Every so often something happens to remind me of certain events in my life that I've forgotten. These random instances jar memories from deep in the back of my brain that I've either suppressed or just plain forgotten about.
The most recent incident happened during a high school track and field competition in the United States where an unbelievable event took place.
It seems that after the 4x400-metre relay, a losing coach filed a written appeal to disqualify the winning team [Palm Beach] for wearing illegal uniforms. The winners were wearing sports bras that did not match, although the team uniform tops and bottoms did. The governing body actually ruled to disqualify the team.
Is it just me or does that seem crazy? I can imagine the sheer joy felt by the new winning team after they were handed the victory thanks to sheer nit-picking. I wonder if it's also in the rules that the competitors have to have the same "cup size" and the use of "thongs" are strictly forbidden. You can bet the team team will include shopping time in their training from now on. Either that or they can really cause a stir by not wearing a bra at all....although that could cause other issues, including bruising.
This incident reminds me of something that happened to me and my fellow team-mates on the Rumours Masterbatters Lob-Ball Team back in the late 80's. I don't want to sound cocky but we easily had the best team in the Sunday Men's League. We had a habit of handily beating our opponents who really didn't enjoy losing to a bunch of young guys. The fact that we were the new team probably didn't help matters either.
The year's have blurred my memory a little but I seem to recall that we had already won the regular season title and it was becoming clear that the fix was in to see that we didn't also walk away with the playoff crown. Without going into all of the details involving the umpire drinking with the opposing team in the parking lot and being buddies with them or the fact that the league commissioner was buddies with the old boys as well, I'll give you the main facts.
We had won the game and were on our way to playoff glory...if their is such a thing in lob-ball when we learned that the game was being protested. Now if I remember correctly, the rules state that a protest must happen within 24 or 48 hours of the games completion. The protest wasn't entered until several days later which should have made the whole thing a moot point. The protest was allowed and it was decided that we would lose the game because one of our outfielders wasn't wearing socks in his cleats. That's right...we eventually lost the playoffs due to lack of hosiery. There was some rule about no skin being visible but up until this point the rule really only applied to not wearing shorts. Long pants had to be worn since sliding was allowed but the fix was in and they were going to find any way possible to make sure we didn't win everything.
I don't think we lasted in the league any more than a couple of years after that as guys started moving on but we always made sure we brought an extra pair of socks to the ballpark just in case someone forgot theirs.
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