freddy77 posted:I'm an old timer. My coaches were 40 year-old WW2 veterans who smoked a lot (everybody smoked, even us 12 year olds every chance we got.)
The only instruction I can remember is, "You've got to stride long to hit long." Like Mickey Mantle, I guess.
Of course I learned to play baseball on the sandlot. It was a real sandlot-- an abandoned gravel pit.
My first real job at age 16 was being a surveyor's assistant. They sent us out to survey the gravel pit so it could be turned into condominiums. Uggh.
FWIW, that was the first time I'd ever heard the word "condominiums."
The smoking - HS basketball coach smoked in the gym during practice leaning on the front of the stage at one end. His last name was Hart - but we called him Coach Lung behind his back. He'd blow smoke in our faces while we ran suicides. Those WWII and Korea guys weren't very soft on anyone.