I believe the word 'dynasty' is thrown around a little too loosely in the sports world. I'm not sure winning three Superbowls over a 10 year period or a couple of World Series in a decade qualifies as a 'dynasty'. If you're looking for a REAL dynasty, look no further than the cut-throat Thursday Night NASA Co-ed Recreational Softball League. :-) Thunder-Bear has won six consecutive championships - many of those without loosing a single game for the entire season. Sadly (for me anyway - I'm on the team), it looks like our reign of terror over the rest of the techno-geeks and rocket scientists at Johnson Space Center may be coming to an end.
When I accepted a job with Lockheed Martin at JSC back in 1998, I really didn't know anybody. One of the first things I did was head to the Gilruth Center (the sites athletic and fitness facility) and check the board to see if anyone was looking for players in just about any sport. I called a number for a team that was looking for a guy to add to their co-ed squad and joined the team later that week.
We played in the Tuesday night league, but it wasn't long before I was playing with teams on Wednesday and Thursday as well. I also joined Volleyball, Flag Football and Soccer teams at NASA as well as the NASA Golf League. The Gilruth Center does a great job of providing a social and fitness outlet for all JSC employees and contractors. I made a lot of friends through these teams and even met my wife playing softball at NASA (I claim that she was mesmerized by my mad glove skills:-).
About 10 years ago, my friend Barry and I started Thunder-Bear on Thursday nights and the domination started early. We were always one of the top teams on Thursday and won the playoffs (which at the time included the top four teams from each of the three nights) about every other season. Because too many players played on multiple nights, the Gilruth wisely did away with this format, and since then, with only the Thursday night teams to worry about, Thunder-Bear has been close to unstoppable.
This season has been a bit of a challenge. On the surface, it doesn't look that bad. We only lost one regular season game, and it was by a single run to a .500 team that barely made the playoffs so we could call it a fluke. We ended up finishing the regular season in 2nd place (we didn't play the 1st place team and they went undefeated) and still headed into the playoffs with a first-round bye.
Tonight we played "Ga-Goozsh", a team that's been around about as long as we have and usually finishes 2nd to us most seasons. They finished in 3rd this year and had easily won their opening round game earlier in the evening. We were missing some of our usuals: our pitcher and his wife play on another team and a couple of our regular guys were in Florida to witness the final shuttle launch. Another problem is that our shortstop (me) had knee surgery in November and isn't anywhere close to 100% yet (and, quite frankly, is just getting old). We had to play with a lot of people out of position. That said, we had destroyed them when we met during the regular season. Tonight, they came with a solid line-up and got a measure of revenge. We lost 10-8. It's a double-elimination format so we aren't dead just yet, but coming up through the losers bracket is tough. The good news is that we should have some of our regulars back next week. I'll blog the results of the rest of the playoffs next Thursday night - good or bad (I hope everyone can sleep between now and then waiting to find out:-).
I really wouldn't mind losing a game or two here or there, nor would I be heartbroken if we failed to win a 7th consecutive championship. What bothers me, however, is that I don't seem to be able to do anything about it. As Toby Keith says - "I ain't as good as I once was". Post knee surgery, I'm only able to play softball and golf. I'm also only playing for Thunder-Bear. I just can't physically do anything anymore. I can't jog so I'm out of shape. I have no explosive push off my right leg so I can't break on balls that I used to get routinely and I've lost a great deal of top end speed. My goal at the beginning of every season used to be to bat 1.000 for that season, and I've done it a couple of times. My old Wednesday night team used to keep stats and had a web site. I retired from that team with an .867 average over about 6 years. Today, I'm more likely to go 2-4 than 4-4 (I was 3-4 tonight with a couple of doubles). Getting old sucks!
The dynasty may come to an end next Thursday night. We'll go down fighting if it does, and the sun will still come up the next day. I used to be a lot more competitive than I am now. Before I had my knee cut on last year, I used to spend a lot of time in the dirt during the playoffs - diving for grounders, sliding into bases . One of my teammates once said to me, pointing to blood pouring down my knee, "It's not the World Series you know". My response was "Well, for JSC employees and contractors who play softball on Thursday nights between the hours of 6pm and 10pm, it is!" :-) I'm not sure I still feel that way.
I've been thinking about retiring from softball lately. I'm still an OK player, but I'm not sure if I'm OK with just being an OK player. That would leave me with only golf - which I hate!
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