No Mojo!

This weekend I laid in bed on Saturday morning and watched the 1976 version of “The Bad News Bears” with Walter Matthau. Although it’s not “The Sandlot,” it is a cute baseball movie. I forgot how cute.

I generally think that baseball is one of the worst sports ever. It’s so slow to watch. There is no action and it lasts forever (Sandlot fans are saying, “FOR…EV…ER!”)

There are a couple of great scenes, but I think the best line in the movie is when Buttermaker (AKA BoilerMaker, AKA ButterCrud) says, “All I know is when we win a game, it's a team win. When we lose a game, it's a team loss.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

If you would have seen MyGirl’s team Mother’s Day weekend, you would have thought that they were the Bad News Bears! They only needed the yellow uniforms with Chico’s Bail Bonds as the team sponsor.

Ninety percent of the touches on the ball were bad. They couldn’t catch a break. And it wasn’t just one of them, or two of them, or even most of them it was ALL of them. Holy Moly. I am picturing that first game in my head right now and the theme song is straight from the Bad News Bears Soundtrack… in slow motion.

There wasn’t a half-time speech in the world that could have helped. They had lost their “mojo.” It was gone – long gone. Seriously, I know for sure that I saw at least two whiffs at the ball. The girls lost 0-2 … to a team that they beat 6-0 two weeks ago.

After the game was over, SpeedofLightGirl broke into tears because she had been knocked down, ankle twisted and stepped on during the game. She ended up injured and is out for six weeks – starting right then. SisterMarySoccer had to rush out of the complex because she was headed out of town for a family commitment.

(Props to SisterMarySoccer and her dad though – they went to their ceremony and rushed back (3 hours) when they found out SpeedofLightGirl was out of the game. They didn’t make it in time to get checked in, BUT they did try awfully hard!)

So there the girls were, down two players with no mojo. They didn’t give up though… they kept playing until the end, but man, it was painful to watch. We knew they could do better. They knew they could do better. Another loss – 0-2. I actually videotaped the second game, but MyGirl won’t watch it. It “disgusts” her.

Game #3 was a bit better on Sunday morning. They didn’t quite have their “mojo” but they at least had their touch back – some of the time. At half time, they were down 0-2. About two minutes in to the second half, SisterMarySoccer picks a ball off one of their players, passes to MyGirl. She takes a few touches and dishes to StrikerGirl. StrikerGirl shoots. 1-2. A bit later, SisterMarySoccer feeds StrikerGirl. StrikerGirl scores again. Tie Game.

I’ll say this, MyGirl took a huge hit to the face. She sucked it up and stayed composed. No Crazy Eyes. She did also have an AWESOME slide tackle and by George, it happened right in front of me AND the video camera.

Overall though, it was a bad, bad weekend at the fields. Bad. But this weekend, we head north to play in the State League Tournament. It’s a tournament we had to qualify for and not only did we qualify, we came in first in Eastern division.

In closing, I just have to say - We gotta game with Azul this Friday and that means only one thing, Bad News for Azul!

Say a prayer for the girls. This is weekend is what they have worked so hard for!