DESPITE A FIELD BATTLE OVER THE
RULES, THE VECTORS WIN IT TO TIE IT ALL UP.
Little did we know that impact that
the Medical Circle Softball league chronicles have on the
growing audience of players and fans that have joined these
games. Except that when everything was going smoothly, the
writers’ strike hit us and a cut and paste article was put
together hastily to disguise our lack of material due to the
writer’s crisis. Obviously, the Medical Circle was not the
biggest of all the victims. All types of shows that you thought
were ad lib were cut because the writers were not providing the
text on which the puppets and the puppeteers were running. It
was as if the DNA went on strike!
But nothing is constant in this
temporary planet where we have been planted. If it is not
changing it is not real. If it does evolve it decays. And if it
is not moving towards the future it won’t survive.
The Winter 2008 season of the
Medical Circle Softball League is now truly tied: Two games
apiece for the Roosters and the Lethal Vectors. The latter, for
those of you in other walks of life, are not scalars with
direction they are mosquitoes!
The quality of the games has
improved appreciably. The professional umpire Orlando Velo has
been impressed with the performance of the players, not the
leaders of the teams. Even the fans that continue to grow in
number – first there were two, then we had 4 and for the tied
game we had a max attendance of 7 – that is it almost
quadrupled! This aspect of the games would benefit form a
transportation system. For example, several fans from the
Hialeah area have wanted to come in but they depend on their
children to drive them in. The children who were taken to sports
in their childhood and youth are not taking their elderly
parents to sports. It is not easy. This is a sad fact of live.
One of them made it a point to bring in a photograph of himself
playing in 1962 with his factory in Havana holding hands with
his son back then at a neighborhood stadium. Alfredo Pis wants
to come to the games but his children do not have time to bring
him. ( See
www.gordonclinic.com under HISTORY for the pictures of
Alfredo Pis and son).
The biggest story of last week’s
game was the issue of the rules. Clearly, the lines of
communication between the leaders of teams are not working well
and since the general attitude is that this is a game then why
bother to pay attention to the rules. In softball, unlike
baseball, the rules are traditionally variable. Walfredo Lopez
who served as BEST UMPIRE last season used to bring us a stack
of different rules every other game. He tore his plantaris
muscle and was not able to play, so he turned to serve as THE
umpire. The fact of the matter is that there has to be a set of
rules, agreements if you will, otherwise the emotions get out of
hand and the civility and propriety of the games goes to pieces
into a primitive fight that almost rivaled the show of that
woman from Peru whose name I do not wish to remember! The rules
– we are told from reliable sources – will be revised published
in the league’s website before the next game.
One thing is promising in the
MEDICAL CIRCLE, however. Most of the players are getting better
in their game and physical conditioning. The number of people
dropping out in the field has dwindled and hopefully will be
totally eliminated. It if not only mosquitoes that cramp up and
drop out in the field. In fact, on record is the rooster who
while doing batting practice collapsed, turned pale and lost his
pulse several seasons ago. That player has not been seen or
heard again from the field or the clinic! Some have stagnated
but their improvement has not been ruled out. The interest at
the level of families is growing. Now there are more or less
about 4 or 5 families involved in this affair. And lastly, not
everything is nice and sweet. A couple of the league’s most
outstanding seniors have been unpredictable lately. Choly
Naranjo had a right knee injury – typ[ical of old pitchers -
that on MRI proved to be a partially torn medial meniscus. He
prefers to treat it the old fashion way. When interviewed he
said: “I put ice first and then when the inflammation lowers I
begin putting cebo de carnero caliente and hot packs. Then I
begin moving it slowly.” The other legend of the league is
ARISTEO SEIGIDO. Paradoxically, coronary artery disease, cardiac
cath and stenting did not stop him last season but a painful
trigger finger did it now. He actually refused to have a steroid
injection in the PIP joint and the fascia because he does not
want to be called to the US Congress to testify! What a man this
ARISTEO SEIGIDO of ours!
