note to self - you're not 22 any more.....

During practice with Meg's team Tuesday night, another one of the coaches and I played outfield for both teams during a scrimmage. I covered left and left center. Most of the plays were pretty routine, not alot of deep fly balls or anything.

Then one of the girls hit a shot past third base. Runners were on second and third. I caught up with the ball at about 150-170 feet from home plate. Rather than make a simple throw to my cut-off and hold the batter to a single, I looked up and saw that I had a shot at the runner going home. I automatically came up firing. I threw an absolutely perfect one-hopper to the catcher. However, two bad things happened on the throw. First, the runner beat the throw by about a half a step. Second, as I released the ball I think I heard my shoulder scream. Not a pop, an actual scream. Followed by a wonderful burning sensation. Two plays later I made a throw to third that ended up wide-right because my arm wouldn't go up like it should.

Between innings, I went over and told the other coach that I forgot I wasn't 20 years younger when I made the throw home. He said, "Oh, yeah, you're going to feel that one tomorrow morning." Amazingly enough the pain was about 98% gone by Wednesday morning. Good ol' Ibuprofen.

I love to play softball. And every now and then I think about joining a league. Then something like throwing home from the outfield happens and I remember why I'm a coach instead of a player.....