I'm not a big sports fan, but sports have changed my life.
Well, the gay softball leagues sure did.
Not euphimismally, either.
My first lover joined a gay softball team, back in the day, and they needed a scorekeeper. I got drafted. He only lasted one year with the team. I bounced from one team to another in the Los Angeles league for four years.
Sat out for a couple of seasons, after getting bashed.
Got involved again when I ran into one of the guys from that first team who needed a scorekeeper for a team he was running in Long Beach.
A couple of years later, switching teams, I ended up at Mike's Corral and met der Brucer.
Forced der B to tag along for four more years.
And finally got burnt out and dropped it. I haven't been able to stomach watching a game since.
Der B replaced the softball with something more like hardball - he got us involved with Log Cabin.
He's now using everything he learned from me on scorekeeping and recordkeeping, in order to help his daughter work up some statistics spreadsheets for the grandlads' little league teams.
What goes around, comes around, and sometimes bites you where you'd rather it didn't.
All the same, if it weren't for the softball, I probably wouldn't have connected with der B. And we've been together twenty-two years now, sometime this month (exact date misplaced).
That first lover of mine has a lot to answer for.
