February 13, 2001
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It's just a state of mind. Being cold that is. Or so I tellmyself. All that really means though is that it's totally cold and youjust can't think about it. Have you ever watched those football gamesfrom Lambeau Field in Green Bay where it's freezing cold and snowing andwondered how those players can stand it? Well, here's the answer: It'sjust a state of mind. Both teams have to deal with the same elementsand the team that ends up with the "W" is usually the one who can forgetabout them and just play the game.
Not that a cold and rainy Palo Alto afternoon of softball iscomparable to 30 below and snowing in Green Bay, Wisconsin but hey, I'mfrom Southern California so cut me some slack.
Last year at our Regional tournament in Michigan, we were theteam that wasn't able to forget about the weather and just play thegame. After seeing our team play this weekend, I think all of thereturners who were at Regionals last year had learned their lesson.Flat out, we were not going to make any excuses. Every time anotherstorm cell moved in on us and the wind started to howl and the rainstarted to fall, we got louder and more intense.
I think you can tell a lot about a team by how they respondright after something goes wrong. Do they cheer for the pitcher rightafter she walks a batter? Or score a run the inning after the other teamscores on them? Or get more intense when a storm moves in and it startsraining? This year, or at least this weekend, the answer to all threeof those questions has been yes.
That hasn't always been the case in the four years that I'vebeen here. A couple of years ago, you could count on one hand thenumber of times our team came back to win a game. With a lead we werefine, but it was almost like the wind went out of our sails every timesomeone scored first on us. In our first seven games this year we'vecome back on a team twice so far (against Santa Clara last week and SanJose State on Sunday). The next inning to be precise. When you're onthe other side of the coin, there's nothing more deflating than gettingan early lead and losing it the very next inning.
Let's just hope we can keep up that same state of mind for therest of the year.