By the eighth inning it’s clear the Dodgers, a middling team in the 22-plus age division of Rhode Island’s largest amateur baseball league, aren’t going to win.
The guys — a mechanic, a fraud investigator, part owner of a small manufacturing concern — are disappointed, for certain. They’ve got a special distaste for tonight’s opponent, the first-place Black Sox.
But they hardly seem crushed. Certainly not team jester Brian Farley, 27, who, after sitting on the bench all night, has just talked himself into a cameo at first base.
“The infield,” he says, turning to the boys as he jogs across the foul line, “just got better looking.”
It’s another Friday night in the Rhode Island Senior Men’s Baseball League, a 22-year-old confection of sweat, bonhomie, aching backs, extra-inning classics, and endless wisecracks.
READ IT ALL: The heartbreak and hilarity of Rhode Island amateur baseball
Several healthcare professionals have warned that I'll have a heart-attack unless I seek help for my psychotic hatred of pro sports.
