It occurs to me I shouldn't have submitted this on April 1st. For the record: Not a prank!

I will take this into account when making vacation plans. Usually my wife need to be back for school by then, so I should make it.

August is the one month this summer that is an absolutely empty slate for me, so count me as an optimistic "maybe" pending further information.

I'll be there if I can.

Shooty, you've been stealthily at work behind our backs! I talked to Jason yesterday, he didn't know if anything was started yet. I was going to post a "Let's get something organized!" thread last night but went home and drank beer instead. Lucky thing I guess.

Thanks for getting this all set. Hope we can get a good crowd this year, not all the stiffs we're usually stuck with.

Hey, I resembled that remark! (in 2014)

I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page, so I clicked on the link and it took me back to this page

We've marked it off on our calendar and are already looking for hotels!

Unless that's the move-in weekend for my daughter's college, I should be there.

And yes, thanks, Shooty, for getting this organized. What field do we have this year?

Is that date locked in? May be a hair too late in the summer for a trip.

I will do my best to arrange my child custody schedule to make it.

I should be able to go this year, depending on the time.

How about the NYC softball game happen in DC?

You're welcome, Howie! :-)

August looks like a busy month for me this year. If all goes as planned, I'll be celebrating:

1) 1st day of retirement
2) 38th wedding anniversary
3) --th birthday
4) BTF softball

List is in order of occurrence, not (necessarily) importance.

I intend to be there this year. I'll be driving up from eastern PA (Amish Paradise) and just making it a day trip, so if anyone roundabout Philly wants/needs a ride let me know.

<cracks knuckles>

Aight. Bring it.

I no longer work for a hotel company that has decent room rates in NYC.

Just to clarify--the request has been submitted for August 20th but there's no confirmation yet. I've always received my first choice of dates in the past so I'm very confident Aug 20th will be the day. Looks like the field will be in the North Meadow this year.

Shooty, you've been stealthily at work behind our backs! I talked to Jason yesterday, he didn't know if anything was started yet. I was going to post a "Let's get something organized!" thread last night but went home and drank beer instead. Lucky thing I guess.

Thanks for getting this all set. Hope we can get a good crowd this year, not all the stiffs we're usually stuck with.

Thanks again for calling and reminding me, H&U. Actually, I e-mailed Shooty later that day, thinking that you would drink beer instead of reaching out. :)

Anyway, count me in for the 20th.

Is anyone planning on fighting anyone at this?

I'm always planning on fighting at these things.

Is anyone planning on fighting anyone at this?

I will gladly punch you if you show up.

I'm always planning on fighting at these things.

With some dude cutting in front of you at the sausage cart doesn't count.

Are the Yankees and Mets really both on the road that weekend, or am I reading the schedules very badly? :)

It appears that the Yankees and Mets have three August weekends where they're aligned rather than opposite: two at home, one on the road. I guess keeping them strictly opposite, anymore, is futile with how complex the schedule has become.

Are the Yankees and Mets really both on the road that weekend, or am I reading the schedules very badly? :)

Ah, they know better than to try to compete with us! The NYC market ain't that big!

Actually, I e-mailed Shooty later that day, thinking that you would drink beer instead of reaching out. :)

Talking with you will do that to a guy


:-)

Is anyone planning on fighting anyone at this?

Are you gonna be the BTF Don King?

Literary/historical anecdote (which I've heard with a couple of different writers cited as the instigator, so, probably apocryphal):

Writer, a non-pugilistic type, goes into a bar, sizes up the patrons, decides on a likely specimen (physically imposing, somewhat inebriated, not terribly bright) and proceeds to make a nuisance of himself, goading the poor sap into challenging him to take it outside. So out the door they go, where they meet Writer's friend, E Hemingway, who proceeds to mop the floor with the sucker.

I think the 1st time I heard this the Writer was Thomas Woolf, the 2nd it was James Joyce. I think it would be better if Writer was Gertrude Stein. Even better if Writer's friend was Gertrude Stein.

I'm listed as probable for the game. Never know what'll come up over four months, but that weekend is currently clear for me.

I intend to be there this year. I'll be driving up from eastern PA (Amish Paradise) and just making it a day trip, so if anyone roundabout Philly wants/needs a ride let me know.

I think AndrewJ made the trip up from Philly last year. I mean, I know he was there, but I think he came in from Philly.

Are you gonna be the BTF Don King?

Hardly, I've never kicked a man to death.

Writer, a non-pugilistic type, goes into a bar, sizes up the patrons, decides on a likely specimen (physically imposing, somewhat inebriated, not terribly bright) and proceeds to make a nuisance of himself, goading the poor sap into challenging him to take it outside. So out the door they go, where they meet Writer's friend, E Hemingway, who proceeds to mop the floor with the sucker.

Never heard that before.

However, the great Jack Dempsey had this to say about Ernest Hemmingway:

There were a lot of Americans in Paris and I sparred with a couple, just to be obliging…. But there was one fellow I wouldn’t mix it with. That was Ernest Hemingway. He was about twenty-five or so and in good shape, and I was getting so I could read people, or anyway men, pretty well. I had this sense that Hemingway, who really thought he could box, would come out of the corner like a madman. To stop him, I would have to hurt him badly, I didn’t want to do that to Hemingway. That’s why I never sparred with him.

But let me share another story about a writer who met a fighter.

In.

I'll bring my Harry Potter books Ray.

Please do. Not e-books, either. I want you to lug them from Hotlanta.

I've memorized them. I'll recite them for you.

#24 So you're suggesting that Shooty should try to book one of parks?

I'll be driving up from eastern PA (Amish Paradise) and just making it a day trip, so if anyone roundabout Philly wants/needs a ride let me know.

PASTE/Zeth, I'll be living in King of Prussia then, I just don't know if work will allow me. That's our monthly deployment weekend and I won't know for a couple of months whether I'll need to "participate" in any deployment.

I'll be moving to Lititz come fall sometime, whereabouts in Amish land do you live?

Can't you just use your Amish GPS?

Thanks for the link YR. Interesting piece. Nice that Gallico gave a thumbs up to Plimpton's Paper Lion. But man, the nutsy things people will do when they're young and ignorant!

I've always wanted to attend one of these, and this might be the year I can actually make it.

I've memorized them. I'll recite them for you.

So you are the Fahrenheit 451 guy for harry potter? I think ray is down for quincy magnum Hawaii 5-0 and frazier.

I'm in, booked my trip and everything. Worst case, the game will move and I'll get a weekend in NYC :)

It occurs to me in horror that I haven't played softball in 35 years. I hope I'm not actually expected to play softball at a softball game. I would be happy to write a game story. Better still, a cultural-studies analysis of gender representations, tropes of violence, and the agency of the material nonhuman.

It occurs to me in horror that I haven't played softball in 35 years. I hope I'm not actually expected to play softball at a softball game. I would be happy to write a game story. Better still, a cultural-studies analysis of gender representations, tropes of violence, and the agency of the material nonhuman.

Best of all, you can buy the first round. (And the second.)

Best of all, you can buy the first round. (And the second.)

In my experience easier said than done. Last year it proved impossible to buy anyone a beer!

I don't think anything recognizable as softball has ever been played at one of these.

"It occurs to me in horror that I haven't played softball in 35 years. I hope I'm not actually expected to play softball at a softball game."

I took 20 years off before playing in the 2014 contest. can offer pro tips on what NOT to do after that first swing of the game.

:)

Last year it proved impossible to buy anyone a beer!

You gotta step up your game there, Greg. I'll let you practice your technique on me.

Actually, last year Reech bought me a beer. And I bought him one. So it works out like we'd each just bought our own but sounds friendlier.

BDC, three or four years ago was my first BBTF softball outing, which was the 1st time I'd played since 1980. Not quite 35 years in between, so you win that contest, but I am still able to walk, so there's hope for you.

in !

Also, I'd liketo add that there is usually a concert at Summerstage in Central Park--- last year it was Afrika Bambaata - it was a gas... especially after the 2 softball games and the apres' softball beer drinking!

PASTE/Zeth, I'll be living in King of Prussia then, I just don't know if work will allow me. That's our monthly deployment weekend and I won't know for a couple of months whether I'll need to "participate" in any deployment.

I'll be moving to Lititz come fall sometime, whereabouts in Amish land do you live?

About 20 minutes from Lititz.

I will see what I can do.

About three years ago I brought a bunch of alcohol to the game but nobody nobody partook so I stopped doing that. Most of you guys are pretty lightweight when it comes to drinking.

I would say that performance diminishing substances would be a.... ah, you're right. how much worse can we get, and we wouldn't even notice anyway!

About three years ago I brought a bunch of alcohol to the game but nobody nobody partook so I stopped doing that. Most of you guys are pretty lightweight when it comes to drinking.

If I come, I'll drink. Based upon experience I have my own softball version of a Ballmer Peak.

I am in

.

primates are welcome to crash at my place in ct on off the metro north line if that helps.

I'm still living in London these days, so assume I'm out unless you hear otherwise.

Literary/historical anecdote (which I've heard with a couple of different writers cited as the instigator, so, probably apocryphal):

Writer, a non-pugilistic type, goes into a bar, sizes up the patrons, decides on a likely specimen (physically imposing, somewhat inebriated, not terribly bright) and proceeds to make a nuisance of himself, goading the poor sap into challenging him to take it outside. So out the door they go, where they meet Writer's friend, E Hemingway, who proceeds to mop the floor with the sucker.

I think the 1st time I heard this the Writer was Thomas Woolf, the 2nd it was James Joyce. I think it would be better if Writer was Gertrude Stein. Even better if Writer's friend was Gertrude Stein.

Thomas Wolfe was a large man -- I believe 6'6"? And he doesn't seem to be a beanpole from the photographs I saw, so I assume that was not him in the anecdote.

Thanks Accent, didn't know that about Wolfe. Joyce was pretty much blind as a bat by the twenties, but was a 6 footer himself. As I said, probably a bit of apocrypha to burnish the Hemingway Legend.

Not strictly relevant, but my friend told me a literary anecdote the other day. During World War Two Evelyn Waugh, Fitzroy MacLean and Randolph Churchill (Winston's son) spent part of the war bunked together in some remote cabin in Yugoslavia while they attempted to co-ordinate with Tito and his resistance. Apparently things got a bit cramped, and Randolph was a bit of a blow-hard drunkard, so Waugh and MacLean had to figure out a way to shut him up lest one of them murder him one night. They found out Randolph had never read the Bible, so they tasked him with reading it cover to cover in hopes of excluding him from any conversation while he was doing so. It worked for a day or two, but not long.

The experience in Yugoslavia (partly Churchill's support of Tito's fighters, and perhaps partly dealing with his ####### son), apparently soured any admiration Waugh had for Churchill.

Relevance is highly overrated; literary/historical anecdotes are always welcome Greg.

Okay, who've we got so far?

YES:
Shooty
H&U
Lassus +1 (team photog!)
vi
Zeth
Rickey!
Jason
Karl from NY (because I'm too lazy to create a separate listing for "probable")
Ray
BDC
reech
catomi01

MAYBE:
Snapper
Greg K
McCoy
billyshears
blastin
Edmundo
zenbitz
Scott

Whoever I missed, please reiterate your intentions and we'll add you to the list. And let's move those "maybes" up to the YES list.

If I come I'll be bringing a +1 myself.

Okay, who've we got so far?

If it's the 20th, you can put me as a yes.

If we need bodies, I can try to round up a person or two in the last week.

I'm 90%, will probably confirm by May.

An extra body is a possibility (I had a friend interested last year, but he couldn't make it...haven't talked to him about it yet this year, but it's a possibility)

Put me down for maybe. I am very likely. We haven't planned our summer vacation yet, and barring a late business trip.

Updating the list from #62:

Okay, who've we got so far?

YES:
Shooty
H&U
Lassus +1 (team photog!)
vi
Zeth
Rickey!
Jason
Karl from NY (because I'm too lazy to create a separate listing for "probable")
Ray
BDC
reech
catomi01
Snapper (if it's the 20th! (hope Shooty hears something definite soon!)

MAYBE:
Greg K possible +1, (if they're still on speaking terms)
McCoy and a +1
billyshears
blastin
Edmundo
zenbitz
Scott
Swoboda a "very likely" maybe

Whoever I missed, please reiterate your intentions and we'll add you to the list. And let's move those "maybes" up to the YES list.

Thanks guys!

Yeah, put me as a +2.

Update #2:

Okay, who've we got so far?

YES:
Shooty
H&U
Lassus +1 (team photog!)
vi
Zeth
Rickey!
Jason
Karl from NY (because I'm too lazy to create a separate listing for "probable")
Ray +2!
BDC
reech
catomi01
Snapper (if it's the 20th!) (hope Shooty hears something definite soon!)

MAYBE:
Greg K possible +1, (if they're still on speaking terms)
McCoy and a +1
billyshears
blastin
Edmundo
zenbitz
Scott
Swoboda a "very likely" maybe

Whoever I missed, please reiterate your intentions and we'll add you to the list. And let's move those "maybes" up to the YES list.

Looking good, let's keep it up.

I can only rate a MAYBE this far out

If you don't mind including someone who posted on BTF once or maybe twice ten years ago and hasn't been back since but is a verified Good Dude, I can bring another body.

Can't be worse than the people we're familiar with...

If you don't mind including someone who posted on BTF once or maybe twice ten years ago and hasn't been back since but is a verified Good Dude, I can bring another body.

The most important thing is to bring friends, whether they've ever even used the internet or not. I have a history of bringing classical singers, one who tried to get in a fight with some Puerto Rican kids a couple years ago. So, avoiding troublemakers like St, Thomas singers, yes, bring people.

Update #3:

YES:
Shooty
H&U
Lassus +1 (team photog!)
vi
Zeth +1 (as long as he's not a choral singer!)
Rickey!
Jason
Karl from NY (because I'm too lazy to create a separate listing for "probable")
Ray +2!
BDC
reech
catomi01
Snapper (if it's the 20th!) (hope Shooty hears something definite soon!)

MAYBE:
Greg K possible +1, (if they're still on speaking terms)
McCoy and a +1
billyshears
blastin
Edmundo
zenbitz
Scott
Swoboda a "very likely" maybe
Howie (try not to schedule any surgeries right before the date this year, okay mate?)

However, the great Jack Dempsey had this to say about Ernest Hemmingway:

There were a lot of Americans in Paris and I sparred with a couple, just to be obliging…. But there was one fellow I wouldn’t mix it with. That was Ernest Hemingway. He was about twenty-five or so and in good shape, and I was getting so I could read people, or anyway men, pretty well. I had this sense that Hemingway, who really thought he could box, would come out of the corner like a madman. To stop him, I would have to hurt him badly, I didn’t want to do that to Hemingway. That’s why I never sparred with him.

But let me share another story about a writer who met a fighter.

Great minds must think alike, because after reading that quote about Dempsey and Hemingway I was going to suggest Gallico's Farewell to Sport myself. He's got a whole chapter on when he stepped into the ring against Dempsey, and it's a terrific book from start to finish.

I read a story somewhere about Ezra Pound, who fancied himself a Renaissance man. Pound, who had been reading a book about swordfighting, paid a call on William Carlos Williams. He picked up an umbrella and started poking it at Williams, urging him to defend himself. Williams, who had actually been on the fencing team at Penn, said later "If I had wanted to, I could have taken away Pound's umbrella and stuck it so far up his ####### that it would have come out his mouth, but I just sort of knocked him aside and he didn't get hurt." Ah, literary machismo :)

So H&U, have we convinced you to pick up a pair of cleats and eschew the jeans?

So H&U, have we convinced you to pick up a pair of cleats and eschew the jeans?

No effing cleats. We don't need anyone getting spiked. You can't slide anyway; the bases are loose.

Shorts and sneaker are the appropriate attire.

Sorry, doesn't make a whole lot of sense to buy another pair of shoes to be worn once a year (and for not too many more years, most likely). As for the shorts, well, I'll think about it.

No effing cleats. We don't need anyone getting spiked. You can't slide anyway; the bases are loose.

Cleats have plastic bottoms, snapper. You're thinking of spikes.

And sliding isn't the issue. Rounding the bases in old tennis shoes at full throttle can be a risky proposition.

Literary/historical anecdote (which I've heard with a couple of different writers cited as the instigator, so, probably apocryphal):

Writer, a non-pugilistic type, goes into a bar, sizes up the patrons, decides on a likely specimen (physically imposing, somewhat inebriated, not terribly bright) and proceeds to make a nuisance of himself, goading the poor sap into challenging him to take it outside. So out the door they go, where they meet Writer's friend, E Hemingway, who proceeds to mop the floor with the sucker.

I think the 1st time I heard this the Writer was Thomas Woolf, the 2nd it was James Joyce. I think it would be better if Writer was Gertrude Stein. Even better if Writer's friend was Gertrude Stein.

Thomas Wolfe was over six and half feet tall, so probably not him. Virginia, maybe?

"Rounding the bases in old tennis shoes at full throttle can be a risky proposition."

or even sprinting out of the batter's box, as that clown from the 2014 game demonstrated for us with a bloody-knee-inducing wipeout en route to first after his first swing of the game.

Yeah, you guys do whatever you want but I will definitely be wearing cleats.

To be fair, the Central Park game isn't just the only time of the year when snapper plays softball, it's also his only exercise. :)

now I am forced to clarify, in case there is any confusion, that the clown in post 82 stands before you and confesses

:(

No effing cleats. We don't need anyone getting spiked. You can't slide anyway; the bases are loose.

We mean rubber cleats. They're harmless and make a huge difference, particularly running the bases and in the OF.

We mean rubber cleats. They're harmless and make a huge difference, particularly running the bases and in the OF.

You mean like turf shoes, with the little rubbery nubs? Ok, but you're still taking this way too seriously :-)

Because plastic inch and half cleats can still still rip your leg open.

The chances of me getting on base are less than zero and if a ball is hit to me in the OF my route will not exactly be describable as a "run." I'm'a go with this old pair of sneakers I just found in the back of the closet, thank you :-D

Snapper, you can actually get injured more easily running the bases or playing the OF in sneakers.

Snapper, you can actually get injured more easily running the bases or playing the OF in sneakers.

I must have played 100 softball games in sneakers and never come close to hurting myself.

It's softball; no need for sprinting ;-)

The chances of me getting on base are less than zero and if a ball is hit to me in the OF my route will not exactly be describable as a "run." I'm'a go with this old pair of sneakers I just found in the back of the closet, thank you :-D

Memo to captains: Pick BDC *after* Ralphie from The Simpsons.

Snapper, you can actually get injured more easily running the bases or playing the OF in sneakers.

In fairness, Snapper won't play the outfield. He'll be anchored at first base. If he does break a leg, chances are it will be while attempting to leave the batter's box.

You guys should be aware that if I'm picked anywhere but dead last you've made a mistake.

We don't usually pick teams, do we? Seems to me we divide up by alphabet or by who happens to be standing out in the field at the time we decide to start the game.

Howie, I for one remembered your blood-soaked performance from 2 years ago. Besides, you're a gentleman; I knew you wouldn't be coming here to call somebody else a clown.

Jason, my "full throttle" is not going to put me in danger of skidding out. Alas. And, while I always put the ball in play, those routine 6-3 grounders don't produce many opportunities for "rounding the bases."

For the SF pickup softball games teams are picked by throwing everyone's glove into a pile, and then one person randomly separating them into two piles. Very quick and efficient way to pick teams.

For the SF pickup softball games teams are picked by throwing everyone's glove into a pile, and then one person randomly separating them into two piles. Very quick and efficient way to pick teams.

We might want to give some thought to splitting the teams more evenly, so that both side have someone that can credibly play SS, CF, etc.

I can hit OK, but you really don't want me playing anywhere besides 1B or C.

I'm young enough that I can credibly play a corner. Not fast enough to play CF anymore though. I can't hit a lick, but there's that.

I'm young enough that I can credibly play a corner. Not fast enough to play CF anymore though. I can't hit a lick, but there's that.

Never mind all that, are you physically able to pick up a check? :)

Shooty
H&U
Lassus +1 (team photog!)
vi
Zeth +1 (as long as he's not a choral singer!)
Rickey!
Jason
Karl from NY (because I'm too lazy to create a separate listing for "probable")
Ray +2!
BDC
reech
catomi01
Snapper (if it's the 20th!) (hope Shooty hears something definite soon!)

MAYBE:
Greg K possible +1, (if they're still on speaking terms)
McCoy and a +1
billyshears
blastin
Edmundo
zenbitz
Scott
Swoboda a "very likely" maybe
Howie (try not to schedule any surgeries right before the date this year, okay mate?)

Any updates, additions, errors, or omissions?

Note that if you're already on the list you don't get to drop out.

Last year I played ss. We won both games. Aside from my prowess on the field and at bat, I bring intangibles. Just call me Sgt. Intangibles ( I never wanted to be an Officer) .

Flip.