A Brief Editorial Note from the keyboard of Charlie Brown:

For those of you who may not know, the GSA softball league is not free.
Captain Ron paid out $400 at the beginning of the season to register the
team. This money goes towards field maintenance (including the new
fences), game balls, and most importantly, the free barbeque and booze
during the Phoenix Cup to be held in two weeks.

It is now more than 3 months into the season and Captain Ron has yet to
recoup the costs of running the team. So, this is my plea to all those
people who have been playing for the team, and have yet to pay. We do
appreciate you filling in for our missing players, but the bottom line
is, we only have about 9 or 10 core players who have paid their dues
($35), which includes Captain Ron's share. If you have played in more
than 2 games, could you please contribute something to the cause?
Whether it's $5, or $10, any little bit will help - Ron is still $100
short...

Having been the manager of the team for many years, I can sympathize
with Captain Ron's position. The amount of work that goes into managing
the team is virtually unseen by all. Rescheduling games and just trying
to organize enough players for each game takes a lot of work, and time.
So, when you receive an email from Captain Ron regarding a game, please
respond and let him know if you CAN or CAN'T play. It only takes 30
seconds, and it saves him a lot of headaches... you don't have to submit
excel spreadsheets like ACCB, a simple yes or no will suffice. And, if
you know well in advance that you will miss a game, fill us in!

Part of the reason we play so poorly in the first few innings is simply
due to the fact that we are unorganized, scrambling around trying to
piece together a lineup and fielding positions based on who is, or isn't
there...

On a more positive note, we have definitely proved that we can play with
the big teams this year, and stand a good chance of winning a few games
in the Phoenix Cup. Once we settle in after the first few innings, we
have outplayed most teams. Even after surrendering a brutal 13 runs in
the first 2 innings against the Rockall Gannets, we clawed our way back
and made a game out of it (almost). We look to be in good shape heading
into the Cup.