Playing Sports in Philadelphia

This week I'm going to take the time to blog about my experiences playing softball and soccer in the various Philadelphia Sports leagues.  There are so many opportunities to get involved in different athletic events.  During my first year of medical school we experimented with the Penn Intramural leagues.  My medical school classmates and I decided we'd give these a try.  We formed a softball team, two different flag football teams (one all men and one coed), and a softball team.  We had a blast doing it.  In softball we, unfortunately, lost to Wharton in the finals.  Our soccer team that season had some difficulty scoring and lost on penalty kicks in the finals as well.  We've since branched out (for scheduling reasons) to some of the social club leagues. 

Big Papillare: Out at Ten Stone after our Semi-Final Playoff Loss

Our ace on the hill striking out the competition

This semester I'll be participating in two leagues, one a softball league on Sunday evenings.  We'll be playing at the brand new Penn Park with Philadelphia Sports Network (PSN).  I'm captaining this particular team, so it's mostly comprised of my medical school classmates along with some of my new friends at GSE.  When we played last spring, it was one of the highlights of my week.  Our previous league was on Monday, and I couldn't wait each Monday to get out to the field, hang out, and play some softball.  It reminded me of my old days as a baseball player in high school.  I got to roam center field, tracking down fly balls, and take some cuts at the plate.  My largest complaint about the last time we played was there was a gigantic tree in right field that was an automatic ground rule double when you hit the ball into it (which as a left handed hitter really put a damper on where I could hit the ball).  Apparently the new Penn Park has outfield fences, so I'll be able to pretend I'm a left-handed Paul Konerko (yes, I'm a huge White Sox fan), trying to hit the ball out of the ball park.  Or emulating a young Ken Griffey Jr. leaping over the walls to take home runs away from the other team.  The league starts in two weeks, and I'll undoubtedly be writing about it in future blogs. 

Yours truly modelling my PSSC Soccer Shirt

The other league is on Monday nights, it's a 4v4 soccer league.  I'm interested to see how this league works, as I've never played organized 4v4 soccer.  The league is run by Philadelphia Sport and Social Club (PSSC).  I've done a few of their other leagues, 7v7 on the turf field out in Manayunk.   This one will be out in Conshohoken (west of the city near King of Prussia).  I'm also looking forward to this one.  For this team my girlfriend and I will be joining my roommate and some of his classmates from Wharton.

Over the last three years while in medical school, I've found these leagues to be a blast.  It's a great way to get to meet people who are not at Penn, to branch out.  While both the teams I'm on are teams I've put together and entered in the league, in the past I've also done leagues where I've entered as an individual and been placed on a team with a bunch of random people.  It's also been a great experience and an awesome way to meet new people.