League Ups and Downs

I played on my Sunday league yesterday and on this day, we play 6 games each.

I show up a little late, so my captain said, "I knew you were running a little late, so I put you in the hammer spot so you could settle down if you needed to."

Wait, I'm on an all-guys team and you put me in the hill-hill spot?  SAWEET!

I win my first two games and then it I notice it - the whole entire other team is watching me!  "The Girl Player That Plays Good."

Then it hits me, "Oh crap!  This is the place where I dogged a few games because I got embarrassed about a shot!"

And just like that, all the feelings came back.

Sh!t.

I recall distinctly I had been playing well another time at this exact location for league and people started to "notice my play" and then I missed an easy shot for another great out.  After that I was missing a lot of balls.  I finally figured out I was embarrassed about my miss and it affected me  several games later.

And guess what happened?  I over-hit a ball right after remembering that and miss shape, and lose that game!  Ugh.

In the next game, my opponent tells me "this should be an interesting match" because I overheard him talk about my play.  But I was still "nervous" and I missed a shot to avoid a scratch and then lost that game, too.  Dang it!

Now I'm 2-2 instead of 4-0!

Man I was disappointed.

I even texted a friend about it.  "I should be 4-0, but I messed up two games."

As I walk from that 4th game a teammate tells me, "we want you to win, Melinda" or something silly like that, lol.

I know!  haha  Me too!

As I play my 5th game, I'm sitting there minding my own business, trying to play and one of the guys on the other team says to a teammate within earshot, "She plays good."

His teammate replies, "yea, I know."

Then the guy tells her, "but she should have won the two games she lost."

Wait, what??

You are watching me THAT close that you know I lost two games?  AND you noticed also that I should have won?  Just like I felt?

WOW.

Really?

So, win my 5th match.  Whew!  And I figure I can beat the girl on their team next, so I should at least be 4-2 at the end of the day.

As I'm playing my last game, the guy who said that about my losses comes up to my table to get his case.  He sits down instead of just leaving.

"You know, you are the best female pool player I've ever seen."

He's about 50 so I doubt that, but it was still a nice compliment!  But, I bet there are only ten whole other girls on the league so I might be the best he's seen on the league.  Compared to girls in Texas, though, hardly!!

I said "thank you" and then shared back what he had said earlier to his teammate, "I should have won 2 of the games I lost."

"Yea, but that's okay, you still play stellar."

I missed about 4 more times at the table against the other female player (lol), but finally saw an out and ran out for the win to capture my lowly 4-2 score.  Whew, at least it wasn't worse!

And, we didn't even go close to a hill-hill match!