Hawkeye Heartbreak

The game: Kickball

The teams: The Panthers of College Hill Lutheran verses The Hawkeyes of St. Paul’s Lutheran Chapel.

The stakes: The IDE President’s Cup (A real coffee cup from which the IDE President has slurped his tea.)

The date: Saturday, April 25, 2009.

The place: Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca

The conditions: Deplorable.  It was cold, wet, and miserable; a day unfit for the great game of kickball.  Nevertheless, we played. 

We played our Hawkeye hearts out.  We played until we bled black and gold, from both knees, but to no avail.  When all was said and done, when the last ball had been kicked, the scoreboard read: Panthers 6.  Hawkeyes 5.  Oh the humanity!  Here’s how it happened.

 With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the score reading 6 to 4 in favor of the Panthers, the Hawks had runners at first and second.  Our heavy kicker was up – it was a perfect situation.  Fear filled the Panther hearts.  The ball was rolled and kicked.  A long fly ball to left field!  One run was in, then two.  The score was tied.  The Hawks had the winning run just 60 feet away.  Victory was in our grasp, but then came the call.  Seems the ball struck a tree and by Camp Io-Dis-E-Ca’s rules that’s a ground rule double.  One run came off the board as the runner went back to third.  But not to fear!  Runners on second and third, two outs, all we needed was a ground ball out of the infield and The Cup would be ours.  It was a not to be.  The ball was popped up for an easy out.  The Hawkeye heartbreak began as the Panthers hoisted the IDE President’s Cup in victory!