12 Men 1 Cup: The Story my Season Thus Far

Now don’t be crude, I am simply talking about how Los Playeros, the softball team I am playing for this year, drinks water during our games.  Our coach brings a pail, a cup, and three large sandwich bags full of ice.  He then finds a house by the field and asked the family if he can fill the pail with water.  So to start each game we have 12 men using one cup to hydrate themselves for the seven HOT innings, hence the title 12 Men 1 Cup.  I however, can’t partake in this hydration bonding because I was instructed by the Peace Corps doctor to only drink filtered water, so I have to bring my own.    

Now those avid blog readers of mine--I am talking about you Cali, Gio, Sarah, and Sue--you may notice that I am on a different team this year.  Well after last years up and down season with Los Caribes (way too hostile an environment for a small town softball league), I decided to hit the free agency marked.  I quickly became firmado with Los Playeros and so far so good!  I knew I was going to have to earn my spot on this team as there are definitely a few teammates who could have played collage baseball--Boquilla is well known for its athletes and especially its peloteros, ball players.  So I started the season on the bench (my college position), but was soon given an opportunity to play 1st base (my high school position).  So recently I have been platooning 1st base with a 40 something year old mustachioed Afro-Colombian whose kids sit in the dugout at every game.  However, while he is playing, I am usually the designated hitter.  It turns out that I may actually prefer DHing because I get to escape the unforgiving sun for the majority of the game.

Although the ‘stadium’ had lights installed in 2010, Boquilla can’t pay the electricity bill for every game to be after sunset, so there is only one game a week under the lights.  That means that so far this season all seven of our games have started between 9am and 2pm.  I have found the only way to survive the constant low-mid 90 degree heat accompanied with the 85% humidity, in baseball pants, is to think about jumping into the ocean the second the game ends.  It does however make me feel a bit better knowing I am not the only one complaining about the heat.  Many of my teammates often complain about the unforgiving Boquilla climate as well.  For the majority of them, it doesn’t help that they wear long sleeve shirts to accompany their baseball pants.  I was curious as to why they would torture themselves by wearing mock UnderArmour shirts, so I asked a few of them.  They simply responded by saying they didn’t want to get any darker.  I thought this was very interesting because when the typical gringo goes to a hot climate they want to get a tan, but all the Boquilleros on my team despise the idea of getting a tan.      

So about a quarter of the way through the season We sit with a 5-2 record and have another game this weekend.  I will take a team photo during our next game and be sure to post it in my next blog.