OTTAWA-On a perfect baseball night, Steve “field marshal” Saunders got an email from the league convener shortly before the game that the Main Street Crawlers were defaulting the game as they “couldn’t field a team”. When “field marshal” informed his team of the decision, the reactions were predictable. “What nerve!”, snorted third base woman Leah “the road runner” Morrell. “They didn’t even have the courtesy to call you and tell you in person!” she continued indignantly. “We could have lent them a few players and made still made a game of it”, fumed the normally quiet and reserved Adrian “sweetspot” Seaman furious at their behaviour.

Making matters even worse, was the reaction from Alison “trigger finger” Hale, who brazenly attempted to undermine “field marshal’s” authority by sending out an unsanctioned team communique upon being informed by the convener. “Run for the hills everyone!. The game has been cancelled! Quick go make plans to do your laundry before ‘field marshal’ schedules a practice or some other equally absurd event on such a perfectly good baseball night!”. “field marshal”, needless to say, was not impressed. “Stand down bulldozer”, came his curt reply. “You are on the DL. Take all the time you need to heal, but in the meantime please leave running the team to me”.

Now attempting to mop up “bulldozer’s” mess, he instructed his team in no uncertain terms to “report to the baseball diamond as originally planned. We will of course pounce on this fortunate opportunity to take batting practice. You can do your laundry when the practice is over”. Everyone but “bulldozer” reported for duty and their reactions afterwards spoke volumes. “OMG, that was so awesome!!”, exuded neophyte Paris “songbird” Patricelli, blisters on her palms from one too many swings of the bat. “Thank-you so much uncle ‘field marshal’ for letting us get some much needed bp!”, added Meghan “marathon” Saunders’. In fact the whole team was chipper and upbeat after the light-hearted affair as they trundled off to whispers to further their team bonding experience.