THE CRAWDAD GAME

June 1, 2016

By Dave Chilton
Shortstop, Big Daddy’s Donuts (Men's 55 AAA)
Kansas City, MO

It was a sunny, humid June morning in Columbia, MO. Day two of the 2016 Missouri Open Senior Softball Tournament. We were playing in the 55+ AAA division and we’d played 3 games the day before and all were stretching out the kinks and sore joints.

Along with the stretching, groaning, cracking, and popping, Naproxen Sodium is consumed like candy, and the dugout smells like a BENGAY factory.

On this morning, Don Smith, our second baseman, and myself (shortstop) took the field to start our warm-up throws. Suddenly Don says to me that there was a crawdad on second base. I wasn’t too surprised because these little critters can travel a long way out of the water in search of a new home.

But considering how far the closest crawdad habitat could be, I figured he had crawled as far as he could and died. I think the official term is crayfish and though I did look it up, I’m not going to attempt the scientific name – but to a kid who grew up in Missouri, they are crawdads. Donny grew up in Oklahoma and they must call them crawdads down there too.

Then I started thinking - just how far away is the nearest creek or pond? Perhaps there was a creek out beyond center field where there was a wooded area. At that, the distance this little mudbug had to crawl would be at least 300 feet through thick grass. He was maybe half an inch long. Imagine you walking 10 miles through a jungle and in a medium that was not your main source of oxygen. I also thought that perhaps a bird had tried to make a meal of him and ended up dropping him there in the middle of our softball field. We’d had a decent rain the previous night, which had delayed the start of the tournament by 30 minutes. Maybe he’d been deposited there by the storm? Then I actually looked at him right on top of the bag and he was very much alive! I picked him up and held him in my open hand where he stood up on his front legs with his body pointed up and claws raised in defiance. 

He was ready for the final battle. How could this tiny crustacean have gotten this far and be this alive? Who knows, but he was a hardy one. Donny and I agreed to just toss him in the grass with the hope that maybe he’d find his way somehow. Not much else to do since the game was about to begin.

An inning later when Donny and I re-took the field, he again exclaimed, “That little crawdad is back!”

“Maybe he wants to play second base, Donny?”

“Could be. He’s a persistent little bugger!”

Mark Mawhirter was trotting out to play right center and I picked up our little friend and asked him to toss him over the fence into the wooded area. If there was creek back there hopefully he’d find it. Without hesitation, Mark ferried our fearless warrior out to right center where he was deposited back to whence he came – presumably.

This story would have a more interesting ending if we’d seen him again, but that didn’t happen. What did happen, I attribute to our adventurist fresh water lobster. We were in a tight game with Triple Crown, a very tough team from St. Louis. We entered the home half of the last inning down several runs. By the time I got up, the tying run was on third with one out. I hit a base hit to left and the tying run came home. I’m on first and Mark Mawhirter is up to bat. Mark got a nice pitch to hit and slammed it into the gap in right center where it bounced once and hit the fence – at the precise spot Mark had turned that crawdad loose. I was off and running hard as soon as I knew it wasn’t going to be caught and was able to score from first base. That ended the game and ultimately secured a second place finish for us in the tournament.

Back at the hotel Donny, Mark, and I later talked about this little wanderer and how he must have had some kind of Karma drawing the game winning hit to his point of deliverance - a kind of thank you. True or not, our hats are off to him. We hope he found his way and survived. He certainly deserved it. That game will forever live in our minds as The Crawdad Game.