Necro for a fun/interesting thread.
Story 1
Last Tuesday's co-ed game, I'm playing LC. This RH bruiser hits a routine grounder to 3B... except our guy at 3B has the mobility of a school bus and doesn't come up with a ball that would have been within arm's reach had he been in the right position (he was shifted way over for some unknown reason). Anywho, the ball trickles into the outfield and our LF snags it and lobs it to 1B for the out.
Yep, we got the out. I'm thinking to myself "that damn play took two and a half minutes... how the hell did we get the out?" Then I see a bunch of commotion at the plate. The batter tripped over plate and buried her teeth on the other side. In her defense, this field is a train wreck and has the sandpit-batters-box that's typical of leagues that are just barely getting by.
Story 2
Playing in an intra-company league (all teams are from various divisions of a huge manufacturing company here in town), we're in the field. One team is comprised of a bunch of guys who live and breathe for this one night in the week. Seriously, you'd think they were all 'roid-raging AAA'ers just waiting for the call-up. This clown - who's probably 6'4" / 260lbs - comes barreling in at home with our C sitting BEHIND the plate with her arm stretched way out to make the tag. She's nowhere near the baseline or the extended baseline on the other side of the plate. He trucks her head-first with everything he's got... lays her ass out COLD. Ass couldn't even muster an apology... just a !@#$-eating grin that said "that's ball, lady... can't wait for the ESPN highlight." The only thing more appalling was our team's total lack of a response. There should have been 12 people on top of this guy spiking his eyeballs out of his head.
On a more general note, my biggest beefs with co-ed are
1) Chicks who no-show week to week with little to no warning. They just don't seem to grasp that people are depending on them and that their absence wastes the time (and money) of their teammates. Each sex has their issues - on the field and off - but women can be bloody oblivious to how their actions affect others.
2) I hate to say it because it's been mocked a bit in this thread, but guys who genuinely won't let the girls play really get under my skin. Aside from it just being insulting to the women, it can create very dangerous situations due to the added chaos. I posted a thread a week or two ago about this: drunk hilljack at 1B is playing 5 or 6 steps off his female 2B, obviously with the intent of playing both 1B and 2B. The batter (110# female) hits a dribbler to 2B. 1B gets in front of her to snag the ball, then gets up to speed hauling it to 1B. Idiot gets there at the same time as the batter and runs THROUGH the bag, taking her out and landing on top of her.
There seems to be two schools of thought on co-ed. One is that the women are playing a sport and assume all of the risks (guys with cannons but no control gunning it from 3B, SS, LF; take-out slides at 2B; etc). The other side is that, hey, this is co-ed: if you really can't tone it down and need to be THAT competitive, quit playing co-ed.
I tend to fall somewhere in the middle. I don't have a problem hitting at a female 2B if she's weak. It's not my problem that a team can't field semi-competent players. But at the same time, I'm not going to try to break up a DP in co-ed, no matter who's covering the bag, nor am I going to hit middle. It's co-ed.