The author and his wounds.
Silver Spring, Md. | Three weeks and six games into the season, I finally succumbed to our coaches impassioned pleas, and volunteered to be a contributor to the team Web site. The reason I held off from stepping up initially was that I was at a loss as to what I should actually write about. Should I write bold tales of heroism and teamwork each week as we struggle ever onward towards a post-season? Nah, Ian has that covered with a measured eye that has a better understanding of the sport than I ever will, and with a better memory for specific happenings. Should I ruminate on upcoming matchups? Again, with this being my rookie season with the Minutemen, I am at a loss to speak of other teams, and even the angle of being a rookie is being charmingly covered by Amanda Erickson’s weekly contributions. So again, what to write?
Then, while soaking in the tub, barely able to walk after throwing my back out because I live in a constant denial of the 15 years that has passed since I last set foot on a softball field, I came upon a solution. But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. First things first: an introduction. My name is Micah Pearson, and my place in the Express fold is that of “Professional Nerd.”
As their Information Technology Specialist, I keep all of their computers and network systems running, while trying to make them more efficient. As one of the biggest geeks to stroll through their offices, I also occasionally write video game reviews for them. However, my desire to join the office softball team came from two places a little less well-known and obvious.
The first is that while I support the Express, and all of my professional functions are dedicated to their daily operations, I’m not directly a member of their staff (I’m actually employed by Washington Post Digital), and do not in fact share my office space with them. While this situation will be changing in the coming months, it did have the initial effect of there being a slight disconnect with my customers in Express. As such, I had hoped to join the team last year as an opportunity to get to know “my people” better, but was unable due to scheduling.
The second, and the one more directly apropos to this little article, is that I was more than a little bit of a jock in high school. The fact that I lettered in four varsity sports (basketball, soccer, track, and baseball), and maintaining a starter status on three of those teams my entire high school tenure, is a little memory that I carry with me to remind myself that I wasn’t the biggest dork in the school. When I graduated, and it came time to choose college, there was thought, and even some mild pressure, to pursuing a professional career in track or soccer. But I was more interested in going to art school, so I hung up my cleats and continued on down that path.
Fast forward 15 years, and I now lead a fairly sedentary life. I’m a 32-year-old IT Professional who writes about video games, designs Web sites, reads and writes books, and watches a lot of movies. Along the way, I’ve collected some of the standard things people collect as they they travel through life: Bad knees and ankles from an adolescence filled with basketball and soccer, and a bad back from a young adulthood filled with car accidents. But still I missed that feeling of running around outside, catching a ball, or sliding into base. So I dusted off the inner-athlete, stepped up to the plate, and played my first game of softball since my freshman year of college.
The next day, my body ached in places I was quite certain no doctor had ever seen fit to give a Latin name. Walking was a prospect that required fistfuls of Advil, and the act of slinging my laptop bag over my shoulder caused muscles long used to doing nothing more than carrying computers (or the occasional case of beer) to scream out in agony as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. But beneath all that pain?
I felt great.
Sure I showed up to the first game without a glove and wearing jeans. So what if I had completely forgotten how to keep track of scoring in a game? I’d taken a step away from the computer, and gone outside! I’d blasted a triple at my first at bat! But more than that, I’d gotten a little back from the glory days. That is … until I had to go home and listen to my body count out the years since those days in excruciating detail.
Therein lied the angle to take with my contributions.
Since the first game of the season, I’ve dislocated my shoulder, gotten six stitches in my knee, and thrown out my back. Technically, I’m not supposed to be doing this anymore. But for the life of me, I haven’t felt this good in years. So every Saturday I’m gearing up and getting ready to step out on the field. I may be stepping into the past, but I’m doing my best to help my team moving forward. Epsom salts, bandages, and painkillers in hand, I’m ready to play.
Even if it’s for only 20 Minutes, man.
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