so long, and thanks for all the bad hops


listen, there's no way we would have or could have ever predicted we would be playing this long. in the beginning, we weren't doing it to establish any sort of legacy or foundation for a recreation ministry. it just sort of worked out that both very naturally happened.

eleven years ago, chris perry and i were shooting the breeze as was custom for us during the early years of my ministry experience. i leaned on his time served as a sounding board in a lot of ways, throwing ideas off and around him to see if they made sense outside of my head. most of the time they didn't, but he was gentle with his guidance and direction, and he was invaluable as an asset and a resource and an encourager when it came to pointing me in a direction and saying, "just go for it", "what's the worst that can happen?", or "there's a really good chance the youth are going to like you even if the idea is stupid". and so it went. day after day. week after week. we'd spend a ton of time together during our respective weeks. i'd spend a little less time (but no less important) with john rutland and we planned for the future of huffman united methodist church.

but softball didn't have much to do with any of that. softball, as an idea, was really nothing more than an excuse to hang out with each other and some of our friends. i don't know that we really thought we'd be any good, but we knew for certain that we were going to have a good time. the year before, we had started playing pick-up basketball and had developed enough relationships through that group and men/youth already in and around the church that we could field a team.

the founding fathers of humc softball were:

kevin o'kelley
chris perry
chris hicks ("chicks", "salty", the giver of most of our nicknames)
brian kiker ("kiker", "kike")
mike gibbs ("gibby")
nate beverly
brad henson ("chipper", "chip", "sock arm")
michael putman ("put")
mark mccollister ("marky", "marcus",)
doug foote ("big doug", "belch")
paul sutton  ("paulie", "geez")

over the years, i've instituted an unspoken "founding fathers" policy for the team. if one of the above had to/chooses to leave for a time and want to come back, we make a spot. when mike gibbs went away to become a superhero (then to go work in tampa for a bit), he had a spot waiting for him upon his return back to earth. when mike putman and mark had to left to pursue a higher education, they were welcomed back with open arms after the humc softball sirens sang them back to us. if kiker ever leaves to go coach some other kid's little league baseball team, he doesn't have to fret about his rightful seat being taken out from under him. the founding fathers policy prevents that from happening. it's a somewhat selfish and self-serving policy. i will own that. whatareyougonnado? eleven years later, five of those eleven men still remain active on the team. how ya like them apples??? i can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that no team that existed at new covenant in our first year can make that claim. not that i am proud of it or anything.

so, the founding fathers played softball together eleven years ago. we practiced at huffman ballpark on sunday afternoons, chris hicks and i singing the theme song to "the greatest american hero" to each other in the outfield, brad henson being renamed "chipper" then "chip", doug foote and paul sutton sharing time both at pitcher and first base, gibbs owning shortstop and nate beverly constantly wowing the rest of us with his natural athletic ability, rocket arm and perfect swing, doing it all with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. we practiced because that's what we thought we were supposed to do, that and we didn't want to make assholes of ourselves when we made our unprofessional debut as a team. and, what do you know? we didn't. we didn't win the league that first season, but we were okay from what i remember. a .500 team with enough good moments and good times to know we'd play again in the fall. we got a little better in the fall, so we'd play again the next spring. and so it went for several years. as guys burned out or guys went off to school or pastors got moved to other cities, our cast changed. the more it changed, the more it seemed to stay the same. the proverbial names on the back of the jerseys (t-shirt in the early days) were different, but the feeling always familial and familiar. softball became a once (or twice) a week excuse to feel like kids again, to forget what shitty shit was going on at work or at church or in life in general, to escape back to that feeling when your neighbors would knock on your door when we were ten so we could go out and play. we went out and played alright. we played softball at new covenant fellowship church in pinson. and we've been playing ever since.

i've been thinking for a week now about all the guys that have worn some version of "the green" over the last eleven years. not counting guys that we had to pick up at the field, here are the names i can come up with:

adam mcclendon
jason lynn
jason white ("rookie", "rook")
clint argo ("big nasty", "nasty")
kevin williams
taylor preston ("the wall")
tim bowman
cody berguson
heath argo
donald richards
melvin eatmon
robert williams
philip gibson
ken sransky
kevin allard
bo martin
mike's brother in law, brett
bryan pool
ken tittle
caleb martin
keith carpenter
aaron clark
mark usry
reagan denson
jason mccleney
mike williams
mark alfano
(sarah o'kelley and melanie (sransky) williams also deserve shout-outs for being our unofficial team moms)

38 guys! there's no way i haven't forgotten somebody. and i am going to feel really bad when i remember or am reminded of those names. 38 guys in 11 years. thinking about that number over what has now been 21 completed seasons, it feels like a lot of moving parts. i guess it was. i guess it is. obviously, not every one of those guys played full seasons (only three of the 38 have been ever-present souls, participants in each of the 21 seasons...me, kike, and paul) with the team. maybe circumstances prevented it from happening. maybe we only needed a fill-in for a few weeks. whatever the case was or has been, though, i have fond memories of my experiences with every single one.

i've been tripping down memory lane for a week for one specific reason. last monday night, june 20th, humc men played their last game at new covenant fellowship church. the park and the fields were never the best in birmingham, but they are both now shells of their former selves. i won't trash either too hard in this post. that's not what this is for.

this post is for revisiting some history. this post is for revisioning some of the same. it's for the good times that we had. it's for all the games we won. it's for the two titles that we claimed. it's for every frustrating monday, tuesday or thursday when the line-up cards were harder than usual to fill out. it's for the bad times when we weren't nearly as good as we thought we should be and it's for the worse times when we were just plain bad.

this post is for all the loved ones that came out to see us play. it's for all the weddings that have brought us together in better clothes. it's for all the babies that have been born into our unofficial family. it's for divorce. it's for busted down trucks. it's for cancer. it's for lost friends and found friends. it's for the years before the concession stand and the years after.

we moved to a new address last night. i won't bet on another post like this in ten years. given what's now in our rear-view mirror, i won't bet against it.

i've been alive working on 35 years. 11 of them...ELEVEN (really how many things in your life have you done for 11 years that don't include your job? i don't have another example)...have been framed by one team and one place, one place with three fields and 37 guys i didn't know at the time that i couldn't live without.

softball, as an idea, was really nothing more than an excuse to hang out with our friends.

to that end, it's the best idea i've ever had.  

to be continued...