Are All Recreational Softball Players Douchebags?
 

Yesterday, I played in a benefit softball tournament for a motorcycle riding buddy of mine who got in a wreck and has been in a coma since June 30, to try to raise a few bucks for his girlfriend and her son with the bills etc. The guy had his liver removed, 1 lung, shattered pelvis, and 2 broken legs. He's only laying there, eyes open, sedated, while healing. finally responding to things...from a 'medical' condition but he's essentially in a coma with his eyes open at this point.

I have not swung a bat since 1994, and have not been involved in any sort of recreational sport since. The fee for this particular benefit was like $225 per team or something the equivalent of $$20/ish per person.

I was shocked and the number of douche bags that were there. There were 3....THREE mother ****ers there that played college baseball. They showed up completely decked out in full ****ing gear, talking shit to everyone.. Routinely cranking out 300'+ homers each time up to bat.......when their team is up by 15+ in the final innings when their opponents had only scored a single run. all but probably 2 teams were made up entirely of friends and family of the victim.....the the douche bags were on those two.

another douche bag example was three guys bitching and moaning about the $20 fee; and that they didn't like the color of their teams' t-shirts. One guy asked a general question of "this is bullshit...who's in charge of this bs"? I pointed to the the girlfriend of the victim and said "Over there. she's the g/f of the guy who's been in a ****ing coma for a month,, and who this tournament is for you ****ing douche bag".

I walked away; nothing escalated beyond that. and he didn't approach her.

I mean, JFC...you're playing a small little benefit with no ****ing 'prize' etc, to raise some bucks for her and her kid while he's trying to survive, and dudes roll out in full on beast mode. playing against 60 yrd old people on a team, and fattys like myself who were playing in jeans and motorcycle boots (having ridden down)

****ing pathetic. I've never seen such a large number of people in one gathering with so little perspective. Pathetic pathetic pathetic.

yes

Doesn't Phobia play rec softball?

There's no such thing as funsies.

I was in an industrial league for softball this year. Essentially every baseball player who flaked out playing ball in community college participated. We lost every game by 25, but mainly because only a few of us had ever played any type of softball in our lives. The championship team was a bunch of rope tokers in their upper 20's. Most of them are aspiring cops who bragged about drinking in the parking lot prior to a game.

tl;dr, rec league softball is a magnet for douchebags.

Most of them, yes.

Don't go painting all softball players with one brush now.
Tournaments are the time to play serious, regardless of type. A lot of us deck out in softball gear and 300' homers are not that difficult, I'm 5'9" 175# and can hit home runs if I want to. I'll concede it's douchy to take extra bases and jack home runs when up by double digits in division play but not come tourney time.

If those guys are such bad ass "athletes" why don't they join the mens senior baseball league and actually play you know...baseball?

Just Phobia.

He'll knock you down, man....

On another note though, I'm glad to see the benefit tournament going to a good cause. Ours is coming up next weekend and it's for a softball player that OD'd on heroin during the regional qualifier tournament. :shake:

From what I remember, yes. At least one or two that stood out in every league. Sucked the fun right out of it.

I was in a league once with Tony Stewart. Dude just kept mowing down the 2nd basemen and shortstops.

I play and most of my team are older guys who could give a **** about wins and losses. We just go have a good time. When a team full of guys playing like its game 7 show up, we purposefully **** around and do shit like throw the ball over the fence and intentionally walk everyone. It's hilarious.

I play and have played for a long time. The team I am on is really damn good. But we aren't douchebags, we have just been playing together for 15 years and we have had some real buttholes in our league that do show up in full baseball gear.

This is sounding like sour grapes :crybaby:

Takes lots of patience to play and have fun.

I use to play during the spring and summer. It was fun at first but teams started showing up that took it way too serious. Some players would have to have a perfect pitch or they would take a walk. My dad was always the pitcher and my brother and I played in the field. My step mom would play on the team as well. We weren't any good but neither were the teams we played until the last couple seasons when all league college players killed the enjoyment.

ROFL
That would be annoying as hell to play against, would be funny to watch though.

LMAO

Shirley you're not serious.

When I played it was for the reward after the game. Bust open the coleman cooler full of iced beer and BS for a bit.

up by 16 runs with 2 outs, and 2 minutes to go until the game time limit....yep,......better jack one out of the park in case any baseball scouts happened to stop by for a soda.

heh, this never gets old. Rome was spot on.




<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/uMfqbR8Ujlk?list=PLBCF0134DC50BF730" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I think you're reading too deep into it, since you're not a softball player it might be hard to understand. Keep in mind it is still a competitive sport, it's a damn good one too. Most players, at least the ones on good teams, treat it just like a sport. Practice, training, etc. It becomes a way of life. The benefit tournament for those guys is a practice, kind of nice of them to donate some money to charity.

our team;

6 guys who rode down on bikes. playing in jeans and boots. had to borrow gloves, and one guy played w/out one. None could hit the broad side of a barn. one gal had a completely immobilized knee brace. another was pregnant...

yeah, we were a threat to other teams' 'championship' dreams lmao.

The response about 'funsies' was absolutely correct.

The players on the loaded team paid their 'dues' (the pony-up money which raised funds for the family), and got what they set out to do; i.e., win the tournament. Was each game supposed to end in a tie just to make mostly everyone happy? Maybe the tournament organizer should have installed a 10-run rule. Maybe the organizer could have set up a quick draft after everyone paid so possibly there would be parity amongst the teams. I'm not sure how the loaded team was supposed to play to ensure all the other teams would get some 'feel good' feeling from playing them. Were they supposed to bat opposite-handed or replace their superstars after getting up by 4 runs? How about by 8 runs? What's your take on the P.C. thing to do? What would you have done had you been the coach of that team?

As for the one who complained about the jersey colors, you're spot on for calling him a douche and, thanks to you, your response definitely (#1) got the message through to him and (#2) prevented a potentially embarrassing situation.

http://www.barstoolsports.com/articl...ball_Dude/252/

Softball Dude

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m the best ****ing softball player you’ve ever met.

Just ask the opposing teams in the 4 leagues I’m in this summer. I flat out rake. You could populate a small country with all the pitchers I've taken deep.

I just spent three hours in the batting cage and hit the shit out of the ball. Line drives, big flies, opposite field shots. I can do it all. Some kids next to me in the cages were staring and pointing at me. I can’t blame them. They’ve probably never seen a 40 year-old man wearing Oakley Blades and batting gloves who can hit bombs like me. Especially not with shorts this tight.

This season, I’m making sure we sweep all 4 leagues.

Especially the Men’s League at St. Anthony’s. We were two outs away from winning that baby last year and now I can taste it. I’ve gotta get my hands on that 10-foot plastic trophy. It’s all I think about. Rumor has it the league winners get 2 free pitchers at Murphy’s Pub after the season. No way we lose with the trophy and 78 ounces of Busch on the line.

I just bought all new equipment for this season. You should see the acrylic baseball pants I got. Super tight. I picked up a new set of wristbands, a tube of eye black and a pair of 3-inch mud cleats, you know, just in case I need to break up a double play. I also got my hands on a $350 titanium bat for a little extra power. It cost me a week’s pay, but screw it, when I start cranking 400-foot shots it will be worth it. Plus I might need it to beat off all the trim that will be chasing me after the games.

Softball groupies love guys who can go deep.

I can’t wait for that first at bat. I’m bringing a tape deck to the game, so that I can blast The Scorpions when I walk to the plate. Nothing gets me fired up to play ball more than The Scorpions. Except maybe AC/DC, but I save that for the playoffs.

I feel sorry for the other teams. They have no idea what I’m about to unleash on them. Actually, I don’t feel sorry for them. You think that anyone felt sorry for me when that bastard coach cut me from the 8th grade baseball team? You think Babe Ruth or Dave Kingman felt sorry for the other team when they took them deep?

They should have known better than to get into a league with me.

This year I’m focused. I practiced like a son of a bitch in the winter and got the call to play third. That’s right, the hot corner. Only the best play the hot corner. I have to be sharp, so no more beer during the games. I’m going to wait until after the game to starting pounding cold ones and I’m still going to drink you under the table.

My initials might as well be M-V-P. That stands for Most Valuable Player for all you non-softball players.

The League starts Tuesday night. I took the day off of work.

Why do I take softball so seriously?

**** you. You’re just jealous.

man.. I dunno. I suppose so. I just can't imagine the human brain is that reeruned.

I mean, we played one team who was up by 15 in the 2nd inning, and they 'played along' for another few innings to make it fun for everyone. The teams I'm talking about are the ones full of hyper-competitive douche bags who have no perspective.

ROFL

:LOL:

I like to have fun with a comfortable lead myself, if it's not a tourney and we're up by 5-10 I'll start batting left handed, or maybe throw a little softer on a double play so the batter is safe at first. Tournament time though, it's game 7 :evil:.

I definitely agree with the PC thing; impossible question to answer in terms of how many is too many. but my thing is when you're playing against a team of old ladies....do you need to crank them out repeatedly? lol. BUt overall, yes - I agree. hard to come up with a specific number.

also...serious question...

do tourney's have prizes or trophies typically? or cash pay outs etc?

I know this one in particular didn't have any prizes, trophies, or cash. simply bragging rights....as sick as that sounds

Actually the guys on my team would hate playing against you and we would run spread you quickly so we could go have some refreshments.

Usually trophies for first and second, gear for each player on the championship team. Sometimes league tourneys will have free entry for the following year, and a reduced fee. Some are qualifiers for regionals.

Trophies/plaques make it really easy to keep a sponsorship or have the sponsor throw more cash your way next year, pay the tourney fees, etc.
Really good sponsors will pay for everything, uniforms/bats/balls/gear etc, gotta bring em trophies if you want it to continue.

thanks.

this one was definitely just a full on benefit type deal then. nothing on the line etc.
the $20 just got your a team colored shirt (no sponsors etc)....which the shirt only cost $5 if I recall.

what's run spread? running us fatty's all over the outfield? if so.....then that would definitely work LMAO. we'd be dead.

I feel like i got hit by a truck today after trotting my 240lb ass around yesterday. and nice 100 mile ride to and from the games + some extra riding to Pittsburgh for shitty hamburger.

Wow I lasted 1 minute, almost 70% of that video was him repeating something he already said.

Good concept but as usual Jim Rome ****s up.

lol yeah. We would do it just to get it over with. Unless of course we were playing in a benefit type of tourney.

Pittsburg is known for a lot of shitty things.

Inmem admitted to playing softball in another thread, FYI.

:hmmm:

Jim's Steakhouse is what it was called I think. Granted, I didn't get a steak though.. but my burger sucked ass. and the $1 charge for a small little solo cup of ranch (like the to-go ones you get) lol. Luckily, it was only a $7 burger.

I did try some of a rib eye and it was tasty, but was $$$.

I've played in a co ed league when my buddy was parks and rec director. We had fun.
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Come on, we all know "Angry young guy". You know him, we all know him. We all know that guy.

This is the one I like of Rome getting pummeled by Chrissy Everette.

Damn video has been removed but every sports fan has seen it.

You can see it in this link.
http://deadspin.com/5873900/an-inter...ture-from-espn

ITT: A Salt Weapon outs himself as a softball douchebag.

No experience I've had in sports has been as bad as my season in a coed league. So many of the douchebags Dayze is talking about. These dudes acted like every chick out there would immediately blow them after an infield single or some shit. Funny enough, my team won that league and then immediately quit. So I guess that's one definition of "hit it and quit it".

no, not necessarily...

but it is life for a lot of people.

I was pretty good at it for a while when I was 19-23 but finally quit this year because I was tired of the "super teams" with guys who played 5-7 days a week...I don't know how it happened or when, but those guys just made the leagues unbearable to play in.

Which is a good thing, because I golf about 5-7 times per week now and I like golf a HELL OF A LOT better than slow pitch softball.

So as a 29 year old I'm down to bowling and golf. God I'm getting so old.

The guys who wear baseball pants and have like 6 softball bats etc etc etc crack me the **** up.

First off, I never have and never will slide in slow pitch softball. That's gay. It's ****ing slow pitch softball. **** that.

Now, I will dive for balls in the IF or OF because I enjoy making good plays...but I'm certainly not going to take an extra base and slide while doing so. Those people are the gayest of gay.

It's even funnier when the guys who show up all decked out are absolutely terrible...adults with complexes of any variety crack me up.

I'm in a small town it was mostly couples. Most of us knew each other prior.
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Try ****ing up a knee, essentially being retired at age 30 from slow pitch softball, rec league basketball etc. Sucks since I've been active playing sports since like age 6 or 7 somewhere in there.

The guy thats terrible but for some reason doesn't know it and thinks he is it. Thats the guy that gets my goat.

Are All Recreational Softball Players Douchebags?
 

The coed leagues are more fun for this reason. Some of those teams full of guys act like they are being scouted.

I haven't played competitive softball in 20 years, but yea....I remember it being alot of over amped guys, who

1. Hated their families, wives kids, etc
2. Lived to drink beer after games
3. Uncle Rico's that "almost made it to the bigs"

Hit the Mall Deli.

Those guys just crack me up. I feel bad for them when they have their girlfriends watching.

I had a scare with my knee in flag football last year...thought I tore some ligaments...never got an MRI and I still feel pain getting into a catcher's position (no homo), but it hasn't really hindered any of my rec basketball or anything like that. I always wondered what I actually did because I went to convenient care the next day because I literally as in more pain than I've ever been in my entire life. I couldn't even put ****ing pants on and my knee swelled up to about three times size.

I think I made a thread about it on this website come to think of it trying to figure out what the **** I did.

In college, played against our school's starting QB who couldn't cut it in the minors. It was the "B" league. Douche team

I play softball on Sundays and some tournaments on Saturday, I just play hard and do my best.

I don't care what the other guys are on the other team. I know my team had the unfortunate luxury of facing some teams that should not be in our league level, but a better league than we are.

I just play for fun, irregardless of the score or who we're playing against. I'm not out to play for attracting attention or that I'm a "failed" baseball person, whatever the term is.

Not going to read all of the posts in this thread, but I will answer OP. The majority of recreational softball players are giant douchebags. I will only play coed leagues now because they are a little more relaxed than men's leagues.
The last men's league game I played in, the other team was destroying us, and decided to pull the ultimate douche move. These guys played in leagues all over the place. They literally had a different city to play in each night. Anyway, they decided to up the douchebaggery and start hitting our pitcher intentionally. Our dude took about 6 shots before the ump interfered.
I don't know if any of you have pitched in softball, but it's terrifying. The speed at which the ball comes off of some of these bats is unreal. I had a guy a month ago put one on me that I managed to catch only because it somehow hit me in the pocket of the glove. I didn't know the ball was on me until it was in my glove.

I'm to the point where I'd only play coed at this time. I'm over competitive softball. Stopped being fun for me about 3 years ago. Everyone got too serious.

Bowling league is where it's at!!

I've never seen a team intentionally try and hit the pitcher and I've played on and against some of the best teams in our area. I have a hard time believing a traveling team of great players would intentionally hit a pitcher, or ever even hit a pitcher. If you're truly good at slow pitch softball...you're good enough to literally never take the ball up the middle.

Yes, being a pitcher in a slow pitch softball is very dangerous, especially if the guy is not protected (the head area) and I have seen some that just barely whizzed by the pitcher's head (or body) and the batter doesn't care about it, just acted like it didn't give a ****.

I always make sure that I try to avoid hitting the pitcher as best as I can, and there'd be moments where it would go right at him, only to miss him (thankfully) that after I either am safe or out, I would acknowledge him and say "Sorry about that" or hit my chest like a signal of "my bad".

Played on a co-ed team that had three/four guys who were Softball Guy. Two 40 year old softball guys with all the gear that never played baseball in high school but discovered that they were balls out when a grapefruit sized ball was getting tossed to them at 15 mph. Bitched up a storm to the Blues all game long about the most meaningless and trival of bullshit. These were the guys organizing the team and getting the sponsors, etc. It was some serious shit to these dudes.

Another two were Angry Young Softball Guy who played high school and were only four years or so removed. Weren't good enough to play in college and too drunk and high to play hardball rec leagues. These were the tools sliding into second/third, trying to fight everybody on the other team, etc.

****ing embarassing.

The worst of it was that three or four of the girls played softball at D1 programs. They just destroyed worlds out there and it's the chicks that make or break your coed team. We were mercy ruling just about everyone, every game.

And the tragedy was that the guy running the team kept moving the team into different leagues in the city so they could stay at the bottom tier and jack up all the other suck teams.

That's softball douchery at it's finest. Didn't make it through three games before I told the guy that it was total bullshit and he was a tool.

Unfortunately, I have seen some traveling teams that did it intentionally, and it was just disgusting.

Trust me, these guys were douches. They were intentionally hitting our pitcher. We had one of our guys (who had never played softball or baseball) accidentally hit middle on their pitcher. That's what started the whole thing.

well they better hope they aren't using a shaved bat...because if you hit a pitcher and he gets hurt/seriously hurt...the umpire confiscates said bat and if the bat was tampered with in any way it becomes assault with a deadly weapon.

and I know 80% of the teams in my area used shaved bats...

ahhhhh

I see. That makes more sense.

That's ridiculous. I would have gotten my team to walk off the field. No use in playing a team like that...make them really suffer by taking away their joy of playing the game.

The guy on your team who hit the pitcher should have apologized and it should've been done. If he didn't apologize then I could see 1 retaliation swing or someone on the other team calling your teammate out...

but everyone hitting the pitcher? That's not even bush league...it's 'walk off the field and forfeit' bad.

Guys who wear Fedoras are

Are All Recreational Softball Players Douchebags?
 

It doesn't look like our coed team will be playing this year. It is fun, but as someone mentioned, the girls are what make the difference. I don't need to go out and win every game or anything, but most of girls were so bad it took away the enjoyment.

They couldn't field or hit so the other team just scores like crazy so we would get run ruled. And if we didn't get run ruled, you still don't get many at bats because the girls were almost automatic outs. It gets to the point were you are so uncompetitive that it is no longer even that fun.

I feel bad for the girls in coed leagues...

there should be a line that the OF's cannot play in front of in coed leagues...

most girls have to face 10 man IF's when they hit...because even the best girls can only hit it 200 feet max and that's if they really get into the ball.

Sounds like none of the girls were attractive

I see a few of them bitching about umps in games to each other on Facebook LMAO A few are for sure that Angry Kid. Of course I see parents of little league kids doing the same. So...

Dayze, I PM'd you. I think I went to high school with your buddy that was in the accident. I heard from some friends that there were a few shitty people in the tournament and that there were even a few altercations off of the field. Apparently a mutual friend was called the n word by some asshole and a fight occurred. Could be a completely different tournament but it sounds too similar to not be the same one.

I officiated intramurals in college. Douchebaggery was imminent.

Played one year of softball last summer. Guy who organized our team (mostly fraternity alums) put us into a league based on time slot rather than skill.

So we were placed into an intermediate league. I hadn't played any sort of stick and ball sport since I got plunked in the first year of kid pitch and I cried like a little bitch.

The majority of the team hadn't played baseball either so we were outclassed by a WIDE margin.

Thankfully we didn't come across too many "Softball Guys" out there though there was at last team that had more than one guy wearing pants. Most teams realized we sucked ass so they wouldn't try too hard to murder us in terms of school.

Somehow I was able to barely jab a pitch to the edge of the infield so I managed to get on base at a +.600% clip. I like to think it's because of the fact people just weren't used to fielding a ball hit so shittily that I was able to run my fat ass to first. Better than accepting the more likely alternative they just assumed I was the reeruned kid on the team that was used to make everyone else look better or something.

Either way I couldn't run the bases correctly and we couldn't string together more than 4 at-bats without an out so I only reached home perhaps three times.. And I got erased at second at least once because I didn't slow up in time and overran the bag.

Needless to say I'm in no hurry to return to the dirty diamond because of the fact I'm an abject liability in the field and an abortion on the base paths. I'll probably never play any sort of sport again given that I get sharp pains in my knees if I rotate them more than a degree.

I stick to league bowling now..

It was my experience in softball leagues that when you needed one hit to win the game, the highest probability is to hit a hard grounder a few feet in front of the third baseman.

But, I never liked slow pitch softball. Too many people taking it way too serious. I played fast pitch softball for a number of years. You got too arrogant, they put a fastball in your ribs.

Our co-ed league has an encroachment line in the outfield. Can't remember the distance off the top of my head 120' or 150' something around there. All outfielders have to remain past it before the ball is hit with a girl at bat.

When third basemen and pitchers start wearing helmets with facemasks something's gotta be done.

I'm amazed pitchers aren't tossing from behind an L-screen.

Awesome!

That's how it should be.