The Desi Nationals

Email from Coach-C:

We have practice scheduled for tonight at Mise Park. We'll try to get started promptly at 7:00 PM.

Mise Park: corner of John Mise Ct & Moorpark Ave

Mitty Way
San Jose, California
95129

Also, we only have 14 people signed up. There are still two roster spots open!! Please let me know if you can find anyone....

Here is my thinking for Friday night's game. If any of you strongly oppose, lemme know..

1B - Ranjeet aka 'Doohma' aka 'Bad Boy' (that was self-proclaimed)
2B - Leena
SS - Chethan
3B - Amit
LF - Appu
LCF - Preeti S
CF - Naveen
RF - Srivalli or Sammy or Preeti A.
SP - Shrisha or Karthik
CA - Preeti A. or Sammy or Preeti S. or Srivalli

Will miss this game:
- Anjali
- Robert

Party invite from Leena:

New venue for the practice session:

Venue: Mise Park in San Jose (the same venue where the league games will be played).
Time: 7PM.
Date: July 26, 2006.

Updates from Coach C:

Greg and Amar have decided to drop out of the team as the game schedules clash with their personal lives. So, we are looking for new recruits. One might be Harroop Singh (Chethan's ex-colleague from Accenture), and another might be Karthik/Sammy's friend.

So, the search is on. One week to go for the league games to start, the first game is against Westgate. Since there are only 4 teams in our Church League, we might automatically qualify for the playoffs. Nice, eh!

We need a game song! Any suggestions, anyone? Game song, anyone?

Chethan's email abt the league schedule:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Looks like we are confirmed for Friday games throughout the season!!! First game next Friday @ 7:00 PM against Westgate (grrrrr!!!). Here are two links that go to our the league homepage and the entire schedule for the season. We are in league #266 Church Co-ed with High Tech Manufacturing, Westgate, and St. Timothy's Lutheran.

Another practice session, another evening spent under the lights at the Central Park in Santa Clara. Were there 12 players, or 14? Amar was there too, havent comprehended the email message right for once! Another game type simulation. Everyone can hit, but fielding, and throwing to bases still suspect. Apurva almost took Chethan's arm off! Anyone but Chethan, this was a sure-shot fractured arm!

The above pic taken with my new E-TTL-420EX flash unit, and my EOS-20D. I love it already. I got this flash intensity even with the diffuser on, and at about 15 feet.

Here is a sneak preview of the design.

P.S: The numbers will be in orange, not green.

The shipment is scheduled for arrival on July 27th, just in time for the first game! Cant wait!!

Sunday morning, a practice session planned for 9AM, at the John D Morgan Park in Campbell.

Was a scorching hot day, the numbers might've hit triple digits during the day. Chethan and Sri arrived with a bunch of bagels, Sammy/Vugs provided fruit juices, and we arrived 20 mins late for practice 'cause I cudnt wakeup in time!

Chethan planned a real-game like practice session, with hitting, running between bases, with rules being explained often to us by Chet, Anjali and Amit. Between the three of them, they have a good bunch of softball experience, and a lot of patience to teach us newbies.

Leena took a nasty one on the leg, Chet took a nasty spill, but apart from that, it was a good practice. Our fielding still sucks, but I think we can score a few runs. Preetu consistently hits to the right field, while the rest of us manage hits to the left and center field. Anjali, Karthik, Robert and Chethan pitched, while the rest of us tried to get comfy in our placements on the field.

A mid-week batting-cage session planned. Wednesday, or thursday? League games start next week.

Another day, another catch session planned. At the Central Park, in Santa Clara.

Agenda:
7.05PM - 7.50PM - Xena, the warrior princess's cardio kickboxing class
8PM - 9PM - Softball practice at Central Park
9.PM - 10PM - Dinner @ Mongolian BBQ on El Camino

Central park co-ordinates:
http://www.ci.santa-clara.ca.us/park_recreation/pr_central.html

Map of the park:
http://www.ci.santa-clara.ca.us/pdf/collateral/CentralParkMap.pdf

Blog update after the practice session:

Central park is a real well maintained park, with 2 lighted softball diamonds, and one practice area. We metup at 8PM as planned, and did some fielding, running, and hitting. Preetu, Sammy, Leena and Srivalli took a few hits while stopping ground balls... ouch.. DJ & Venu showed up for practice. DJ got hurt when she took a blinder on her knee, at about 9.45PM. We stopped the practice, and went out to Chilli's for dinner.

Pretty pooped after the cardio-kickboxing (courtesy Xena), and the softball session.

Next practice session planned for sunday morning, 10AM.

Now that the team is in place, the quest for designing the team jersey is on. Chethan has enquired about the costs of designing one, and the current estimate is approx $25. The jersey might even contain the Indian emblem on it. The completed the product is eagerly awaited.

Here is the current jersey number choices: Srivalli 11; Appu 33; Naveen 10; Preetu. 7; Dumma 00; Leena 9; Shrisha 8; Preeti S. 1; Karthik 5; Sammy 6; Amarnath _ ; Robert _; Greg _ ; Anjali _; Amit _ ; Chethan _; Harroop _
( _ <==> undecided)

BTW, Chethan has paid $670 for the team registration for the league. All non- San Jose residents pay $10 extra. Add the cost of the jersey = $25. Approx cost per person = $70 ($80 for non-residents).

Sunday morn @ 9AM, on the day of the soccer WC finale, we metup at the John Morgan park in Campbell, on 450 Rincon Ave, for a practice session. Met with Anjali and Amit for the first time, Anjali has a solid throwing arm, and Amit is a real third baseman. Good recruits!! Only Greg needs to join us for practice, and our roster is full.

Tossed the ball around, did some catching, hitting, base running, in the soaring 90+ temperatures. Amar returned from his German travel to join the team. He has a real strange batting style, he walks down the pitch, very similar to slogging in the cricket matches, but he made great contact with the ball. Preethi (Chethan's neighbor) looks like a good hitter of the ball too.

Looks like Robert, Apurva and I will be manning the deep field, with me in the left field, and Robert in rght field. Amit might be on first, Anjali on second, Chethan as short-stop, and Apurva as first baseman. Preetu/Leena/Preethi/Sammy/Srivalli will take turns at catching, and deep fielding, perhaps on right field. Dumma/Karthik/Srisha might be taking turns at first-base and deep field.

Looks like we can score a few runs as everyone seems to be getting a pretty good hand at whacking the ball, but I'm not so sure of how we are gonna stop the other team from scoring. Our fielding almost sucks! But hey, this is for fun anyways!!

And it was 10.45AM, and we were done for the day. Soccer game between Italy and France for the WC finals at 11AM at Sammy/Vugs place. And on to do more fun stuff like choosing the team jersey and such.

Chethan and I were sitting around watching a basketball game last month, and Chethan was like, we could be playing softball and start a team.. play co-ed so the girls get to shake a leg and an arm.. It got some adrenaline flowing, Chethan followed up on that, and he got a team registered in the San Jose summer co-ed league. yay! And check this out.. our team is aptly named "The Desi Nationals".

Now that the softball is gonna be a reality, we needed to form a team. Apart from Chethan and his little bro Apurva, none of the other friends who signed up had played. Yup, great start that. The other draft picks (who have swung their arms a wee bit): Greg, my P.A.Semi neighbor (he has played plenty and some), and Sammy/Karthik's friends Anjali and Amit. Anjali was a star recruit to the Desi Nationals, and yup, we got ourselves a team.

Team-members: Chethan (Captn/Coach), Apurva, Greg, Srivalli, Dumma, Leena, Sammy, Karthik, Amar, Anjali, Amit, Robert, Preethi, Srisha, Preetu and me. Thats 16, which makes up our roster. And our ball-boy is Rishon.

Practice session 1: We visited a softball batting cage in Santa Clara, and with Coach Chet guiding us, we try to shake off the cricket batting action, and try to do the softball thingie. All I can say is, playing softball is much harder than I thought. A visit to the Santa Clara Univ baseball field, and Chethan took us thro' catching, throwing, and batting basics. A couple of hours later we were done, and we were a tired lot. Now we know what first, second, third and home bases are, and ditto with short-stop, deep-fielders, yada yada yada, and yada yada yada. Long ways to go before the July 24th, when the first game will be played.

Practice session 2: Since all of us bought new softball gloves (man, these things are biiiig), we needed to break into them, we got together on the same field, and played ball. We cricketers, used to catching with bare hands, have a lot of un-learning to do. Gloves make catching much easier, especially stopping the ball, and throwing it to base. The softball is much bigger, so throwing aint that eazy either. And how do we do the chicken pose again? :)