Is there anything worse in sports than the ever-dreaded forfeit?  Going back to the history vault, nothing in life is much more frustrating than a forfeit (In reality, I’m sure there are a LOT of things more frustrating, but this is a sports blog).  The let down you feel when the other team doesn’t show up probably compares to the way Jennifer Aniston’s character (Brooke Meyers) felt when Vince Vaughn (Gary Grobowski) didn’t show up to the Old97’s concert in the movie The Breakup.  It’s not devastating, but definitely dampers the night a little bit.

As a youngster, there was one forfeit, in particular, that didn’t just put a damper on my night; At the time, it completely CRUSHED it.  Going back to the archives, these were my days on the New Castle Soccer Club circa 1994-1995.  The YMCA soccer league was always fun, and so as a 7th grader with football and cross country as the only other two viable options in the fall, I chose futbol.  The World Cup came to the US in 1994, so my 7th grade year soccer was in its prime in America (By prime, I mean kids like myself began having penalty kick shootouts all across the neighborhood).  By the way, my apologies still go out to the Catron’s for your shattered basement window. 

Wow!  Let me corale you back in a little bit.  Sometimes the history vaults get a little detailed.  My 8th grade season, we were due to play Centerville on a school evening around 5pm.  In our first matchup we beat them like 8-0 or something ridiculous, which had my eyes wide open all day at school before the second matchup.  As a forward it was always fun to score a goal, but having the legit opportunity to score four or five in a game had me looking forward to the game all week.  We also usually only had one game on a weeknight and then a Saturday game or two (Is soccer “Match” appropriate here?)  I got home from school, probably ate some mint chocolate chip ice cream, and then was getting all geared up for a Pele type performance.  Then came the dreaded phone call.  Centerville forfeited!  I’m not afraid to admit that I yelled out a word that referred to how tough I thought they were.  I am afraid to admit, however, that I cannot use that word on here.  My mother didn’t like it at the time, nor would she enjoy reading it here.  Just a side note, my brother cracked up laughing when I said it, and I know my dad was cracking up on the inside.  

The Centerville forfeit ruined my night.  Well, ruined it until Sliders or Martin came on.  Forfeits would continue to happen occasionally throughout the years in AAU tournaments, Gus Mackers, intramural games, and dating. 

Forfeits had such a negative connotation in my mind that there was no way there could actually be a “good” forfeit.  That is until last night…..

Tuesday nights are the night for our Media Softball League.  We had a game scheduled for 8:30 pm versus the Indy Star/Guild (I think it’s the Double A version of the official Indy Star team).  Looking at the radar before the game, it looked similar to giving a 4 year old a paintbrush and some water colors and telling them to go to town on Illinois and Indiana.  There were greens, yellows, reds, purples, blues, oranges, and I’m pretty sure a burnt sienna covering the map.  Not good for softball.  The unfortunate part was that at the time of departure for the diamonds (7:45pm) those colors were near the western portion of the state.  Games hadn’t been called off, so our entire team still had to make the drive to the complex. 

Looking about like 10:45 when it was 8:15 we made our move to the field to warmup.  I’m pretty sure not one person wanted to play, let alone hold the metal bat when they hit.  We went through the motions, hoping for a downpour, but by 8:30, it’d hadn’t happened.  That’s when the captain of the Guild approached me and said that they only had 3 players.  Normally, as mentioned countless times above, this is a real punch in the gut.  This time I simply said, “Abe, if you want to recruit over the P.A. that’s fine, otherwise we’re okay with whatever you choose.”  League rules made us stand there and wait for 11 minutes, but as soon as the clock hit 49 minutes, it was as if we won a hard fought 7 inning game. 

You see, the people whose games had already started had to wait around the complex until they were officially cancelled.  As I walked away from the diamond to the tune of the PA “Please do not leave the complex.  Stay here until all games are cancelled.”, I realized that there is such a thing in life called a “Good Forfeit”. 

20 minutes later, as I downed my 6 Hot BBQ and 6 Medium wings from Buffalo Wild Wings, my stomach agreed as well. 

Big pre-NBA draft night for me last night.  You guys remember the “Whatta Ya Do After Work” blog?  To give you the rundown, last night was pretty productive considering it was a Monday.  Started off by heading to Webster’s Sporting Goods to pick up our RTV6 softball shirts.  I stepped it up a notch on them this year by getting numbers printed on the back.  What the rest of the team doesn’t know yet, is that are T-shirts are actually just leftovers from the Friday Night Football shirts we used at H.S. football games last fall.  They’re also all Extra Large’s, so there may only be about 2 or 3 guys that aren’t swamped in them (myself included).  Surprisingly, I’ve never shrunk anything while washing clothes, so I had to ask some girls at work if you could, in fact, purposely shrink clothes.  I always heard the horror stories of taking a large shirt into one that my 9 month old nephew could wear.  Despite washing them with hot water, and then drying them for 180 minutes, they still look pretty XL to me.  Maybe we’ll just turn them into belly shirts like college football players in the 80s?  By the way, the lent in the lent collector, looked about the same as everyone’s belly buttons on the set of ”The Biggest Loser”.  That could have factored in.

After picking up the new team shirts, I headed to Great Clips to get a fade for the upcoming season, as well as summer in general.  My “doo” always gets to that point where you look in the mirror in the morning and you have no clue what’s going on.  For instance, yesterday morning, I had a permanaent side part that actually hurt when I touched it.  I used to be able to grow it out Aaron Rodgers style (minus the Butt Cut), but I just told the gal to do a “3″ all the way around.  She said, “you want a buzz?”.  I said, “oh yes!”.  She got half-way done with the top, and I asked if I could just leave it like that.  I thought it was funny at the time.  After just reading what I typed, I realize it was in no way funny.  After a fresh haircut, you always seem to end up with hair everywhere.  The thing I’ve noticed about Great Clips is, there seems to be EXTRA hair on you than normal.  I don’t know if it’s the person before me’s hair or what, but they do a great job of just leaving all the hair right between your nose and eyes.  I was clean shaven before dinner, and by the time I got to the restaurant I had Porkchop burns, a unibrow, and a fu-man-choo.  I could have eaten at any five-star restaurant, since my t-shirt instantly turned into a fur coat.

After the fade, I headed to Puerto Vallarta for a bite to eat.  Believe it or not, I went an entire week without eating Mexican, so my withdrawls were kicking in.  I broke down, but got out of there in record time.  I was almost self-conscious about how quickly I was in an out of there.  It was seriously no more than 13 minutes.  I didn’t even have time to eat more than about eight or nine chips or drink more than one Diet Coke.  Usually I slug those things down and end up with a complete set on my table.  I left there feeling as good as you can about yourself after knocking out some Mexican food.

Already excited about the NBA Draft, I decided to watch the WWE Draft.  If you’re asking, “The WWE has a draft?”, that’s exactly what I thought.  If you’re asking, “What is the WWE?”.  It’s the old WWF, they’ve broken it down into Smackdown, Raw, and ECW.  Who knew?  Anyway, they apparently have a draft each year where a few superstars switch leagues (although they’re all under WWE).  To me, it all seems a little pointless, but what do I know?  I only made it through a little bit of it, before turning to an excellent documentary on HBO called, “Hard Times at Douglass High”.  If you haven’t seen it, and have a couple of free hours, I definitely recommend it.  It gives you a good look into problems facing school systems and the lack of support some of them get.

2 days to the draft!  If you hear any rumors you want to bounce off me, do so here.  If you’re Mundee topped mine, let me know.  Media League Softball season begins tonight.  I don’t know if I’ll have a statkeeper, but I should be able to provide a full report in tomorrow’s blog.  It looks as if I may be pitching this season, so keep my facial bones and limbs in your thoughts and prayers.