At Bat
I've had a hankering to try a batting cage since at least mid-summer. The last time I remember being in a batting cage was probably at least eleven years ago, maybe much more. The last time I got to swing at a pitched ball was at the first "Engineering Softball Classic" softball game my senior year at university. It was the four engineering depts at odds: Civil (red), Mechanical (green), Electrical (yellow), and Biomedical (blue). How crazy that I remember the jersey colors. I was a bit worried about being so out of practice, as I'm sure other people were as well. It was a social game, and the pressure was lessened by twisting the rules to enhance the fun: no strike-outs or walks, so for every at bat, the batter eventually got some sort of hit and the fielders got a little action. The worry was for naught as I got solid hits when I was up to the plate.
I actually think very little of baseball as a game in general. It's a great non-participatory sport. There's a huge amount of time wasted just standing or sitting around. It's a pretty boring activity much of the time. For five years as a youth, I played tee-ball up to little league. I remember lots of time just standing in the field or impatiently waiting in the dugout for a turn at bat. It's really a horrible game for kids.
On Tuesday, I finally got my chance in a batting cage. It was great. Just what I wanted. No waiting, just bat after bat. For a few bucks, I took 120 swings in sets of 20. My first 20 was embarrassing. The "medium" speed baseball pitches whizzed by. Fortunately, I found a groove and managed some satisfying hits. The challenge was to hit it in just the right manner to avoid all the nets (even many non-foul balls would hit the nets) and see how far I could hit it into the back field. Overall, it was exactly what I wanted. At the end, not only was I getting fatigued, but I was getting painful blisters on my hands -- probably exacerbated by the cheap tape on the aluminum bat.