How perception changes with age (A personal observation)

May 9, 2012 · 2 comments

This used to be me when I was a kid:

I would constantly pester my friends to walk over the the ballpark when steel gray clouds were a portent for the end of e world.

My attitude has changed.

I play in a 50-and-over league now. I used to be on a “regular” team in my town, but I joined them late, after they’d been together for many years. They were an older bunch of fellas and we were regularly beaten — soundly, more often than not — by teams whose members were significantly younger. So I decided to take the plunge.

My current outfit consists of a nice bunch of guys. There’s a lot of the usual good-natured ribbing that goes on in such situations. We don’t hang out together much, but I think part of that is due to the lateness of the games and the distances we have to travel. My memory may be faulty (another product of age), but we won our division championship in either my first or second year with them. As a “reward” we were kicked up three divisions. We’ve come close, always making it into the playoffs, only to be eliminated in the early rounds.

This year is a bit tougher. As of today we’re 2-6, although there’s no grumbling or finger-pointing. We play close and tight, but seem to fall victim to that one bad inning. Me, I’m playing stinko. Although my last two games were pretty good, it’s nowhere near what I used to be, which I attributed more to my very-slow-to-heal ab pull than aging.

It’s the combination of my poor performance, the team’s disappointing performance, and the lateness of the games (it used to be I could leave straight from work; now I go home and have to come out again hours later), and the iffy weather that have me wishing some of these games would be postponed.It’s been rainy for the past few days and the forecast doesn’t look to improve any before the weekend. Given that information, I wish they’d make an early decision and call the game.

Sadly, I have to admit I no longer have that optimism displayed by good old Charlie Brown.

 

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1 Kent Morgan May 10, 2012 at 2:35 pm

Tell me about it. I ran a large slo-pitch league for many years and formed and played for a team that is still going after 30 years.  I never wanted to have to postpone games and always managed to spot a break in the clouds even if it was pouring rain and there wasn’t one. When we tried to open the schedule here in central Canada at the beginning of May we even had to deal with slight snow showers a couple of times. In my last few years of playing I was very much like you and hoped the games would be cancelled in particular if we were scheduled under the lights with a 10:15 p.m. start. Our complex was on the west end of our city and it could be mighty cold and wet with the wind blowing from the northwest. It is a sign of getting older.

2 Ron_Kaplan May 10, 2012 at 3:18 pm

I hear ya, Kent. I know what a hassle it is to reschedule and find open fields for the games. I’m often amazed at my teammates. I thought I enjoyed playing, but these guys are in three and four different leagues. I don’t have that burning desire anymore, I guess.

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