What were you doing in the rain at 9 a.m. on Mother´s Day?

Well, there were a lot of your fellow alcoholics out playing softball in the Clean and Sober Softball Association, an organization which oversees upwards of 600 men and women who are out there every Sunday morning for six months chasing fly balls and hoping for the elusive home run. Wives, mothers and children were there too, cheering on their favorites.

At Brannan Park in Auburn, the South Division starts at 9 in the morning and plays through to late afternoon. All 10 teams play double headers every Sunday, and it used to be triple headers. Commitment to the Clean and Sober Softball Association is not to be taken lightly. On Mother´s Day morning at Brannan, it was raining lightly and the temperature was around 52 degrees, so the crowd was sparse. The woman scorekeeper was working under an umbrella. On good days, teams turn out several hundred fans.

All teams have seven men and three women on their rosters. Women usually catch and play first base, and sometimes pitch. All games are slow pitch. "The idea is to come out and have fun," Shannon G., the league´s executive director, said. On that Mother´s Day Sunday, the Warriors started the day with a game against the Step Kids. Then the Step Kids played the Ramones, followed by a game between the Rebels and Tech Force, Parkland vs. Clean-ups and Clean Machines vs. Parkland. Meanwhile, on an adjacent diamond, the Ramones played the Rebels, XXX played the Warriors, Clean-ups played XXX, U-Rock played Clean Machines and Tech Force played U-Rock. The last teams took the field at 2:50 p.m.

If you think those names are colorful, here´s a sampling from the other divisions: Outkasts, Reservoir Dogs, 2nd Chance, Renegades, Resentments, Ballers,, Bruisers, F.I.R.R. (for "F... It, Rock and Roll"), Attitudes, Solutions, ACES (for "Alano Club East Side"), and Nut Hut.

There are five divisions in the league: North, South, East, Cascade and Central. Central takes in Seattle and the immediate south, but their games are played in Des Moines at Steven J.Underwood Memorial Park. Shannon said the league can´t afford Seattle´s rental prices. Other divisions play in Everett, Shoreline, and Sammamish.

That´s a lot of softball, but Shannon said there´s a higher purpose beyond just having fun. "We´re working on our sobriety and our fellowship." He himself has been sober since Sept. 14, 2000 after a substance abuse career that included cocaine and marijuana as well as booze.

Nobody in the league works harder than this guy. He estimates he spends 30 hours a week for the game, and loves every minute of it. There´s a lot of driving too. He lives in Buckley, works in Seattle and plays in Des Moines. Shannon .admitted his fiance would like to see him home more with their 18-month-old son Caleb, but "she is totally supportive of our sport. We´re working it out."

He´s the player-coach of Bill, as in Bill W., in the Central Division. He plays outfield and pitches.

CSSA players enjoy a governance system which rivals A.A. itself in complexity. The constitution and bylaws and the CSSA Code run 58 closely packed, single spaced pages, but most of the players simply turn out for the fun of playing the game. Like most A.A. members, they have little to do with the governance of their organization. But those who do put in countless hours attending meetings, player drafts and coaching.

They also enforce a very tough rule on sobriety. All players must have been clean and sober for at least 30 days before joining the league, and must maintain their sobriety as long as they´re playing. Al B. coach of the Dirty Birds and vice director of the Central Division, said sobriety was a problem some years ago. "We had teams that were too competitive, weren´t in the program or were still drinking. The league almost failed because of it. There was a lot of dissension till we made the 30-day rule. Now, that comes first. Everything else is secondary."

Al said it´s up to the coaches to enforce the 30-day rule.

Al is one the real veterans of CSSA. He´s been sober since Nov. 15, 1978, when he joined the fellowship at Fremont Hall. "I´ve been playing softball off and on since we started the league 24 years ago. There were six teams-Fremont, Lake City Young People, a team from the Eastside. Lynnwood won the tournament that first year. I was recruiting big time, and after four years, we had 24 teams. There was one director, me. The structure is a lot different today."

Al said he´s always been a serious sports fan. For a number of years, he was the Mariners´ groundskeeper. When he sobered up young, at 21, "I wanted to keep having fun and I didn´t know how till I got together with some other people and we said Hey! Let´s form a sofball league. And it has worked out just as I had hoped. We´ve always been A.A. oriented. At the end of the game, we say the Serenity Prayer, sometimes in a circle around the mound. I really believe we have helped people stay sober."

There are 47 teams in the league, and Shannon, the executive director, said they´re trying to broaden the scope even further. Teams from Tacoma and Yakima play as independents (non-league) and "we´re working to expand to cover the whole state."

Kurt N., coach of XXX in the South Division, has been playing for 11 years. Kurt, who has been sober since Dec. 26, 1994, led formation of the division. "We want to foster fellowship while we´re playing this game," Kurt said, "not just sit around a hall and smoke and drink coffee. We have a player draft in this division with the deliberate intent to mix the players up and encourage camaraderie. I don´t want ´em playing, then walking to their cars and going lhome. We want to mix, get to know each other, be friends. We have a higher purpose here. We´re working on our sobriety and our fellowship."

The south Division raised $5000 last year as a donation to the Auburn Recreation Department for an outfield fence for one of the Brannan fields .

Mike M., a transplant from Florida, is director of the North Division and the coach of the Mariners. Mike´s sobriety date is Nov. 19, 1987, and he started playing CSSA softball the next year. "It´s fun, and it contributes to the sobriety of a lot of people," Mike said. If a guy stays sober so he can play and then goes out at the end of the season, well, maybe he will stick with the program next time. But I don´t think people get sober just to play in our league. There´re plenty of places where you can play and drink. "

Both Mike and Shannon said the players get along pretty well with each other. "There´s some sibling rivalry, you might say," Mike said, "´cause we all know each other." When Shannon was asked if no one ever goes nose-to-nose with the umpires, his reply was, "Well, we´re alcoholics."

Mike said the North Division "pretty well dominates the league." The Mariners and the Outlaws, both North teams, won the CSSA championship three years running, but El Nino of the East won last year.

Scott M., the director of the East Division, has been sober since Feb. 8, 1986, and has been involved in the league ever since. "Originally, the players came out of the fellowship halls, and there were some pretty rough characters. It was not the finest reflection of the spiritual way of life. But it was and is a wonderful outlet, especially for the young. I was 20 when I got sober, and it´s been a huge help to me."

He coaches the ACES (Alano Club Eastside) and plays a variety of positions. "I played for Lakeside for 10 years, but we wanted to bring in newcomers so we formed the ACES this year. Four or five of the team have under 90 days, and three or four more have a year or less. We are very toxic, and that makes it fun." The Nut Hut is a new team too. Mike´s team used to pray before games. They´ve given that up, but at the end, they circle up and say the Serenity Prayer.

He spends upwards of 25 hours a week on softball. "I´m passionate about it. This is my last year as director, and there´s a deep sense of responsibility to pass on a strong organization to the next people.

"Softball is growing, and that´s lovely."

Interviewed and written by Dick S.