Fortyhboobs's blog post - We play to win!

Had a very nice visit with my mom on Saturday. Great lunch at a little neighborhood Italian restaurant and hours of Rummy in the afternoon. And, yes, once again she beat D and me at cards.

Mom’s very competitive, never believed in letting us kids win at anything. There were no cheap victories in our house. We always had to try our best, so then when we won we’d feel good about it. My siblings and I grew up with that competitive spirit. We all wanted to win at whatever we played – and we still do. None of us really believe in cheating, but let’s just say we’ll do anything and everything possible to be the winner.

A perfect example is a family softball game we had a dozen or so years ago…

It was during a holiday gathering, can’t remember if it was Thanksgiving or Easter. We were all at my youngest sister’s house. There’s a nice park less than a block away from her place that has a baseball diamond, and before dinner some of us decided to have a softball game. Out of all the siblings and significant others we could only get nine people interested in playing, so we formed two teams of four with a brother volunteering to play permanent center field. D and I were on one team along with another brother and my youngest sister. As an aside, whenever we’d play softball (or basketball, for that matter) I always tried to get that sister on my team. She’s nearly six feet tall, strong, and can bat and throw like a man. I’m no fool, I want to win!

Because we all bat right, our four-man teams that day consisted of a pitcher, catcher, shortstop and left fielder. I was my team’s pitcher. The game was friendly but very close. As I recall, it was nearing the end of the game when the other team tied us. There were two outs, a runner on second, and one of my sisters came up to bat.

She hit a hard grounder right back to me. I picked it up and, since there was no first baseman to throw to, I took off running after her. I was much fleeter of foot back then, weighed dozens of pounds less, but I knew this sister was a little bit faster than me. She’s my same height but has always been on the lean side.

I had to get her out or the other runner would score and my team (and ME) could lose. I was running as fast as I could, but she was almost at first base and I still couldn’t reach her with my glove. Desperate for the out, I launched myself and my outstretched glove at her, hoping to touch her back with it. Instead, I smacked her across the face (guess she wasn’t as fast as I thought *lol*) and knocked her to the ground. I went tumbling down after her…but I hung on to the ball and got the out!

My team went on to win, and my sister didn’t talk to me for the rest of the day (that was fine by me, she’s my least favorite sibling *lol*). But, hey, I didn’t do anything she wouldn’t have done in the same situation. We all play to win!

So, anybody up for a friendly game of cards? hehehe