Camp Green Lane Blog Post July 14th

You’ve never seen Softball 1 like this before.

One side of the field was draped in black, supporting the Greeks and the other was blue, behind the Senior Boys, in a softball game that nobody saw coming.

Each side wore their Survivor colors, blasted walk-up music before each batter, and organized themselves into full-fledged softball operations complete with bat boys, dugout managers and someone running a flag across the outfield between innings like you see on games on TV.

The Senior Boys took an early lead, the Greeks came back and then the Senior Boys tied the game, 9-9, to send it into extra frames.

But let’s go back a week.

Last Monday, the CGL Blog received a note from Dave Meltzer in Middlebury, Vt. He spent summers 1969-1974 here at camp and he shared a photo of a softball from a game his Braves cabin remembers winning in 1973 against the Waiters. The ball has the names of all the 1973 Braves on it and it was gifted to their counselor 50 years ago.

The game was played July 14, 1973.

So we thought it would be cool to stage a rematch of that game on the 52-year anniversary this afternoon. I wrote back to Dave, who asked to come up to see the game, and these incredible boys took it from there. When Abe in the Greeks heard the story, he and the rest were hooked. They were all-in. It felt like more than a random softball game.

Dave came back to camp this morning. He walked around and saw all the sights. As the morning went on, the pack of boys trailing him grew to more than a dozen. They started calling him “Unc.” He told old stories. We listened. We looked at the names on the plaques in the Dining Hall—grandfathers, uncles and dads of some of the boys in our group. The boys showed him where to write his name on the ceiling in Arts & Crafts and then it was time to play the game.

So there we were, tied, going into extra innings. The two sides got there by getting clutch hits. They got dirty making plays in the infield. They gunned down runners from deep in the outfield. They played so hard on both sides and their friends supported them any way they could. There were 10 players on the field, but 42 Senior Boys found a way to contribute in their own ways.

But in the eighth inning, the Greek bats proved to be too much. A tiny Senior Boy rally in the bottom of the inning wasn’t enough, and 52 years later, the Greeks claimed a 20-12 win.

When it was over, they shook hands, they posed for pictures, and they signed a new ball to give to a new counselor all these years later.

“We should play this game every year,” someone said.

Not a bad idea.