The Official WTF Thread

[New Pagodi]

Researchers find invasive, 'man-eating' crocodiles in Florida

Florida has the most "introduced" amphibians and reptiles in the world, according to the study. In the past five decades, four species of nonnative crocodile have been introduced into Florida's waters, but the Nile crocodile is deadly. From 2010 to 2014, the Nile crocodile was responsible for 493 attacks on people, 354 of which were fatal. The crocodile, which can grow up to 18 feet long, is also very adaptive, and will eat almost anything, including cattle, birds, fish, domestic pets, and even crocodiles and alligators native to Florida, The Guardian reports.

[thrill]

Miami is a true crossroads of the world and the Everglades is where every imported animal brought through is creating nature's thunderdome. Ironically, domesticated cats seem to be winning.

A couple weeks ago, an American croc was found in Tampa. Habitat encroachment and climate change is doing interesting things down here.

[tlombard]

If you are an adult and play in an adult (co-ed) softball league... shouldn't you at least have a freaking glove?

The team we played last night forfeited because they only had two girls. We only had four so we agreed to give them one girl and we would play for fun anyway since we all showed up. Well then they send one of their girls over to ask to borrow a glove. One of our guys had an extra so he let her use it. Then she came back over because somebody else on their team didn't have one. In the end we lent them three gloves when they were in the field!!!

One guy played third without a glove at all for a few batters. Although honestly, he wasn't catching anything with the glove anyway. I will give him credit for trying like he11 though. Even though he couldn't catch or throw, he did his best hockey goalie impression and tried like crazy to at least block every ball he could. He took a few off of the shins and legs and one straight in the gut on a throw from the outfield and didn't shy away from the ball once. He's clearly insane.

As if that wasn't enough, one couple on the team had two small children under the age of 5 and NOBODY to watch them. The baby stayed in the stroller on the bench and the freaking maybe four year old just stood there next to the baby the entire time their parents were in the field.

At one point there was a ground ball to the right side and the pitcher, second baseman and first baseman all went for it. The pitcher finally ended up with the ball and threw to first. The problem was that the first baseman was still on his way to first and the throw hit him right in the back.

It was the weirdest game I've ever been a part of. I was talking to another friend in the league after our game and he said that the same team had to borrow gloves from them too and never have enough girls. They are just a disaster. Then again, they are run by a kind of hipster bar who literally posted flyers on Facebook and in the bar to recruit players so I don't know what else to expect. And then to top it off the flyer I saw was specifically looking for 6 girls to pay $65 each in league fees for the season. The entire league fee is only $450 so either the guys are playing a couple of bucks each or the bar is MAKING money off of the players.

[cardinalkarp]

One guy played third without a glove at all for a few batters. Although honestly, he wasn't catching anything with the glove anyway. I will give him credit for trying like he11 though. Even though he couldn't catch or throw, he did his best hockey goalie impression and tried like crazy to at least block every ball he could. He took a few off of the shins and legs and one straight in the gut on a throw from the outfield and didn't shy away from the ball once. He's clearly insane.

This is one very dumb individual.

My next question is why didn't someone WITH a glove let the 3rd baseman use it?!?!

I'm guessing this is nothing more than a rec league, but even in that case a 3rd baseman w/o a glove in slow pitch softball is like putting a guy on the firing line.

[tlombard]

We gave him a glove to use. He just decided in the middle of the third inning that he would be better off without it for some reason. He had it back on a few batters later after taking one off the shin trying to block it. Even before then we were trying to avoid hitting it to him after seeing him take the throw in the gut from the outfield. The game didn't even actually count since they had already given us the win via forfeit so we were trying had to avoid hurting him.

Thankfully guys also have to use wood bats in this league and can't show up with super expensive bats that they've then doctored even though they were illegal to begin with. I used to play in a men's league and there is no way I could do that now. I'm to old and would get killed. When pitchers have to wear face masks and shin guards or else risk death, things are out of control.

[Jocephus]

must be one of those beer leagues. or meth.

[cardinalkarp]

We gave him a glove to use. He just decided in the middle of the third inning that he would be better off without it for some reason. He had it back on a few batters later after taking one off the shin trying to block it. Even before then we were trying to avoid hitting it to him after seeing him take the throw in the gut from the outfield. The game didn't even actually count since they had already given us the win via forfeit so we were trying had to avoid hurting him.

Thankfully guys also have to use wood bats in this league and can't show up with super expensive bats that they've then doctored even though they were illegal to begin with. I used to play in a men's league and there is no way I could do that now. I'm to old and would get killed. When pitchers have to wear face masks and shin guards or else risk death, things are out of control.

I still haven't came back around to softball and as long as I don't embarrass myself on a baseball field I'll stay in that realm.

I'm not an IF'er so I don't run into that issue, but I don't think you could talk me into playing on the IF for softball if it was in any sort of competitive division.

[Freed Roger]

I've seen guys get knocked cold pitching in a B beer league.

I dare say that co-ed can be scary, especially when younger-trying to impress the ladies. There's always going to be some dude trying to jack. Other team once had a girl playing 3rd- saw her get completely knocked over by a line shot. Unhurt. She hung onto it.

I regret playing co-ed softball in the day. should have went with volleyball, or kickball... Definitely kickball after seeing some of those gals in Tower Grove.

[tlombard]

Our league is definitely a beer league. When I started, we literally took beer into the field with us. Double innings can get long and nobody wanted to be caught thirsty. As an infielder, there are only a couple of guys in the league that make me nervous when they're batting. It helps that there are no fences so the outfielders play so deep with guys up that most don't even try to crush it unless you are one of those few monsters. Most of the home runs in our league are actually to right field and only because that's where teams try to hide people. A lefty with even a little pop is gold in our league. Crushing the ball to left does you no good when the left fielder is already standing right there to camp out under it.

There is one team that always makes it fairly deep in the playoffs and their average age is in the mid 40s with some people over 50 on the team. They will give up runs defensively because they don't have great range anymore but they make the routine plays and then just place their hits all day and go station to station driving you absolutely nuts. They just don't mess up and if they do, you had better pounce. The main reason they don't contend for championships is because ours is an all day tournament on a Saturday in August with league provided free beer and they run out of steam. They've gotten me pretty frustrated a few times in the more than a decade that I've played against them. We finally crushed them this year so I think they're years of torturing me are over (I've been playing against them for over a decade).

[tlombard]

I've seen guys get knocked cold pitching in a B beer league.

I dare say that co-ed can be scary, especially when younger-trying to impress the ladies. There's always going to be some dude trying to jack. Other team once had a girl playing 3rd- saw her get completely knocked over by a line shot. Unhurt. She hung onto it.

I regret playing co-ed softball in the day. should have went with volleyball, or kickball... Definitely kickball after seeing some of those gals in Tower Grove.

You are not kidding on the kickball thing. I don't play anymore but I have some friends who do and I enjoy spending my Saturdays in the fall in the park watching them play. Especially since for me it only takes a nice three block walk to the park and then I just get to hang around with drinks drinking and taking in the scenery. As an added bonus (and here I sound like a real creep) the past few spring seasons the fields my friends played on made me walk right through the middle of the park by the farmers' market and the rather large yoga class that was always going on. There were times that I just wanted to grab a spot on a bench there and forget about going the rest of the way to the kickball fields!