Glory Days Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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You are looking for a small container with room for a log only.
Please approach the area slowly, sometimes the friendly security force likes to sleep in the road.
You wouldn't know it to look at me now, but in my day I was somewhat of a local softball hotshot. When I was 14 I was told by our summer league, that they could not afford to keep replacing the softballs I hit over the fence, and they felt I would be more challenged in the Woman's League. Now, the Woman's League was made up of players who were over 18 or married (it is rural TN). Their field had a fence 100 feet further back, and a sand pile behind the dugout for their children to play in. Some of my new teammates were the mothers of my old teammates. They were a great group with nicknames like "Tiny", "Y", "Speedy" and "Nae Nae". As a lefty I was automatically the first baseman. In that first game the coach came over to me and said "Welsh, don't you come off that bag for anything!" That first game was a real close one. The other team had a woman who was known as a real bruiser. She was an intimidating, big girl who looked like a charging Rhino coming down the baseline. Bottom of the 9th, we were up by 2 runs, there were 2 outs and a runner at 2nd, at the plate was the big girl. The good thing about big girls is that they can usually whack the ball, which helps because the bad thing about big girls is that they are usually pretty slow. This girl took a big cut and sent the ball into center field, I ran over and put my heel on the base. The center fielder grabbed the ball bare handed on the first hop, the runner was rounding third, but the big girl was still charging toward first. So the throw came to me. I could feel the ground shaking, I caught the ball just before she crossed the bag, then I felt the Rhino slam into me. Well if I drop the ball she would be safe. I didn't drop the ball, I didn't even move much. The coach said not to come off the bag and I wasn't going to come off the bag! The Rhino didn't fare as well, she broke her leg in 2 places, and to add insult to injury she was out and the game was over. The next week at practice the coach said "Welsh, you looked like you had a spike thru your foot, and it wasn't coming off that bag" Well from then on I had a nickname, I was "Spike"! I loved my time in the Womans League. My best memory is here at this ballfield, we were playing in a tournament in 1983. There were 20 teams from Tennessee and Alabama. Our team won the tournament and with 2 inside the park home runs, 14RBI's and an unassisted double play, I was voted MVP. At 16 I was the youngest player in the tournament. I had my picture in the paper, a big trophy and my team gave me the game ball, which is still one of my prized posessions. I went on to join the newly formed High School team and was even offered a College Scholarship to play softball. But my best memories are on these little rural fields, where the competition was fierce the friends and laughs were many and gameplay could stop at any time for a player to soothe their upset toddler. Unfortunately, over the years, this field has fallen into disrepair. It is only used by the locals for practice, but is kept manicured in case it is needed again.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Jurer onyy cynlref xrrc gurve cbalgnvyf