Rain, Rain, Go Away

Who thinks it's terrible to play softball in the rain?? ME. These past two weekends at our softball tournaments, it has been constantly raining. This is bad for all sorts of reasons. First, it makes it hard to throw the ball. It gets all slippery and mistakes are made up the wazoo. Second, it gets more dangerous. When you slide it's easier to get hurt. Third, it's just plain uncomfortable. Everything is wet, outfielders feet get soaked, infielders get SUPER muddy, and it's just not anything to look forward too. I really feel bad for the spectators though.. They just have to sit there and get wet for no reason!

One thing I worry about a ton in the rain is if the pitcher is going to be able to handle it. Some pitchers can do it, but some can't. They use "the ball is wet" as an excuse and can't ever throw a strike. I always hope and pray that it will be the other teams pitcher that is like that, not your own. The other thing to worry about is control. It's not as bad in the infield, because for the most part, the dirt doesn't get too wet. But as an outfielder, I worry about my inexperienced players a lot. The ball gets absolutely soaked when it comes into the outfield and you have to know how to handle it in order to throw the ball in control. I asked my freshman right fielder how she thought she was supposed to keep it in control and she said "just grip the ball harder". NO. DON'T DO THAT. That will probably make it worse. It's actually quite simple. You just make absolutely sure that you finish waaaaaayyy down. Way further down than you usually would, and it helps keep you from launching the ball over the cutoffs head. 

I Hate with a capital H, having wet feet. It's not comfortable. After a while it even gets numb. And then your shoes smell terrible and it's just a mess. But if I can say for myself, I love sliding when it's raining. Not when it's like sticky mud, but when there's puddles of mud and water. You fly. I did a slide by last weekend right into a mud puddle and I just flew right by home plate and it was probably the funniest thing I've ever done in my life! The downfall to that was my shoes, batting gloves, and every other inch of my body was caked in mud. Mom had a fit when she saw my shoes😱

Usually umpires are good about calling games when it's raining so majority of the time, you don't even have to play in the rain. I think that's best because it's not real softball when you play in the rain. Too many mistakes to see who the real winner is. 

Word count: 482 words