Only Me

In yesterday's mens league softball game I was batting at the bottom of the order. My brother was batting lead off and is by far the fastest guy on the field on any given day. Me, I'm one of the slower guys. The line up was just a quirk of the day. So I lead off the inning with a single. Ross then hits one just over the left center fielder's head. I had to hold up just long enough to make sure the ball wasn't caught and then had to get my slow butt to third. I knew Ross would be right on my heels.

Heading towards third I don't know what is going on behind me. The third base coach is just standing there. He's not telling me to stand up. He's not telling me to slide. He's not telling me to round and head for home. Then the third baseman steps away from the bag and starts to reach behind me. All I'm thinking at that point is, "Not in the head! Not in the head! Not in the..."

WHACK!

The throw catches me in the right shoulder blade. And it hit me hard! I saw the ball scoot away so I rounded third to think about home but retreated after only two steps. When I looked around the field everyone is stopped and looking at me.

"You OK?" "You alright?" etc, etc, etc.

I'm fine, I rotate the shoulder. "Yeah, I'm fine." But I'm not really. Yeah, my shoulder hurts but I pulled a hamstring going around third. Later a teammate would tell me that the sound of the impact cracked loudly across the whole field. The beginings of the bruise I saw this morning confirms that.

Only I can get hit in the back with a ball and pull a leg muscle.