It’s no secret that I love to play sports. I’ve been playing one sport or another year-round since I was about 8 years old. Baseball, basketball, football, soccer, badminton, whatever; if it involves a winner and a loser separated by points, I’ll play it. And for the past four years I’ve played baseball literally year-round, which I’m sure every other college athlete can relate to. I even played on 2 summer league baseball teams last year, one of which was the Susquehanna Assault, which is probably the only team in existence named after a violent crime.
Except for the Washoe Community College Crimson Rape
The other day I officially competed in (and won) my first athletic competition since surgery. This was a big deal for me, since this is easily the longest time I have ever gone without playing some sort of sport since Little League. I’ve been completely inactive for a little over a month now, and craving some friendly competition, so I leapt at the chance to return to the playing field when a female co-worker challenged me. Now, some conservative doctors might say that 4 weeks is not enough recovery time before returning to sports activities after major knee surgery, but I say that they can take their medical books and research journals and shove ’em. If I want to play I’m going to play, damn it! And it was with that defiant attitude that I took to the court and participated in a thrilling game of H-O-R-S-E.
Very funny, Farmer Joe
Obviously, this wasn’t the high-flying show of acrobatics that usually takes place when I hit the hardwood, but I still managed to utilize a combination of veteran savvy, craftiness, a little bit of cheating, and a whole lot of dumb luck to defeat my younger, more in-shape opponent. Basically, I Jamie Moyer’d my way to victory.
Moyer delivering his signature pitch: the oldball
I pretty much won by calling left-handed shots and somehow swishing one from behind the backboard. Not a pretty win, but I’ll take it. It wasn’t like I won the Super Bowl or anything, but it still felt good to start easing my way back into playing sports again. Hopefully tomorrow’s knee-bending at PT goes as well as my new knee’s first athletic competition did.
