Team Paragraph
For most, the baseball season started in April. For Paragraph, it started last night when we took on Harper's Magazine in our first official softball outing of the season (and ever). How did it go? 
We got creamed. We had fun. Harper's mercifully tallied the final score at 17 to 4, and that was after five innings when it got too dark to play and the lights failed to come on. What we lacked in runs, we made up in spirit and after-game socializing.
On the Harper's side, their entire editorial staff showed up, and though they claimed we were only their second competitor of the season following a defeat last week by the intimidating and revered New Yorker softball team, they seemed organized, tight and humble about their skills. They scored a quick four runs in the first inning, taking advantage of us as we settled and bobbled, and we came back with three runs in the same inning and tied it in the second inning, taking the same advantage of their fielders warming up.
The tide changed in the third inning, though, and the wave of Harper's consistent hitting overcame us. Okay, buried us. A few home runs, a ground rules double, RBI after RBI and we had to keep asking the catcher how many people came over the base because we couldn't keep track of all the runners rounding third. The catcher couldn't keep track either. We stopped counting and started cheering.
We played for a few more innings. Our team began to gel, temporarily but gel nonetheless, and we were blessed with one inning where we were able to shut down the Harper's team with a quick three outs. And we got a few more runs, but couldn't seem to get the double digits runs necessary to catch our rival. We learned after the game that Harper's had Budweiser in their dugout, while we were sipping Polar Spring mini water pods. That's the kind of strategy that comes with experience, and one we plan to employ in future games.
After a hand slapping congratulatory line-up, we all retired to an East Village bar to get beat by Harper's in pool. Why minimize the loss to just one sport in an evening? But it was all in good fun, and next week, we're hoping karma (and beer) will bring us a win when we play Wine Spectator. Go team!