FBC Softball team hits bump at end of season

Our FBC Softball season came to an end last night with a weird series of events. With the FBC team leading 13 -10 in the top of the sixth inning, members of Calvary Chapel protested the game and declared that our team was using an ineligible player. Play ended there with a win awarded to Calvary Chapel giving them their second victory in the best of three series.

The protest was strange in the sense that the opposing manager knew about the player and said he didn't have a problem with it when he was notified that Mark Ferguson was going to be in the starting line-up by Pastor Lord before the game. Two days earlier Calvary's manager and Pastor Lord talked about it and agreed that although Mark was added to the roster as an injury replacement one day after the deadline, he was definitely not a ringer. Mark is a member of the church and had played in ten of the team's final games. Calvary's manager told him that the other play-off team managers may question the validity and that Pastor Lord needed to be prepared for it. When Calvary protested it was as if the two managers had never talked.

There was a heated exchange between the teams as the events unfolded but in a display of good sportsmanship, the FBC team slapped hands with the Calvary team and left the field. It was hard for many of them to walk away with a victory to even the series within their grasp. Many wondered why the protest had not come earlier when Mark came to the plate to bat in the first inning. We will never know that.

When one of the more vocal players from Calvary who was calling for the protest heard that the two managers had talked, he wondered aloud how come he and other team members weren't told about the talks prior to the game. He went on to say that when the Calvary manager began telling players about the ineligible player that he didn't let on that he had discussed it with Pastor Lord at all. The player said he wouldn't have made a fuss if he had known who the player was and that it had been discussed in advance.

As is often the case, miscommunication leads problems. In hindsight Pastor Lord should have addressed the players on the Calvary ball club directly instead of assuming the opposing manager was going to do so.

Prior to the game the FBC team voted to have Mark play even though it could have, and eventually did, lead to a disappointing end. It was a great display of team unity and reflected our philosophy of team first even over victory. We would have loved to win the series and had a chance to compete for the championship but a rule made to stop teams from bringing in ringers forced our team to decide whether we were about victory at all costs or building friendship and fellowship. In the end, even though we lost, we won.

The FBC team finished the year with a record of 15-9 and took fourth place in the division. Members of the team included;

Daryl Alves, Chip Chaffee, Dan Dutrumble, Mark Ferguson, Ken Kreger, Eric Larsen, Cal Lord, Steve Moon, Paul Pont, Eric Poore, Tony Snurkowski, Mark Staron, Mike Staron, Fred Stone, Chris Vaillancourt, Sean Wilding and Mike Young.

On Sunday we will celebrate a great season during our time of worship. Join us at 9:30 a.m. to meet the team and their families.