Softball: Bushrod! (To Scoff at Every Hurdle)

[raymond...@gmail.com]

Dear People,

 

There will be a game at North Oakland’s utterly enchanting yet dubiously named Bushrod Park at 61st and Racine (one block West of Telegraph) this Sunday at 11, and as of now, there are four slots left. Four!

 

To be clear: As you know, we’re in an unprecedented phase of grueling diasporic challenge in which we have yet to land on our preferred winter backup home, and that’s in significant part due to our recent discovery of what future league historians will no doubt refer to as La Crise de Toilette. Luckily, we’re nothing if not determined and resilient to the marrow, and yeah, we’ll need to be since nothing is reserved or guaranteed. That includes all of Oakland’s city fields, which in theory were closed down over two weeks ago. As of the day before yesterday, they weren’t.

 

And so we shall barrel forward and plan to seize our needed lands one week at a time through winter, but to minimize the risk of a fieldless calamity for this week, I’ll be checking out both Bushrod and GGRC late tomorrow afternoon to verify they’re still deadbolt-free and accessible. Then, on Sunday morning, Jerry Scheidt, Dan May, and Steve Bedrick, who won’t be aware of their official duties until they read these very words (!), will arrive by 10:30ish to confirm to me that we’re good to go, and more generally, to start up batting practice and keep the riffraff out— Preferably at Billy Martin Field #1, in the Northwest corner of the park. SO, check your email that morning, but you can assume all is fine and nothing will be sent out unless we need to retreat to GGRC or even resort to some other place (FWIW, both Cerrito Vista and Willard Jr. High are still in the mix for a possible intermittant solution).

 

No, it’s not easy being us, but we’ve been through worse and will get through this, because the bottom line is that if the finest unaffiliated email-organized softball league West of the Sacramento River can’t survive the buzzkill of a couple pissant softball-hostile municipalities, then the future of every person, institution, and state would lain splayed naked, jejune, and totally vulnerable to complete societal collapse, and that, amigos mios, just can’t be. Am I right?!

 

So for now, see ya at Bushrod, Sunday at 11! (and preferably earlier for batting practice and riffraff repulsion) . . . Raymond 510-845-7552 / cell 510-677-8860.