Okay, I agree with that...there really is no point (unless it's a fun league, company team, that sort of thing) if you're going to loaf it.Originally Posted by JeepGuy63
Master of Ale!
Okay, I agree with that...there really is no point (unless it's a fun league, company team, that sort of thing) if you're going to loaf it.
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Chicks dig the K, too. I have the same career home-run total as Tim Wakefield, and I still picked up my wife at a baseball tournament.
As for being drafted, I told the Expos not to draft me out of high school. I couldn't put my new wife and new daughter through the hell of minor league baseball, and I was a borderline prospect at most. By the time I would've been eligible to be drafted out of college, I was a single dad with two daughters and half a right shoulder. I didn't get a whole lot of attention.
I played against some guys who got drafted. Played against Brandon Inge in high school. Coached against Justin Verlander and John Maine since I've been coaching.
I'm watching you.
I need TP for my bunghole
My story of growing up is intresting... since I still am.
I started playing t-ball at like 5 years old, and have played baseball since. I wan't really into the game though until I was like 10 years old. At age 10 I wasn't a good hitter, but a good fielder, and our team went on to have a mediocre season. At age 11, I wanted to try pitching, but never got the chance. I got 1 hit for the year and played the infield. I must have stole like 10 bases that year. At age 12 I did pitch because of a lack of pitchers on our team. I sucked as I walked mostly every batter, but I was starting to hit for power.
At age 13, I turned into a great pitcher. My control was kind of bad, I struck out a lot of batters when I pitched. I also started getting more base hits, and more playing time. I tried out for the 8th grade baseball team, but I hurt my arm during Gym that day, and it felt there was some kind of fire in my arm with every swing in batting tryouts. The next day was pitching practice, and I did great for an inning. They almost picked me, but instead went with a guy who got maybe 2 hits during tryouts, and couldnt't field for life.
I didn't make the team. That year I quickly found a team in my community. I did really good, hitting at least .400 for the team with 12 rbi's. Our team sucked though as we only got a win. I did pitch, and threw for 18 innings according to my coach, striking out 30 and walking 12.
My school made a very good decision picking the no-hit, no-field guy. My school went 4-10 according to one of my friends who made the team, and the no-field guy was a pinch-runner and went 0/2 for the season. He made 5 errors in 8 games.
Now, I play summer ball with my friends, and I did keep track of my stats. I missed a lot of time recently because of a lot of Phils games I went too. But in 3 games so far, (we play once a week) I hit .429 with 4 rbi's and a triple.
At this point, I'm waiting for school tryouts so I can make the team in high-school, hopefully the start of pursuing a MLB career.
BTW, I have played every position since age 10, except first-base and catcher.
παραλία
Man...BM should round everyone up and make a team. I think it could compete.
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I'm curious as to what it's about for you.
Years ago, I was asked by a guy I knew to play on a co-ed team. He said his friend was running the team and a few of their guys dropped out. Since I wouldn't be getting much playing time because it was the "extras" that dropped out, they weren't going to charge me to play. I'd get an at bat here and there and a couple of innings in. I was okay with that.
Two of the guys on the team played college ball and were supposed to be pretty good and most of the girls on the team played for a local Women's college.
The first few games, I'd get an at bat and an inning out in the field and soon found myself in the starting line-up. I did pretty well for the season. Since I didn't really know anyone, I kept quiet, went in when I was told to, played where they wanted. No problems there.
The problem came in with the two college guys. They joked around, didn't take it seriously, didn't play hard, didn't hustle or they weren't really on a college team because they really stunk the place up.
This led to arguments with the rest of the team that tried hard, that played as best they could. Part of the team wanted to win while a couple of guys didn't give a ****. This was really selfish of them. We lost games that we could have/should have won because they didn't care.
This was just a co-ed softball team. You don't have to take it seriously but you do have to play your best or you're just as selfish if not moreso than my other example of wanting everyone else to play just as hard as me.
Master of Ale!
Obviously, you should be TRYING to win. That is the goal of a sport. However, if you're so focused on winning that you're screaming, ranting, and acting like a colossal douche towards everyone else because...my GOD...they committed the cardinal sin of NOT CATCHING EVERYTHING...well, you should maybe look in to some sedatives.
(I'm not saying that's what you, yourself, are like, but we have ALL seen these idiots whose own teammates would appear to love nothing more than the chance to slowly kill them).
I'm watching you.
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I actually was afraid of playing baseball when I was super younger, I was a small kid. and was slightly afraid of wild pitchers....I was like that until about third grade, and then I started hitting, I could throw harder then other kids my age, and I just sort of developed a little ahead of everyone else. I was still smaller, but I could outplay people.
I went to a private school, so making the team was no real miracle. but being able to play for our team was ridiculously hard.
Going into freshmen year, I had gotten many lessons from my cousin, Tom Henke (former big leaguer) about playing. He actually spent a lot of time with me teaching me basics that no coach was going to teach me. It was a value that you can't replace. I not only made the all freshmen team, I also made the JV team. (one of only two freshmen to do so) I played shortstop and second base for the freshmen team, and was throw into the outfield for JV. I was paticularly fast, which was the main reason for being on JV in grade 9. My high school has a great history of winning our division II state championship, like every year. and Varisity won it 3 out of 4 years while I went there. Freshmen year was one of them. But I wasn't on the team, but I got to go to jeff city and watch.
After freshmen year, I became completely obsessed with baseball, I promised myself I would make Varisty (no one ever did as a sophmore). and i didn't. I was let down, I was hurt by it because i trained and trained and worked so hard on something that was unatainable.
But as the season progressed something happened as far as good fortune for me.
Josh Eftink happened. He tore his ACL (he was a senior) and right before the state playoffs I was called up so to speak to fill his spot. I remember the night before our big game against Stockton. My dad, who is 41 years older then me, 56 at this time. Took my outside until 2:30 in the morning showing me how a slider would cut across the plate on me. We were going to be facing a ridiculous pitcher, and he could throw a slider, something I hadn't really gotten to see before. He threw me batting practice until it hurt. Showing me how the ball would splinter. kept telling me to read the seams as he hurled me pitches all night long. and he would change his pitches.
and the greatest moment of my high school career came. I was 0 for 2 and the sob hadn't thrown me anything hittable. i kept getting myself out. we were up 4-3 in the 6th with runners on second and third with two out.....and that bas+ard threw me a 1-1 slider right over the plate and I knew exactly what to do with it....right center triple to help lead us to a 7-3 winmost exciting moment of my young baseball life....and we went on to win state again.
Junior year, I had no problem making the team and batting second all year behind Marcus, who TheBest can testify....is inhuman with his speed. We were a nasty duo at the top of any lineup....and we had a great regular season record, but didn't win state this year.
After this season, I started to get burnt out on training and constantly trying to improve....baseball wasn't as much fun as it was a job....and I didn't work out that summer, and it lead to a poor senior year by me. We did win state, and there were many highlights from that year, but I honestly spent the whole year counting down to graduating high school and just getting out of there, that i didn't really enjoy the moments like I should have.
Coach Mark Hogan from SEMO is a family friend. he had three walk on spots that following year, and said if you can come out here and show that you can get a spot by the least bit, I'll give it to you.
I had a pretty fair shot, I was against only 9 other position players, and two of us would make it....and I knew the coach liked me and wanted a right handed hitter off the bench that could play both middle infield positions....I was that guy
Day four of practices....i cracked my ankle and refused to have it helped. I tried to play through it.....and it was hopeless....(still hurts to this day from time to time). and i didn't earn a spot, not even close. I had pride, afraid to take treatment, afraid to admit it hurt, i was afraid if i didn't play through that I would be cut.
I didn't make it.
This is also the same time that I learned that I didn't belong in college baseball. I remember running out to right center (playing second) to get a cutoff throw on a ball hit to the wall. I went way out there thinking, no one can get this ball in past me, he needs me to get it so we can get a throw to the plate.....the fu(ker not only threw it over my head, but threw a one hop strike to home plate....that ball was moving. that is when I realized that anyone that can throw a ball 300 plus feet on the fly on just a reaction...I don't need to be in the same league as. I was a small ball player who would find a way on and would get hurt fielding a ground ball just to make the play (a few pains to this day say I have done so). But I realized i was out of my league in trying to play in college. I didn't have the ability, and I had lost the drive.
Fast forward to junior year in college.....Immediate regret not working harder and training in high school after junior year. I probably could have been a real value to some teams in college, and who knows....but I mentally gave up because my life was only baseball, and I wanted to think about girls, work, cars and everything else....that I let the dream slip away....i shouldn't have...I could have been a college baseball player.
To note. I was more then a little fast. I was a punch in judy (sp?) I smacked liners all around the field and could read pitchers, i was a baseball smart player who could handle high school pitchers and make solid sound plays....but college was a league well above me...But I likely could have made it.
Notable players that I played with or against:
Ryan Howard, Blake DeWitt, Max Sherezer, my cousin Tom Henke.....and in basketball Tyler Hahnsbourough
I guess I should add Dustin Renfrow.
this got me to thinking about who else I had played with and who else was out there, if anyone ever got drafted etc.
http://gosoutheast.cstv.com/sports/m..._dustin00.html
It doesn't say it there, but I guess Dusty was drafted somewhere. cool
and edit to that, Dusty was only a 39th overall pick, haha...I am pretty sure I knew that...back in 05 by the Diamondbacks.
Federal Anti-iGang Agent
Wow Jeffy that's crazy. Great story.
I guess I my story isn't as cool but here it goes.
My family isn't athletic, and in fact I think I'm the only one to ever get obsessed with sports in the ENTIRE family. My Uncle played college football as an o-lineman and loves football and wrestling but it took a lot for me to get obsessed with baseball.
When I was four I played t-ball like any other kid, and I was pretty good. My parents, seeing that I liked it, put me in pitching machine little league. I doubled in my first at bat at six years old and it went on from there that I had a bit of exceptional eye for the ball. I could hit anything...given the opportunity. I wouldn't hit it deep or out of the park...but I'd get on base.
In the fourth grade (about age 9) I found a sport I had a real talent for in Hockey. I wasn't just good at hockey I was really good. My baseball lessened as I focused on the game I thought could take me somewhere. I played my ass off week in and week out in the youth league at the local ice arena and eventually tried out for the travel squad in sixth grade.
I made it first day. By the end of the season I was the fourth leading scorer on the team as a defense man. My baseball work lessened even more.
When I got to high school I basically hadn't played baseball in two years (quitting in seventh and eighth to play hockey around the state and in Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska) but I gave it a shot. I made the team as their starting first baseman.
It went pretty good from there, I played baseball and worked out for hockey which the high school was putting together a team next fall. When I made that varsity I now had to work two sports my sophomore year (basketball until February, baseball through May an hockey from January to June) and my grades suffered as I tried to keep up.
Junior year I got cut from basketball (I wasn't too mad) and my hockey skills increased as I was invited to an All-star tournament to compete with some of the best players around the state (we weren't a varsity sport at my school so I had never played some of the bad asses at Thunder Ridge, Cheyenne Mountain, Ralston Valley, etc.) and at that point I decided I was done with baseball. I didn't try out senior year.
Then, during a game against Bear Creek...I tore my MCL and broke my knee cap (didn't know it was possible...but it hurts) I was out for the rest of the year...and done with hockey at the competitive level.
I wish I hadn't quit baseball...I wasn't bad at it. I was backup first base to an all-state kid. I was good...hockey just seemed like the right thing at the time.
And now I miss both sports.
Champion Guinness Drinker
Played t-ball, little league and Pony's.
There was a pitcher named Scott Moten, who pitched at my high school during my days there. He pitched in the minor leagues. He was horrible.
A friend of mine, a year younger than me, pitched a perfect game his freshman year....but things didn't turn out great for him.
I was part of two championship little league teams of which I was a off the bench player. I started one year at first base and led the league in home runs (which was not as easy as it sounds. We usually didn't play on fields with fences, so almost everything was a inside the park home run). I actually had a 3 home run, 9 rbi game. I didn't walk much, but didn't strike out much (of course pitchers didn't really have pinpoint accuracy back then).
I did one more year my freshman year in high school. Played football and baseball and then read "on the road" by Jack Kerouac and "fear and loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S Thompson.
Other factors also happened that caused me to turn away from sports and follow a different path in life.
Now, I look forward to joining a softball team and a rec basketball team when I get settled in my new home.
Long season ahead.....
I'm still growing up technically but I'm done with baseball.
I was never very good. I was one of those kids the coach put in the outfield (When we were little) to just put me somewhere.
When I was little I REALLY sucked though. I mean, talking about when we first graduated past coach-pitched.
I guess I just enjoyed the game though, even though I could barely hit the ball and had a weak arm and was just not a good baseball player.
I also live in a city where everyone is really competitive about sports. They want to win.
But, finally, in little league, I think I was 13 or 14, my last year, coach played me at second base some and I loved it so much. So much more fun than the outfield. I also got some much better hits. Almost hit my first homerun, my friend told me that if I had changed the way I hit it a bit, it would have easily gone over.
My most memorable moment growing up though was one time, I hit it but don't swing all the way and it hits the wrong end of the bat. It barely gets out in front of me. I run to first, and make it, throwing error. I continue on to second. They throw it, another throwing error. I run like a madman to third and then home, making it. Homerun on a hit barely out in front of the plate :P
But yeah, so I pretty much sucked at baseball. But, I do know much more about the sport in general than any of those guys who were better than me
╝+┼╣,►ΘΩδ
Here is my updated story. I did not play on a team for the first time until 7th grade. That year I got two hits, was the best fielder on my team, and lead the league in SBs, walks, and strikeouts. That off season I decided to learn to pitch. I got my fastball up to 70, but was extremely wild. I also learned a Cutter, Sinker, Curveball, Knuckle Ball, Slider, and Circle Change. I did a Baseball camp that summer and in my only appearance on the mound walked 5 and struck out 10 through 5. The next year I strted getting very sick, and dropped off immensly. During tryouts I blacked out and was a mess. Doctors blamed it on lack of sleep and removed my tonsils and adenoids.
That surgery went horribly wrong. My jugular vein got severed in the process, and when I went home started to bleed out. I was rushed back into the hospital where they discovered the problem. i was told I would have died if I had waited a few more hours possibly. And so obviously I did not make the team. When I was still not getting any better, I had a CT Scan which revealed a shadow of something. I had another one and they found a tumor the size of a grapefruit near or on my heart.
June 5th, 2008, the tumor came out. I would not learn if it was benign for a month, as it was an unusual tumor. During this surgery, which lasted 8 hours, I was kept on my left side the whole time. I obtained nerve damage in my left leg and chest. This was so severe I spent the next several months in and out of Children's.
By the start of this school year, I seemed ready to attend school for the first time since April. That lasted 2 weeks before I started getting dizzy and passing out in class. I missed everyday of school from mid-September to January, and now am still not back full time. The dizziness peaked in January, when I passed out at a doctors appointment and was hospitalized with low blood pressure. I spent 3 days in the hospital and was released no better off. My dizziness has limited me to 1 and now 2 classes a day. It also kept me off the baseball team for the second year straight. I started going to a chiropractor, where it was found I was allergic to the IGGs in Dairy, Wheat, Soy, Eggs, and more. This could have led to my lack of sleep and constant sickness throughout my life. I am still battling dizziness and stomach ailments, but am slowly getting better. My plan is to get back into my baseball training, take jujitsu, and play pickup street hockey to rebuild strength. And maybe I can find a community team. But at this point I can say that nothing has gone well....
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wow, just happy you are here with us man
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I was never into baseball until I was about 9. It didn't take me long to love it. My dad started taking me and my brother who was about 5 at the time to play at the baseball field down the road from me. I shocked everyone in my family when I decided to play on a team. Since I started at 10 I didn't get to play t-ball or instructinal[ where coaches pitch.] I got to go right to the minors[ the first level where you rellay get to play. It goes t-ball instructinal, minors, majors, seniors in the little league in my town and then you would move on to high school or w/e]
Any way after my try out I was chosen in a expansion draft to play for the devil rays. Coach decided to play me in rf. The coach's son was on the team he used to rip his son apart it wasn't even funny. The kid was a pitcher and could be very wild so you could imagine how borng it was to sit in rf and watch innings with over 6 walks and hear the coach yelling at his son. I would always tell the coaches the scores, outs and the counts to the batters and they would always ask me. The first season for me, well i didn;t catch a fly ball all year and I missed 3I drew a walk in the first game 2nd game 3rd game and so on. I kept drawing a walk or sometimes more every game w/o getting a hit. Then one day towards the end of the season I got my first hit a line drive RBI single to right field to drive in 2 runs. I didn't even get a chance to enjoy it as after I hit it the 6 run rule was in effect and I had to take the field. That was my only hit that year, but I walked in every game and my team went 9-7 and lost in the playoffs to the Yankees.
That fall I decided to play fall ball. I didn't walk nearly as much but my hitting was much better and my team made the playoffs and lost in the first game. I don't rellay remember this fall bay that much sorry guys.
Season 2 with the D rays was a 1 to remember for me. First of all I walked teh first few games and my walking streak ended at 22 games or so[ I don't know exaclty how many.] My hitting was very much improved I got my first hit in the first game and was rolling all year all. I drove in 22 runs in 16 games. In the outfield I never got much action but I always backed up bases and my coaches noticed that and I got nice comments about that often. After 1 game I got mad I was so tried of not getting any "action" in the field and I went into tears.[ What can I say we all have our moments.] The next game my coach[ didn't know about my anger as I was at home when I expressed it] decided to bat me 5th do to my hot hitting. I drove the go ahead run in the bottom of the 5th[ we play 6 innings.] In the top of the 6th the coach's son is picthing and 2 outs were in the inning and we needed 1 more out to win. I was happy about driving in the go-ahead run, but made about getting another game with no action in the out field. Then a high fly ball was hit to me I barley had to move and I caught and the game was over. It was rellay easy to catch since I had benn practing catching flyballs with my father. I was looking where to put the ball since the game was over and i rellay wasn't sure and all of a sudden my teammates start mobbing me and jumping up and down becuase I caught it to win the game.[ The day after I got mad about no action in the outfield.] I will never forget that night. That season my team went 16-0 including beting the Yankee twice. I had to miss the playoff game becuase of my sister's graduation from 8th grade. My team lost the playoff game to the ****in Yankees and our season was over. Worst of all I heard the Yanks didn't even tell 2 of their bad players they had a game. On this day I still beleive my team los because i wasn't there call me crazy!
I skipped fall ball that year and played in the spring again. In our first scrimmage we didn't have enough players so they let my little bro play and he got a hit I was so pissed that he got a hit in my first game with the team even if it was a scrimmage. I moved up to the majors and got drafted by an expansion team the Angels. I had a lot of fun on the Angels I would fool around with the guys a lot more and had a great time on that team. I played some LF well as RF that year. I got a few hits but I never hit the ball out of the infield. But i hustled out hits. I caught a few flyballs that year and continued to always back up bases. 1 game my coach tries my a inning at 3rd base. It was pretty much my 1st time in infield besides an scrimmage. I missed 2 balls that inning and only played infield 1 more inning that year.
My team made the playoffs and lost after winning 1 playoff game.
This year I shocked every 1 in my house by decided not to play. I knew I had to move up even when 1 of my coaches said he would try to keep in the majors. I knew I was going to have to move up to seniors
and I knew I had no chance so i decided not to play anymore no matter how many times my family members asked me. It was very fun playing and I am happy I decided to play and I will always remember and enjoy the memories from my " playing days."
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