Today I'm cutting the strings. After a last ditch effort to voice my concerns and try to work out the kinks I saw in the baseball league of which I am a member, I will be declining any further involvement once this season is over. It all came down to a near hour argument with the owner of the store/league hosting the baseball events. I have to say I lost a lot of respect for the owner as I left the store. Apparently, because I don't know that it takes roughly $9/hour for the store to operate, that means that I don't value all the time that the owner puts into the league. Of course many of the members (myself included) have offered numerous times to help in any capacity possible, but that was always rejected. I always tried to pull stats for the games I played to give some minimal relief, but I was told that I didn't do the stats properly and had to be rechecked every time. Sure, I probably made an error once in a while. That's what happens with manual data entry. It would have been nice to know I was making mistakes and what mistakes I was making so I could correct them. No matter what points I tried to make it always came down to me not valuing the time exerted, when in actuality, I couldn't understand paying $15 - $20 just to play a game and not have anything to show for it.

While that was the biggest and most vocal of the points discussed, I couldn't see eye-to-eye with the owner on the other points either. The few of us that bother voicing our opinions might as well be talking to a wall. Whether or not the choices made are best for the league, it's what the owner wants to do, which is well within his right, but the league is falling apart. Private conversations with other managers reveal the same feelings are beginning to irritate. If this thing lasts past the next season I'll be surprised.

Initially when I was expecting to quit, I was really bummed about it. I've given a lot of time to try and make various leagues work at that store for almost three years. Not being in this league, I have no reason to go back. Anything that I could buy there, I can buy on the Internet for cheaper or at another store. But today, I don't feel sad; I feel liberated. I never knew how much this weighed on me from week to week. I guess the vacation and three days of Cowboy Mouth did me some good. I'm going to "let it go, let it go, let it go."