Clever Softball-Related Post Titles Are Not Coming to Mind

I've been attending the odd event (or rather, "Event") with a New Haven social Meetup group that one of my coworkers is involved in, and as it's turned out I'm also going to play on the softball team they field. It's a coed team, so it's not highly competitive. Which is good. It's still a more jockish crowd than I'm used to associating with. I think I can more or less keep pace with the women.

We'll see how this turns out. So far I'm about as good as I remember being back in college intramurals, which is to say competent. Incidentally, Swarthmore softball "back in the day" was fantastic, due to the large proportion of nerds involved. I fondly recall losing to one of the frat teams by a score of 35-2. For two particular half-innings we held them scoreless and then notched a run, so we took that as our moral victory and went out for milkshakes.

In the meantime I'm enjoying shaking the rust out and shagging some fly balls. The two practices this week were out in East Haven, so I got to ride the familiar route out towards where I used to live and soak up some much-needed sunlight. (At least yesterday afternoon this was the case. Thursday evening it was about 45 degrees out.)

There's really been a spring in everyone's step this weekend just since it's so incredibly nice out all of a sudden: 70ish, sunny. We'll see if this continues through the workweek.

In professional sports news, it's good to see that the NFL is taking an aggressive stance towards controlled substances. From the AP:

Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher was fined $100,000 by the NFL for wearing a cap during Super Bowl media day that promoted a sponsor not authorized by the league.

NFL rules prohibit gear that advertises any product but a designated sponsor, league spokesman Brian McCarthy said yesterday.

Urlacher was fined for drinking vitaminwater and wearing a vitaminwater hat during the media session in Miami leading to the title game. Gatorade is the NFL's official drink.

Urlacher's response, no doubt, will be that he was unaware of the specific sports beverage provided to him by his personal trainer, and that he consumed it unknowingly as part of his trainer-designed sports beverage regimen. Also that he was unaware of the specific hat provided to him by his personal trainer, and that he wore it without inquiring into its promotional content as part of his trainer-designed hat regimen.

The Red Sox, I noticed at on a bar TV the other night, were wearing green jerseys in Fenway against the Yankees. Good god, I thought, this alternate jersey thing is getting out of control. Fortunately it was a one-off affair; Paul Lukas at Uni Watch has the scoop. On the same topic, his MLB season overview of uniform changes is worth reading too, compellingly obsessive as usual. He appropriately singles out the Pirates' new sleeveless red jerseys for particular damnation.