Thursday night, the False Consciousness, our departmental softball team, completed our first winning season. We did it by beating a team with a better record than we had (they were 4-2 coming in and we were 3-3) and knocking them out of the playoffs. Rather than composing my own narrative, I will repeat Greg “Coach” Taylor’s:
With a graceful catch from Jeremy Morris at third base, the False Consciousness first ever winning season came to an end last night with a convincing 19-6 win over a team that was actually ahead of us in the standings. We played the spoilers and eliminated them from the post-season.
Not only did we have a winning season (4-3) but we finished only one point out of the playoffs.
There is no doubt the story last night was the debut of Aysha Mawani. She took the position of catcher to artistic heights. On the very first pitch of the game she caught a foul ball for an out and proceeded to do that four more times during the game (five really, but we were nice to them). This almost never happens, much less four times in a game. The rest of us in the field were unnecessary for more than an inning.
Also notable was the welcome return of Jonathan Sterne, who may have proven that jet lag can be a performance enhancer.
Thanks for a great season everyone. As usual, we never fielded the same team twice.
Please check out the department facebook page for some photos soon.
There is a post on the virtues of softball over at Midnight Poutine, and I would certainly agree with the assessment, though I had no idea that baseball was of interest to hipsters. But it shouldn’t be lost that ours is a departmental softball team. Summer has a double meaning for those living on an academic calendar, and I like the softball as a totally social mode of togetherness during a time when departments traditionally don’t come together. That we have a common project that places us in completely different roles from our academic lives is an added bonus (okay, coach Taylor did play a role in organizing the grad student association and the softball team, but my point is made).