2018 and Still Kicking!

After another long winter the time has finally come! We are back at it as of last week with our Spring Season.  I'm still playing.  We're still crushing it.   Our league is massive. 28 teams and over 525 players.  A little nutty but it's nice to finally get some decent weather and get back out there.  Play ball!

2017 Recap

My bad, I didn't update you at all on how the spring/summer/and fall culminated for me and the Ballz Deep crew. 

Let's see..
We finished Spring season 8-3, losing in the Semi Finals.
We finished Summer season 8-1, losing our first game in the playoffs :(
We finished Fall season 9-2, again losing in the Semi Finals.

At 25-6 overall, this was my most successful year as far as winning went.  I'm still annoyed to not have pushed thru to the championship but I feel really good about our squad going forward.

As far as my numbers go I did great pitching and decent kicking. I started using more of a high bounce pitch and it turned out to be super effective against all the kickers as long as the umpire gave me the correct strike zone :)

I pitched 119 2/3rd innings this year allowing only 57 runs. 0.48 runs an inning, with a 2.858 RA/6 inning.  Our defense got better and better over the year and will continue to improve next year.

I kicked at a .490 average which wasn't super spectacular with 12 rbis, 6 runs, and 1 home run.  The team kicked at a .599 average overall. Wow.

My focus now is to resume a training program to shed some of weight I've still yet to lose since this injury and just improve the overall strength of these legs.  I haven't gotten back to distance running yet and I'd still like to. 

I still think about the leg but didn't as much during games as the year went on.  I laughed earlier this week while walking, thinking, is this how I walked before? I can't remember what it was like to walk normal. Maybe I am walking normal. Who knows.

Shutout City

We held Get It In scoreless to win 4-0 this week.  Our defense is on point. Two shutouts in a row. Tonight we'll go for number 3 as we face Kickerbockers. Season is going great so far. We've risen to #3 overall in the league and I don't expect us to lose any of the remaining 4 games during the regular season.  Our 6 rookies are doing well and we're going to keep our foot on the pedal until we face off against one of these tougher teams. So far so good.

Spring standings thru 4 games

Three Games In

A little tardy on the recaps here but after 3 games we are 2-1 on the season!

Was able to shake off a little rust during that preseason game. Got an inning of work in rolling and two plate appearances. Rounded the bases once I got on the first time and got pushed to home a little bit by the baserunner behind me but I got there and scored and that was nice.

First official game back we were missing a third of our squad while we attempted to acclimate 6 rookies and 2 new players to our team. So it was interesting. In retrospect our first opponent on the schedule could potentially of been our toughest game of the regular season. They had an adequate pitcher (zing Rob), a solid SS, and a monster catcher.  The catcher gobbled up all our bunts and swallowed us whole. There was a few questionable calls at first but had we been in the field we would have wanted them too. I got into trouble a couple times with deep pitch counts and runners on base. I even walked two kickers, though I don't mind when they are good kickers since it limits the damage. The dagger came in the top of the 5th with bases loaded and a left foot kicker placing it just right on the right field line sneaking past the right fielder. The ball was relayed in and I chucked it towards home and got the kicker out saving the grand slam, but we were in trouble being down 5-0 by then.  Our attempt to rally sputtered before it started and we lost 5-0.   It's tough when you are down but kickball is a funny sport. Sometimes all a team needs is one big inning. Our opponents got one but we weren't able to.  We'll likely have to face them again in the playoffs.  Losing that game put us at 5-2 lifetime against Menace. First time I lost to them.

Game two a week later was against more of a casual team, Manatee. It hurt to not color any bubbles in week 1 but everything changed right away in this game as we scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 1st. The field we played on was annoying. I swear that there was a tiny bump right at the exact spot that I typically throw the ball at during a pitch. It was super windy too. I had to make an adjustment to just get it in play and my defense held. Unfortunately our game started late so we only got 5 innings in. The game was over 9-4 but Manatee wanted to field again and let us kick for fun. Okay. So we scored 6 more runs as darkness invaded. I went 1-2 in the game, getting on base with a bunt (something I don't plan to do all the time but when the opportunity presents itself). Brendan was annoyed he was last in the kicking order but hey, it rotates.  Was great to get that first W and to color in all those bubbles. The new players were adjusting and learning quick as to where they needed to be in the field and what was expected of them on offense.

Last night was our third game of the season against Home Run or Bust. A mild friendly rivalry with this team has always existed going back to when they used to be the "Times Union" team with Lisset.  At least I'm pretty sure most of those players that still play are on this team now but what do I know. Terri and Chris (Big Daddy) are fun to play against and I hope they feel the same way about us. Though they didn't seem to be having all that much fun at the end of the game when we skunked them 7-0.  Brendan got bumped up in the order and had himself a day getting 6 RBIs on 2 kicks including a grand slam whopper in the 3rd. There was a catch he made in the field that I can't adequately describe in words but I'll note it here so that those that saw it can remember it via this trigger.  It was one of those, WTF is he doing catches, but he caught it.  Alex pitched 1 scoreless and I pitched 5. Had a couple player scratches during the game that forced me to make some managerial adjustments but all was well. I again went 1-2 with a bunt single and unfortunately like a dumb ass I over stepped my self and tried to get from 2nd to 3rd on a wild play where the ball went askew after getting the other baserunner out at 3rd. Thought I could make it and knew within 3 steps that I very much could not. Tried to get back but it was too late. Should of stayed at second. I made an over the shoulder catch for the last out and that was that.  2-1 on the season with 9 runs against.

Spring 2017 Schedule

The preseason pickup game went relatively well. I played an inning at first (I hate playing first base!) and got to pitch an inning. We did 5 out innings so I got a decent amount of work in. I even got to pitch against Jay (from my team). Almost got him to foul out.  I kicked twice and neither attempts were all that pretty but I got on base twice and scored so that happened.  Was definitely a bit sore after the game but that's just gonna be the deal. Got to get used to the new new.

We finally got the schedule this week and here it is.  Won't lie. I was hoping we'd get a new team for the first week but we're scheduled against three veteran teams to start the season.  All good.  Ain't no rest for the best. I'm excited about our new players and looking forward to finally starting this!

Preseason

We're having some warmup practice pick up kickball action tonight and it'll be unofficially/officially my first action since going down..   Let's do this!

So it's been a minute

Hi everyone!  Apologies for a lack of updates over the last year.  Everything has been going good.  Still feels awkward at times.  It's an ongoing adjustment.  Been walking a lot and running a fair amount.  About to kick things into high gear and really blast off.

Running -- The hardest thing about getting back into half marathon shape is getting back into a regular routine. I've been doing 2 mile runs but only a couple times a week.  I'm still looking at getting back to where I was and I am going to schedule myself for a half marathon this fall so I'll really need to upgrade my training real soon here to stay on pace.  I'll be doing the corporate challenge for the first time next month. That's only a 3.5 mile race.  I did do a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day last fall in Delmar for my first actual race back.  My pace is super slow these days but that's okay.  It's all about the duration and distance at this point for me.

Kickball -- Being a spectator last year was tough. It was great to hang out with my friends but by the time the Fall season wrapped up I was ready to be done with the watching and ready for the rolling.  But here we are, on the cusp of a new season. I've got a fully loaded team of 20 people and spring season starts on 4/20.  My goal is to wrap little recaps of our games and how I felt to keep this blog updated moving forward. I'm just excited to start and get back to rolling the ball again.  It's been 623 days since I rolled it!!  I never even took the field the day I got injured since it was the top of the 1st inning.

Anyway, just wanted to chime in and let you know I plan to update this some more this summer moving forward.  Even if no one reads it, that's okay.  It'll be good for me!  Cheers everybody..  and it's okay to ask me how the knee feels even if I laugh at how many times I get asked. It's topical.

Oh hi!

It's spring and I've got a bit more spring in my step lately.  I've got back to some light jogging, have yet to find a good consistent pattern but I trudge along at my 13-14 minute miles. It's something. Still getting better every day.  Kickball season started again but I'm not playing. I watch. I ref our games and help out where I can. It's something. The jogging is getting a bit better but I'm not quite back to where I want to be yet. With near certainty I won't play Summer league either. And that's ok. No rush here. I'm enjoying walking.
I'm sure there's more to report, and I've been bad about these. But everything is coming along as expected and as planned still.  Slowly, but steady.

Hitting The Streets

Yah, I've been bad. I owe you a recap of the last few months. The short version is that my surgeon recommended I stop going to PT and just do it on my own in January. It felt like I was breaking up with a girlfriend when I told my PT guy. Mid way through January I started using the Elliptical machine at work. I've maxed at 30 minutes so far and have stuck to a path of slow progression.

Last week I attempted to actually jog for the first time. I started my intervals small at 30 seconds walking, 15 seconds running. The running felt okay but awkward. It isn't looking very pretty to see but it's happening. I felt decent enough halfway through that run to switch intervals and do 30 on, 15 off. I actually had a few strides that felt normal. I did a little over a mile.

This past Saturday I went back out and did 30 second walking, 45 second running intervals. It again felt okay, but limpy. It should improve. I' going to try to stick to running only a couple times a week until it feels better and better. But it's nice to get back out there and get my feet on the ground. I'm getting closer to feeling slightly more normal!

Happy New Year!

Here's a quick glance at how I finished out the year with my fitbit stats. My fitbit died on vacation in mid July so that explains that "empty space". The fitbit company sent me a replacement shortly after, and shortly before I had my injury.  The graph shows my pre-surgery progress in late August and then my slow recovery in Fall.  This chart would have looked much different had I finished 2015 the way I started but things happen!  Let's make 2016 great!