2010: Disagreement
2010: Many Faces of Joy
2010: Referees Off The Court
2010: Blind Layup
2009: Against All Odds
A Perfect Season In Review
It was Saturday, 9th May 2009 – and the weatherman had predicted mostly cloudy weather with highs of around upper 40s and Sun was expected to make a guest appearance or two. About halfway through our first practice session, weather conditions made a fool of weatherman’s prediction and fairy tale like snow flakes gave our softball fields a venerable Lambeau Field in Winter look. While most others would have called it an end, our passion [or foolishness, you be the judge] kept us going and at the end of it all, I knew [seriously, I am not kidding or making this up] we would be the last team standing when season’s Sun headed towards horizon. And having nothing but softball [at least during Summer months] to claim as life, I spent part of the day after in making a sign – that we would be holding for the team picture.
2009: Coach Lombardi
THE JINX IS BROKEN … On National Television!!!
As weird as it might sound, none of the men’s team from my school, Michigan Tech, had ever beaten a men’s team from our arch rivals, Northern Michigan, when I was part of the audience. I thought it had to do with my physical presence in the gym but apparently watching them over the internet was jinxed too. As ashamed as I was about this, I was equally proud of the fact that none of our women’s team had ever lost to the arch rivals; but I must admit – shame over-weighed my pride by a few orders of magnitude, in spite of the concerned athletes trying to convince me that it was them and not me…
Huskies blew away Wildcats in Marquette’s Superior Dome (NMU’s home field) in a nationally televised Division II Football Game of the Week (thanks to CBS College Sports Network and FSN Detroit) to lay claim to the Miner’s Cup. During my recent trip up north, a bunch of these football players had promised to break my jinx and true to their words, that JINX is history now :)
God bless the internet and Skype, I got to watch this with buddy Kyle in Alaska. Honestly, I don’t think I have ever watched a game on TV (or any other program for that matter), in which I could claim personal acquaintance to so many – athletes, coaching staff and fans included. In spite of being over a thousand miles away from the venue, I couldn’t forget my usual role in such events and as such, ended up shooting some pictures:
These and rest of the pictures from this game are here.
2008: Touch Down
2008: Swing
Season As A Stray Mac
For those that have known me for last six years or so, my obsession with softball is nothing new. I love this game so much so that holy spirits have been taking a back seat from early Spring till late Fall for the last couple years (thanks to a dear someone who solved the mystery behind my last season’s slump) and my body is put through a not-so-rigorous yet unusual work out sessions. This Spring was no different – having moved to the East Coast for work, I had to find a new team to play with. I saw a flier advertising the local Softball Club during my first visit to the Fitness Center at work place and a staff member even charted out a detailed plan to improve my throwing / hitting skills. Dear Bucky even sent a glorious recommendation letter to the league mentioned in the flier:
An Evening In Yankees Universe
The Days (Years) Leading Up To The Day
It was the mid 90s – while much of our community was enjoying the new found concept of Satellite TV (Star Sports, BBC, CNN and Chinese Entertainment were the only satellite channels on the menu), the concept of TV itself – as was everything else that had anything to do with technology – was a pretty new phenomenon in our household. With only two channels [decent looking Doordarshan (DD) and mostly scrambled Doordarshan2 [DD2]) and an occasional news paper subscription to stay tuned with happenings around the world, I had rarely seen any sport in action – other than Cricket, Soccer, (Field) Hockey, Tennis and Swimming to some extent.
