At the Batting Cage

An Interesting Day at the Batting Cage

A good friend of mine was in town yesterday afternoon and where did he want to go? not to the new butterfly garden with the flowers and stuff.. not to a movie where sitting down in the dark appeals to me, not a cool restaurant (again with the sitting down thing).. but to Mike Greenwell's to play the arcade, go into the batting cages and play miniature golf.

So, I thought to myself, ok, I'll play your silly reindeer games and I met him there.. first of all .. the arcade.. smelled pretty good.. fragrant disinfectant smell-good.. but then I remembered that a LOT of ppl/kids/etc touch all this stuff and I don't see the attendants running around with clorox wipes cleaning up after everyone's touching the stuff.

I survived the boredom of two air hockey games. HINT: do NOT put your hand on the railing w your fingers hanging over it.. it's a magnet for that puck-thing.. but I was able to use both hands, alternatingly to work the muscles on both arms, so that was cool.. Then we raced souped up cars.. I chose the baja run a couple of times and kept hitting coyotes.. the graphics didn't seem to mind running over the cacti and coyotes and big rocks..

My top speed was 58mph.. felt at LEAST like 59. But I digress..

I did like the toss the ball up a 'thing' and under a net to see what hole it went into.. the more points I got to, the more tickets rolled out.. I was then able to attain the epitome of 9 tickets.. thus got 3 tootsie roll minis and it was all good.. But THEN.. I wanted to go to the batting cages.. I had to don a helmet that only 1220000000 other people had previously donned, but they sprayed it w lysol for me.. whew.. did I feel better! and she asked what bat I wanted.. I said 'one of those there on the wall'.. she asked, 'softball or hardball?' I said, "gimme a bat".. she handed me one. My friend got a heavier one.. we went out and kept walking around until we got to the 'grounders' cage.. ok, slowpitch maybe it was listed.. but I did pretty good.. I hit some right-handed, then I switched arms and hit some left-handed. With whatever action sport I do, I alternate hands/arms so that I'm sore on both sides as well as 'worked out' vs just in major pain on one side only.

I discovered I'm an equal opportunity ball misser.. but some actually connected.. and the more I swung and played, the more connected. The more my body hurt.. but the action of hitting the ball.. oh, yeah, I had a REAL hitter stance.. pfft.. but I did get some movement in that I'm not used to, as witnessed trying to roll out of my waterbed this morning.. a sad and sorry sight.

But I'd love to go back to the batting cage, missing the previously touched 'stuff' inside the arcade, and keep the exercise going.. luckily I had taken off my glasses as when I did it before 30 years ago, they fogged up and I couldn't see the ball coming.. and this time, I could see it and didn't get all sweaty. I passed on the miniature golf.. I was done..

I just don't compete and he was trying to get me to the fast ball cage to see how many he could hit vs me.. I passed when I heard the sound of the ball hitting the pad on the back of the cage and if I'd be hit, it would hurt FAR more than 'my love of the game'.. and frankly, my give a damn is broken when it comes to how many points someone makes vs another .. pfft.. next.. then he punched my arm saying 'come ON!!! get INTO it!!!' I punched him back and said, "NAH.. where should we eat?" but I jogged over to my car! man, I felt SO good!!!!!

Anyway, on a side note, my peace sign bags seem to the first choice for most ppl.. and Whoopie Goldberg is wearing a shirt w a big one on it today too! Interesting..
Copyright 2008, From Bekki Shanklin’s “Thinking all the time” series