
^C{Softdisk Softball
^Cby the ODM Staff}

Softdisk Publishing fielded a softball team this summer and fall, mostly composed of programmers from our On Disk Monthly and Apple Development Group departments.  The experience has been so much fun that we've decided to share some of our more memorable experiences with our subscribers.

The team:
Jim Branton - Manager, shortstop (Apple Developer Group)
Von Berry - Outfield, catcher (ADG)
David Davis - Catcher (Order fulfillment)
Stephen Vekovius - First base, outfield (Accounting)
Joel Bianca - Second base (non-employee)
John Stephens - Third base (Order Fulfillment)
Todd Lewis - Shortstop, third base (On Disk Monthly)
Brian Pietrzak - Pitcher, First Base (ADG)
James Gulledge - Pitcher, catcher (ODM)
Peter Rokitski - Outfield (ADG)
Jonathan Bianca - Outfield (ODM)
George Leritte - Outfield (ODM)
Sean Golden - Second base, Outfield (ODM)
Joel Hawlbreaker - Second base (non-Employee)
Anthony Morris - Catcher (Technical Support)
Daniel Eklund - Catcher (Quality Assurance)
Carol Madison - Score-keeper (Art)
Lynda Fowler - Alternate score-keeper (ODM)

Our games were played at Tinsley Park, located in the lovely metropolis of Bossier City, across the Red River from Shreveport.  Besides being a ballpark and playground, Tinsley also holds the world record for fire ant density, calculated to around 5,000,000 ants per square foot of turf.  This superfluity of insects is only exceeded by the cloud of thumb-sized mosquitoes which frequently obscure the view of the ball from the outfield.

We set many records this year, but the most impressive record was the all-time batters-up record for a single inning.  The final count was something like 25 batters up in a single inning.  But we finally got our act together and put the other team out.

We achieved quite a reputation around Shreveport-Bossier as the most talked-about softball team in the area, something we were quite proud of.  Many people were heard to say: "Man, the way they play softball, they must be GREAT programmers."

Many fans compared our play to some of the great performers in American folklore.  Frequent references to the Three Stooges were heard, for example.

But we managed to stay mostly injury-free for the season, except for Peter's run in with the fence in center field, Sean's "stove-in toe" inflicted on him by Jon Bianca in practice, numerous abrasions and contusions caused by impressive if not effective sliding techniques, and a few bumps and bruises.

Our overall record was 5 wins to 31 losses.  Many of those losses were by less than ten runs!  And only one win was due to another team not showing up.

Of course we want to keep playing but it gets cold even down here in Shreveport, so now we need to find some other way to kill time between issues.  Maybe we'll take up bowling...
