on the team. The three have been playing together for years.

“We’re about the same age, and we kind of stick together,” said Burnley, who started playing when he was 17, and turned 42 this year.

Burnley wasn’t going to play this year, but Mike, a recent Nelson County High School graduate, said he wanted to play.

“This is the first year me and him got to play together,” Burnley said.

“I’ve been coming out here since I was little,” Mike said. “He’s always been playing. Always.”

And so Mike’s cousins Kevin and Corey Burnley got the team together. This year’s team has been the most fun, said Harley Burnley, because of the collective good attitude.

Other recent grads round out the team, including T.J. Martin, Chris and Mike Jones. The young guys can hit, but their quickness around the bases and nearly flawless defense is more impressive. They seem to take every play with a calm demeanor, while Burnley, Archbell and Martin are vocal and energetic.

“They take it pretty seriously. Everyone does,” Burnley said. “It’s an all-men’s league. You’re going to be competitive.

“They have a slaughter rule, and you don’t want to come out here and play four innings and get slaughtered and go home. Even if I get beat, I want to play my seven innings.”

The whole team looked a little surprised to be beating the number one team in the league. When these two teams meet on May 21, the Construction team lost 28-10.

Probably 50 people, not including the players, were out for the games that night. It was the place to be, and my adopted team was giving them a game.

The biggest guy from the other team stepped to the plate. Burnley, the pitcher, met with the other infielders to decide whether or not to walk this guy. In the end, they knew that Vito’s/Good Ol’ Boys had great hitting depth and decided to take a chance.

Of course I was oblivious to this in the outfield, but I knew the game hung perilously on what this batter could do.

“Pay attention to the ball. Please don’t hit it to me,” I told myself.

Then with a pop of the metal bat, that ball was on its way. Everyone turned in my direction. Motionless, I watched the ball sail over my head and high into the trees.