College baseball fans,
I know you are all itching for February to get here, just as I am. It’s getting closer and closer, so hang in there! The Fighting Camels’ fall has been going very well in the meantime. As the North Carolina weather has been cooling off and our fall has been winding down, we ended on a high note as we competed in our annual Black/Orange Fall World Series. This is always a very exciting time during our year and a perfect time for our team to be able to compete against each other for bragging rights and for the better end of a team dinner a few weeks after.
To the winner go the spoils, and in this case those spoils are held at high value. The World Series being a best of three set, is the gateway to either receiving steaks or franks at that certain team dinner mentioned. To make the Steaks vs. Franks incentive even more desirable, the winners not only get steaks while the losers get franks, but the winners get to pick a certain opposing player to serve them their steak. As you can imagine, for simply your pride alone, you do not want to be on the losing side in the Campbell Fall World Series. As we all know though, one team must fall. I am beyond thrilled to say that after three years, I was finally victorious in this battle of sport and pride. It is a pretty great feeling to beat your teammates in things like this. Bragging rights can go a long way on teams as tight as families, and that is what I am part of with these guys. With the nice things to say about them out of the way though, I must boast a little and assure you all that it was a harsh beating that we laid on the Black team. I have a lot of contemplating to do on who I want my steak served by, for I have a lot of good options to choose from.
The Fall World Series process began with a team draft by our senior class. Three on the black team and three on the orange team drafted their teams from pitchers to position players to even what two coaches they wanted. These seniors made out batting lineups and also decided on defensive positioning. As well as this, they decided which pitchers started games one and two (since game three was unnecessary because of our victory). We ended up being slightly out of position on defense as one of our normal first basemen was forced to play second base and I, normally a third basemen and second basemen, was forced to play shortstop. Shortstop was not that foreign though since I used to play it. Also, our first basemen gone middle infielder played like he’d played there his whole life.
Another part of the process is coming up with team names that usually correlate with the color of your team. These are usually humorous and pretty clever. The black team came up with theirs fairly quick. Even though it did not incorporate the color black, it was pretty impressive. They called themselves the “Creek Gods”. Get it? Like Greek Gods but we’re located in Buies Creek, NC remember? After lots of thought, we made our name focus around our color orange. We chose “Simply Orange” out of a large pool of options. This name comes from a popular brand of orange juice, if you are not familiar. So, the black team’s name had a little more ring and edge to it. Although I was a big fan of ours, I feel that if a vote was taken, we might lose the name-game battle. Good thing we played baseball to settle the World Series winner though!
After two six inning games, Simply Orange came out World Series winners. After a close game one, we left no doubt in game two, sealing the deal with a 13-0 beat down. Like I stated earlier, it was an awesome feeling coming out on top in this matchup. Being able to shut the black teams smack talk down made it even better. There were no hard feelings in this smack talk though. Engaging in this back and forth throughout the week only makes the whole process more fun and interesting. We’re a family, so it’s out of nothing but love.
After it was all said and done, being able to appreciate everything is always important. It’s hard to do this while in the process of playing. I took a few moments after we finished up this World Series and thought to myself how lucky I was to be in this position. Being surrounded by such a great group of guys and being able to compete against each other and together is one of so many blessings that I am thankful for. If there are two things the Fall World Series does, it brings you closer to your teammates and it gets you even more excited about the Spring. There is not a better feeling than putting on those black and orange jerseys together and representing the Fighting Camels. Until next time, and as always Roll Humps!
Drew Butler
