Softball bites man | Jonathan Eig attempts to hit an underhand pitch from the Chicago Bandits

Jonathan Eig takes a pitch from the Chicago Bandits.

Photo: Dina T. Kwit

I’m an athlete who never had a prime. I am short, not particularly strong, and I have never competitively played any of the sports I write and know so much about. Does that mean I can’t put bat to ball?

Hell, no. That’s almost as stupid as saying a 130-pound woman can’t throw a 70mph fastball that rises from knee to nose as it buzzes across the plate.

What it does mean is that when I went out to Rosemont one recent hot summer night for a chance to hit against a pitcher with the Chicago Bandits, last year’s champions in the National Pro Fastpitch women’s softball league, I had no intention of provoking anyone’s wrath, especially after watching the Bandits in batting practice as they crushed one highlighter-yellow ball after another far over the outfield walls and nearly onto the Kennedy Expressway.

For more of this story and other Chicago sports essays, visit chicagosidesports.com.