My First McQuade’s Experience

Every single city in America has their once a year "thing". While I was in Missouri, I learned that every small town had a fair, which was usually accompanied by a truck-and-tractor pull. Bismarck, on the other hand, has McQuade's and I was happy to be a part of it this past weekend.

Earlier this year, a buddy of mine asked if I was interested in playing softball. I had played back home and needed to meet people, so I signed up. Now, I'm basically a fill-in player, which means if everyone shows up...I don't play. Because it was McQuade's weekend, everyone showed up, and I rode the pine.

We won our first game Friday night in come-from-behind fashion, over a team from Fargo. Saturday afternoon, we took on a local team and ended up losing...bringing our tournament to a premature close.

Being out of the tournament, though, didn't mean we were out of McQuade's weekend. One of our teammates brought his camper to the ballpark and we ended up partying the majority of the rest of the afternoon on Saturday. This was the first opportunity I really had to hang out with some of these guys, outside of the games, and it was a pretty damn good time...Complete with paint bucket beer pong, a toddler junk punch, and an embarrassing beer shotgunning attempt by yours truly. It turns out shotgunning a beer is not like riding a bike and you do forget how to do it. Cheap laughs at my expense, but what the hell.

Because we were out of the tournament, I was able to just relax and check out a few games on Sunday at Clem Kelly, including the Special Olympics game. Softball, perfect weather, good people, cold beer...you couldn't have asked for a better weekend.

Just seeing the amount of people that not only participate but just come to watch this tournament was absolutely astounding. Teams from all over the country coming together to play a little softball and raise money for Wounded Warriors.

Great event. Great softball. Already looking forward to next year. I'll work on my shotgunning skills before then.

The dates are already set for next year's tournament: June 27th, 28th, and 29th, 2014. The Wounded Warriors will also be on hand for an exhibition game.