Two years ago—two literal years—I endeavored to find a group of people who would play softball with me. Then the Parks & Rec screwed up and we were left off the schedule. One year ago, I was in a self-induced coma brought on by a case of head-up-own-ass disease. But this year... oh, this year...
The call went out and the people responded in waves, droves, with massive groups of softball hungry miscreants. We have nearly 20 people on the roster. And by nearly 20, I mean 19. Just one shy. That’s how nearly.
But old problems resurfaced. The first practice, we only had four people show up, myself included. And collecting the money to pay the $450 fee presented me some trouble. It wasn’t looking good heading into the second practice.
Further, I was on deadline with the paper, and I had to put my girlfriend on a plane (I do that when I’m sick of her being so smart, funny and super fine).
But I drove back to Macon from Atlanta, buying some balls of the 11- and 12-inch variety along the way. One person was there at a quarter to 6pm, our start time, and one person was there at ten past. I was getting worried.
The floodgates opened and we had more people than I could shake a stick at, so I told some of them to stand in the field and others to grab a bat and I threw balls at them. Big balls (of the 11- and 12-inch variety). We did this until the sun went down. I’m sore today but I felt fantastic yesterday.
Prescott Suzuki is sponsoring the team, and initially, I thought that meant that I’d have to do
away with our original team logo, which is inspired by the PBR label. I didn’t think that Prescott Suzuki, the official car dealership of the 2008 Macon Improvement Authority Softball Team, would like the message that pairing would send. Folks frown on the insinuation of drinking and driving. But! But they were cool with it and so we get to go with our cool logo. The alternative was going to be shitty. Now, I’m thinking of ordering extra jerseys so our fans can have some when they attend games.
We’re working on securing a boombox so we can each have a song played as we approach the plate. And I’m thinking of paying a DJ for the pre-game and post-game party because at the official league manager’s meeting, they told us how to drink beer at the park without getting caught. Very handy info.
And we’re toying with theme games, like wacky hat game and such. Whatever we can do to make the other team feel really shitty for losing to us. Because they will lose. Our team is gonna rock. Ozzie Smith is playing shortstop for the MIA, y’all. He’s a little whiter, younger and more female than you remember, but it’s him, I’m convinced. No one plays co-ed recreational softball like the Wizard of Oz. The list of could-be ringers goes on, but I don’t want to ruin the surprise. Just come see for yourself how badass we are.
I’ll have to get back with you on the dates and times, but it starts April 14th.
This all reminds me of what life was like a couple years back. Seeing as I’ve vacated from some of the social life lately, I’ve forgotten how good community feels. Not to belabor the point, but I wanted to rest and recover from a couple years of living stupidly (a couple could be 20 if you tilt your head) and on top of that, the being drunk thing bored me. Now that I’m getting more involved in things that may involve getting drunk but won’t hinge on it, I’m remembering why I like Macon so much: The People.
For instance, those Macon Venue Project kids. If you don’t know, they’re raising money with the hopes of opening up an all-ages, all-genres venue in downtown. Why? Because they love Macon and want to put their energy into making it a place they like. Hey! That’s what I used to do! (I mean, I still do but...)
To clarify, if there’s one big thing I can point to in my life that led me to the stage I’m in now (i.e. - the editor of the 11th Hour, etc) it is the first six months I spent in The Center for Revolutionary Studies with Roger Riddle and Camo Canady.
History lesson: I got back from Detroit and found a chip on my shoulder. I wanted to do something with my life and I thought I could do it in Macon. Nay, that I should do it in Macon. I had this grand scheme of opening up a multi-purpose establishment that would feature a live music venue, a record shop, bookstore, coffee shop and restaurant. Being the arrogant bastard that I am, I called Roger Riddle and said, "Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s talk." I called him because I thought he’d be down.
And he was... he was so down that he’d already started doing it months before I even came back. In fact, he’d had benefit shows of his own. It was happening and he let me be a part of it. He brought Camo in, and that’s why we were all roommates. From there, we had meetings with other interested parties. We tossed around ideas, most of which we never followed through on. We called it The Consciousness Collective.
Camo wanted to call it something like "Gold Dust". We laughed at that and moved on.
I say we didn’t follow through on it, but that’s only half-true. We did what we could with what we had when we had it. What we couldn’t complete then, we’ve left up to the collective consciousness, which is the notion that you sort of speak things into existence. A lot of the stuff we bandied about back then has come to be in some form or another. Generally, we’ve been a part of it. At the very least, we’ve supported it.
This Macon Venue Project thing is exciting to me just as it makes me feel old. When I first sat with Ryan, Matt and Mark, I thought about Roger, Camo and me. Their idealism initially depressed me, but then I thought about how, in turns, we’ve all been contributing since then.
One idea we had was to showcase Macon’s music talent with a big music festival at Luther Williams Field. We had a list of like five bands, maybe ten (I don’t remember exactly). Well, that idea fed into the 11th Hour Reader’s Choice Awards, and it came into play with Bragg Jam, which uniquely blends local, regional and national talent. You can certainly see how the music scene has grown with that kind of support.
I’m not saying that it’s all because of us, but I know that good ideas don’t die, they transform and eventually become doable. And that’s what feels good about Macon now. So few of us really believed that it could be something worthwhile (and we were ten years behind plenty others who thought it first) but that’s grown and continues to.
Or maybe I’m just being silly because I get to play softball now. Who knows?
One more thing: Macon is about to get its own Kickball League too. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment