I Was A Bad Baseball Player On A Losing Team. But I Still Had Fun.
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Back in 1993 and 1994, as a high school student, I was a player on a baseball team in the Babe Ruth League.
Those years weren't so easy for me. I was dealing with serious issues with depression at the time.
Also, I was one of the worst players on the team. And we were one of the worst teams in the league. We lost the vast majority of the games we played, losing many of those games by blowout.
However, I still had fun! And I think the other teenage players on the team also enjoyed themselves.
I'm grateful for the adult volunteer head coach as well as the adult assistant coaches. If it weren't for those guys taking time out of their busy schedule to do that, we wouldn't have had a team in the first place.
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Hi Mike!
Glad you had those positive experiences.
Mine were different. Played football in Jr. High and in high school. The coaches were former military vets from WWII, driving us into the ground was their coaching style. Our school won the State Championship one year before I was on varsity. So, they had very high expectations, and I was getting pretty tired of it all, abuse is not fun, especially as practiced in those days by screaming coaches.But, I hung in there, and enjoy the fact that the first back injury I sustained was in high school football. Blessed throughout life with how that manifested itself over the decades.
Thanks, Army!
Thanks, Marines!! -
Becoming a Major League Baseball player was never realistic for me, that's for sure, ha, ha.
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I was terrible at baseball both as a batter as well as on defense.
lol
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@mainermikebrown said in I Was A Bad Baseball Player On A Losing Team. But I Still Had Fun.:
Becoming a Major League Baseball player was never realistic for me, that's for sure, ha, ha.
I would have never played any type of pro ball.
But I could stand next to the fence and look at small college stuff...Never Div I, maybe II or III, as they were called in those days. My tape was ok, but I was just too slow and too short.
Four inches and a half-second short of going to the next level...
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I am learning disabled when it comes to hitting a pitch. I had a decent arm and was a decent fielder. I have body building potential, except that I'm lazy. And my tendons come apart with alarming regularity.
I have a pro football player in the family, defensive end who played in the NFL for a few years. I think four. Some ruling recently came down where he now gets a pension and health care. He is having both of his hips replaced. I think he's 55.
Education is extremely important.
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I had an interesting baseball experience. At the first practice/tryout, They had us start with fielding grounders. The coach screwed up and hit a line drive that smacked straight into my glove. Amazing catch. Then during batting practice I knocked two off the fence. The coaches were thrilled.
I never hit a ball or made a catch the rest of the season.
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Was not a good baseball player. Fair arm, lousy accuracy. The fielding ability of a confused sloth. Could occasionally hit a dinger when the stars aligned.
Much better at other sports. Decent at football, not totally embarrassing on a basketball court, could get about 1.5 feet above a volleyball net and could play club level college badminton...Which totally ruined me on a tennis court.
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As for Football, my dad was a local legend. He had scouts from Notre Dame approach him in HS, but he dropped out, tracked down my mom, and married her.
When I was a Freshman in HS, the vice-principal and head coach of the Football Team had played behind my dad (RB) and admired him.
The first week of my freshman year, I’m in a class with my best friend (JJ) and he and I are ragging on each other pretty hard. A junior in the class was a lineman in the football team and had a major thing for JJ’s sister. He figures he can win points by standing up for her brother so he gets in my face, I stupidly ragged on him, so naturally he tried to beat the crap out of me at lunch. It was so stupid. I was outside walking at the edge of a step. He comes running at me and tackles me off the step. I land in my butt, he lands on his face. He is then on top of me, throws a punch, misses my face and connects with the sidewalk. He yells in pain, I get up and try to get away, and he rushes me again, misses, and winds up in the bushes. At this point, a teacher arrives and separated us, then the vice principal arrives, finds one of his starting linemen with a bruised forehead, a bloody knows, his clothing ripped up, and he’s holding hand and in obvious pain. I’m sitting there not even sweating... We both get suspended, the kid gets sent to the nurse, I get sent to a room to wait for my parents to pick me up. My dad comes in takes me to the car then starts laughing. Apparently the Vice-Principal spent half an hour trying to convince my dad to put me on the team.
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I never was going with any spherical objects moving through space and time. I was good a weightlifting - though my body is not longer able to do that - broken disc in back and arthritis in hands means I need to be careful with any of that. I was an OK runner in my 40s and 50s - but now, I'm a back of the pack runner. It's all OK. "Don't mean a hill of beans" in the big scheme of things - but still fun to be in the game.
