Geriatric softball

Last night, we had our second annual coaches' charity softball game. We raise money for a scholarship fund
in memory of a beloved elementary school teacher from our town that passed away a few years ago. Her
husband got on the microphone after we played the national anthem to thank everyone for remembering his
wife and broke down after only one sentence. VERY sad. He threw out the first pitch. The young girls we
coach, coach us(hysterical hearing a crowd of young girls YELL at grown men, "I TOLD YOU TO RUN THROUGH THE BASE"), and we go out there and learn the hard way that we are not teenagers anymore. I pulled my groin muscle so badly, I can hardly walk on my left leg. I hit the ball  well everytime I got up but they let every coach who signed up, play and there were no holes out there( they had 13 or 14 people on the field) so I
only got on base once(got thrown out at first twice) and scored that time around despite being in significant pain. Guys offered to run for me but I came to play so I sucked it up. The other team wound up with
more players(some latecomers jumped on their team), and more younger guys, so they beat us. I was one of only 3 women who played and I have to
say, it was frustrating. I can play, catch pop flies,hard thrown balls and throw and twice I had guys run to cover me in the field and screw me up. I played second on the first inning and went to catch a throw from
Tim(at short stop) to make an out when a guy ran over and almost blasted me right off the base just as the ball came in and we both missed the throw. His head wound up right where the ball went and I couldn't catch it
without punching him with my mitt and he didn't have his glove up there to get it. He realized he messed up the play and didn't do it again but then I went to catch a pop fly a few innings later that was in my area when I was playing "short center field" and another guy cut over and ran for it and slipped in the grass, falling right in front of me when I was just 2 or 3 feet from the ball and about to make the catch.  I almost wound up on top of him in a compromising position. I guess it's just the way things are that men think women can't play sports,
but it was irritating. Anyway, one guy hit a homerun and after running all the bases(he's a smoker) was
so out of breath he had to sit down for a few minutes to recover. By the end of the game, we were feeling our age, every darn year of it. I was
holding an ice pack on my groin muscle and I have never had a pull be this painful. It feels like my muscle
tore in half. But it was a lot of fun. Our mayor was the umpire and the jokes were flying. The local papers
were there taking photos and Tim and I are in several. I LOVE playing softball but I'm gonna be feeling this for a few days though.