Funniest or Strangest Things You've Seen at a Baseball Event….Ever

During our 1998 Area Code event at Jack Murphy Stadium, our 1st day was a clinic for the 13 teams.

That morning Reggie Waller, Padres Scouting Director called my hotel and said "Bob, you cannot use the Stadium at 1 PM".

Why? Reggie said the Navy Seals will drop onto the diamond by "black parachute" . I said "Reggie do not tell anyone, I want credit for this promotion".

At 1 PM, the stadium crew place yellow markers on the stadium floor and the flares were shot into the sky and 20 black chutes opened as the Seals dropped "out of the sky".

This was not a "dry eye" with the 700 pro scouts, college coaches, parents and players.

Next year the Scouts expected an encore. That is another story.

Bob

I worked for a Triple-A affiliate of a MLB team in the late 1990's and there are a couple of G-rated stories from my time with them I can share.

First is we used to do a "car giveaway" promotion with a local car dealership where we would literally give away a car an inning between innings. The proceeds went to charity and people would enter a donation for the inning they wanted to participate in. The catch was they had to accept the car (they all ran and were street legal) if their name was drawn, and nobody got to preview the cars prior to the game. Imagine their faces when they saw a Pink AMC Pacer driving on the warning track...and now they are praying their name doesn't get pulled! It was a lot of fun.

Second clean story involves the same team's Director of Sales who was a small guy and absolutely hilarious. He would pick one game a season to dress up as the San Diego Chicken. His schtick was to be the biggest jerk in the world and to heckle players, fans...everyone. Stadium security was involved because they had to keep an eye on him to keep fans from punching him. He would light cigarettes in the stands, spill people's drinks, get into shouting matches. He was deplorable, and yet hilarious. The schtick usually ended (scripted of course) with one of the home team players coming out of the duggout into the stands after him chasing him off to a large roar of the crowd.

Minor league ball...what a fun time. And the stories I can't share here are even better...probably better for a book.

OK, first one I've mentioned here before. When I was a senior in high school, our team successfully stole home on consecutive pitches with two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the 7th to win a game. I remember that story quite well considering I was the one batting! Pitcher went on to pitch D1 and a year or two of pro ball. 

When I was with the Gateway Grizzlies (Frontier League) we had a batboy who would dance in between innings. He was 18-19 years old I think. Anyway, he was performing one night on the warning track between our dugout and our bullpen when he went to the ground. We all assumed it was a part of his performance and so many of us in the dugout turned away until he started screaming. "It's not part of the F-in routine!" Loud enough for everybody to hear! So we go out there, and sure enough he'd dislocated his kneecap. The AT popped it back in and we carried him back into the dugout. That ended is dancing career... worker's comp insurance didn't cover entertainment like that...

At the end of my internship year with the Grizzlies, they made me throw out a ceremonial first pitch. But the catch was they made the interns throw with their opposite hand, so they'd make a fool of themselves. What they didn't know about me was that I could throw a baseball with either hand... One of the players, as I walked out to the mound, yelled at me and told me I better not bounce it! I threw a strike with my left hand.. awkward as can be, but I did it! haha 

Many, many years ago, coaching Little League, we had a player who was spitting image of Squints from Sandlot but far less cool and zero baseball or athletic abilities or inclination.  Big glasses, baseball pants belt line almost to the chest.  VERY ANIMATED.  Happy-go-lucky.  We loved him.

Middle of a game, facility is a middle school, restrooms are beyond center field at the main building, no fences.  We sorta lost track of "johnny".  His turn at bat came and everyone is looking for him.   "Where's Johnny?".  He is spotted walking from the restroom, approaching the field.   Everyone yells that he is up.  He goes into a full sprint from beyond CF, straight across the field, all the way to the dugout.  Picture Forrest Gump but far less coordinated with a much higher and more exaggerated arm pump.  Glasses bouncing, pants staying high and tight, arms pumping high in the air.  It was like the Bo Derek run-on-the-beach moment.  Everything appeared to be in slow motion.  Everyone is dying laughing.  He makes it to the dugout, grabs a helmet and bat and heads to the plate, completely gassed.  I give him the bunt signal, two touches.  Remember, he is VERY ANIMATED.  He thinks he's got it but isn't sure.  So, he steps out, faces me down in the 3b coach box and in very animated fashion, signals back to me to confirm... he holds up two fingers, raises his eyebrows and then strikes a perfect bunt pose, asking me and telling the rest of the world with his motions, "IS THIS WHAT I'M DOING?"  Still recovering from the visual of the "run", the whole place lost it.

cabbagedad posted:

Many, many years ago, coaching Little League, we had a player who was spitting image of Squints from Sandlot but far less cool and zero baseball or athletic abilities or inclination.  Big glasses, baseball pants belt line almost to the chest.  VERY ANIMATED.  Happy-go-lucky.  We loved him.

Middle of a game, facility is a middle school, restrooms are beyond center field at the main building, no fences.  We sorta lost track of "johnny".  His turn at bat came and everyone is looking for him.   "Where's Johnny?".  He is spotted walking from the restroom, approaching the field.   Everyone yells that he is up.  He goes into a full sprint from beyond CF, straight across the field, all the way to the dugout.  Picture Forrest Gump but far less coordinated with a much higher and more exaggerated arm pump.  Glasses bouncing, pants staying high and tight, arms pumping high in the air.  It was like the Bo Derek run-on-the-beach moment.  Everything appeared to be in slow motion.  Everyone is dying laughing.  He makes it to the dugout, grabs a helmet and bat and heads to the plate, completely gassed.  I give him the bunt signal, two touches.  Remember, he is VERY ANIMATED.  He thinks he's got it but isn't sure.  So, he steps out, faces me down in the 3b coach box and in very animated fashion, signals back to me to confirm... he holds up two fingers, raises his eyebrows and then strikes a perfect bunt pose, asking me and telling the rest of the world with his motions, "IS THIS WHAT I'M DOING?"  Still recovering from the visual of the "run", the whole place lost it.

I would have loved to see that...hilarious!

This was a little unusual:

When my older son was in 12U and 13U he played for a travel program that had only two teams -- his team and a team one year younger. They were managed by the same guy and the two teams practiced together. If the older team was short a player for a game, a player from the younger team would play up.

One weekend the two teams were in the same tournament, but in different age divisions (12U and 11U). As it turned out, my son's team only had 8 guys available for the championship game on Sunday. However, the younger team only had 9 guys available for its championship game. The games were played on adjoining fields at exactly the same time. One of the kids from the younger team played in both games at the same time -- he'd bat in one game and then sprint over to the other field and bat in that game. Each team played at times in the field with only 8 guys, depending on whether the kid in question was needed in the other game . . . but they both won.

Son was 10/11 years old or so. Playing in a tournament that farmed you out to a vacant field in the middle of nowhere. Opposite team was pretty mouthy, especially the coaches. We were beating them handily in 4th or 5th inning. Don't remember score. Opposing coach called timeout and went to the mound to talk to his pitcher. We had a runner on third base. In the middle of the conversation, the pitcher looked at our HC who was coaching 3B. Pitcher looked back at his own coach and then back at our coach. I told the people sitting around me that the coach told the pitcher something about our coach. It was that obvious.

Next pitch, sailed about 10 feet wide of 3B toward coaches box. Our HC never moved his feet and just angled a little out of the way. Ball probably wasn't going to hit him anyway.  There were a few choice words exchanged between our coach and theirs.

Strange at any age but especially that young.

RedFishFool posted:

Son was 10/11 years old or so. Playing in a tournament that farmed you out to a vacant field in the middle of nowhere. Opposite team was pretty mouthy, especially the coaches. We were beating them handily in 4th or 5th inning. Don't remember score. Opposing coach called timeout and went to the mound to talk to his pitcher. We had a runner on third base. In the middle of the conversation, the pitcher looked at our HC who was coaching 3B. Pitcher looked back at his own coach and then back at our coach. I told the people sitting around me that the coach told the pitcher something about our coach. It was that obvious.

Next pitch, sailed about 10 feet wide of 3B toward coaches box. Our HC never moved his feet and just angled a little out of the way. Ball probably wasn't going to hit him anyway.  There were a few choice words exchanged between our coach and theirs.

Strange at any age but especially that young.

That is crazy!

Reminds me of a little league game where there was no ill intent, but it sure looked like it. Son was 12 and pitching in a little league game as the visiting team in an interleague game against a neighboring little league, at their field. Son's little league coach was barking at the home plate umpire on a regular basis (an all too common occurrence). Anyway, after one heated exchange, son threw a pitch, a two-seamer that had good armside run (and that the catcher -- remember, little league -- often had trouble with), that the catcher flat-out missed. Didn't touch it. It hit the umpire in the chest. At this point the umpire thinks it was done on purpose! (Of course, there would have had to have been some kind of pre-arranged signal from the dugout, because there was no meeting on the mound or anything). The umpire yells at the manager, who protests that he didn't have anything to do with it. 

The catcher apologizes, and the umpire and everyone calms down . . . until son throws the very next pitch, the same two-seamer, in exactly the same spot, and the catcher misses this one too!!! The umpire goes ballistic!

I asked my son about it after the game and he said to me "Of course it was an accident -- I can't throw two pitches back to back in the same exact spot!!"

RedFishFool posted:

Son was 10/11 years old or so. Playing in a tournament that farmed you out to a vacant field in the middle of nowhere. Opposite team was pretty mouthy, especially the coaches. We were beating them handily in 4th or 5th inning. Don't remember score. Opposing coach called timeout and went to the mound to talk to his pitcher. We had a runner on third base. In the middle of the conversation, the pitcher looked at our HC who was coaching 3B. Pitcher looked back at his own coach and then back at our coach. I told the people sitting around me that the coach told the pitcher something about our coach. It was that obvious.

Next pitch, sailed about 10 feet wide of 3B toward coaches box. Our HC never moved his feet and just angled a little out of the way. Ball probably wasn't going to hit him anyway.  There were a few choice words exchanged between our coach and theirs.

Strange at any age but especially that young.

Crazy! Son had a 12U travel ball blow hard coach who got into a beef with home plate ump in the first inning of a tournament, wanted my son to intentionally miss a fastball so it would hit the ump. My son declined and the coach ended up getting bounced in the bottom of first anyway. First game of the tournament too! He was still drunk from being out drinking all night in Vegas. But this thread was about funny things, not sad coaching examples.

Grossest:  8 year old catcher with diarrhea.

Funniest:  11 year old Little League game.  Runner scores easily, and is headed into his dugout when the ball is thrown to the catcher.  Just as the catcher gets the ball, defensive coach yells "He didn't touch HOME!!!!"  Catcher looks at the coach, then runs after the player into the opposing team's dugout trying to tag the runner, who was practically climbing out the other end of the dugout trying to get away from the catcher.  I don't know what was funnier, the sight of the catcher practically mowing down an entire dugout of players trying to find the right one to tag, or the crazy yelling, screaming and laughing going on from the other players, the coaches, the umpire, the crowd, etc.  One truly loud mom without a clue about baseball was yelling "TAG HIM! TAG HIM" over and over the entire time!!!  I still can't think about this without laughing out loud!

These are GREAT stories!  Keep'em coming.

Not funny, kinda sad actually, but definitely one of the stranger...

13U travel team playing a league game.  Our team was on top of the standings, the other team at the bottom.  We were playing on our home field, umps assigned by the league.  Throughout the game there was lots of yelling between the other teams parents and coach.  At one point a parent goes into the dugout and we hear the coach yell something along the lines of "get the f out of my dugout and while your at it take your f'ing kid with you as well, I don't need you guys second guessing my choices".  One of our parents looks at the ump and asks him if he is going to do something about the profanity and well as the circus going on in the dugout.  Ump tosses our parent for "telling me what to do".  Game continues and lots of yelling back and forth between their parents and the coach.  To the point where our team discussed leaving the game, but decided that it was between them, did not involve us, and it was later in the game so we played on.

It was a fairly close game, but we were in control for most of the game.  Last inning, other team trailing by a couple of runs.  They start pulling out all kinds of bush league stuff.  Game ends as they tried to pull some type of stupid sneaky bush league thing (don't remember the details of this as this was years ago).  Coach has the kids come out of the dugout, but he and the assistances will not shake hands.  At this point we have no idea why and one of our coaches approaches them to talk to him to find out what we did to upset him and apologize if need be.  He just looks at our coach and tells him to f off.  His parents get all over him for his non-sportsman like demeanor.  A couple of parents come over to apologize to us and our parents.  

We have our after game meeting in the dugout while he and his team head out to right field.  Next thing we know we hear lots of yelling in the outfield and look up to see coaches and parents yelling at each other and at one point chasing each other around in the outfield.  Its at this point that we call the police.  As the police show up a couple of our parents have walked to the outfield to ask the team to politely leave and let them know that the behavior they are displaying is unacceptable for a children's baseball game, and that the police are on their way.  Its rebuked with a "I am a cop in the city and your cops wont do anything to me" from the HC.  As well as "I just returned from Iraq and have my service weapon in the car and I am not afraid to use it" from one of the assistant coaches.  

At this point most of their parents have left and the police are now standing behind our dugout.  The cops pull the two coaches aside and have a discussion with them.  Turns out the "city cop" is actually a security guard in the city who is trying to get on the police force and the returning veteran had no weapon in his car.  The police ask us to remain in our dugout while their team leaves.  Again some of the parents come over to apologize to us.  Turns out their coach was upset about having a loosing record so brought in a number of ringers (15U) players for the game.  He sat every regular players and only fielded a team of the older kids.  He told the parents just minutes before the game and also informed them that these new kids were now going to make up the nucleus of the team. He told them this minutes before the game started.  Obviously they were not happy about the developments. 

High school game my son's freshman year.  We had a sophomore who was a good kid who worked hard but had zero baseball ability.  We never had enough kids to cut so he got to hang around.  He did anything, bat boy, book, etc.  One game late in the season, we were down to only our HC so this kid was coaching first base.  We were up big....so after a single by our CF, they told "Johnny" to pinch run.  He gets on 1B....gets a lead and sure enough the catcher drops a curve ball.  "Johnny" sees it and actually got a fairly good jump and heads toward second.  Ball didn't get far away from the catcher...he picked it up and throws to second in plenty of time.  "Johnny" slides....kind of....lol.  Most awkward slide I've ever seen....he actually looked like he decided to not slide but it was too late.  He rolls twice and is tagged out.  Turns out he didn't want to slide because just as he started to he remembered he had his cell phone in his back pocket    Fortunately everyone got a good laugh out of it

Joes87 - Geez.  

Buckeye - I wish I could say really bad slides like that are unusual.  It amazes me that I get kids coming into the HS program who still have no clue how to slide.. been playing baseball for years.

 Related story - another long, long ago story when men still played fastpitch.  A brother came out and played in a fastpitch game very shortly after hanging up the baseball cleats.  Of course, fastpitch = MUCH shorter bases, much smaller field.  Early on, he is in right field, base hit to him, runner from second heads home, he throws a bullet perfectly on line... FAR over the backstop.  Next inning or so, he lines a single to the outfield as well.  Watching the ball as he's running, he over-runs 1b by a good 20' before realizing he has to retreat.  Next batter singles.  Brother, now with the short bases completely in his head, rounds second and goes into a full head-first slide into third.  3B catches the throw and waits as brother is lying on the ground with arms fully outstretched, at a complete stop, 15' short of the bag.

Joes87's story reminded me of something similar.

Son was 11U and was asked by a travel program to join them on their trip to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for a large tournament in July. At that point, son had never played in a travel ball tournament, so we said yes (and made a family vacation out of it). He played a tournament with them over Memorial Day, and everything seemed to go well. 

Fast forward to a game in Colorado, against a team from Colorado. Son slides hard into second base to break up a double play, and the female base umpire rules interference and calls a double play. It was a bad call, but whatever. But the parents of my son's team go crazy! Dads are yelling "go back to softball!" to the female ump, and other unsavory stuff. From that point on, every pitch, every play, becomes a yell-fest. The parents were loud and obnoxious on every single pitch. They were claiming that the umps were favoring the other team, etc., etc. It was embarrassing. 

After urging the parents to calm down, and being ignored, two dads and I moved down the first base line, just to get away from the shenanigans. It got so bad, that the umpires threw out the entire stands! Everyone had to vacate the stands, take down their umbrellas and tents, and leave the field area! The parents refused to move for awhile, but the umps refused to allow the game to go on until they did. It was like a 20 minute delay. The only ones who were allowed to stay were those two dads and I who had moved down the first base line.

At this point, one set of stands was completely empty! And one of the nicest things I've seen on a baseball field happened -- the parents of the other team started cheering for son's team (as well as their own) whenever a nice play was made! Of course, those parents were horrified by the behavior of son's team's parents, but they didn't take it out on the kids.

P.S. -- needless to say, we turned down the offer to join that team on a full-time basis.

P.P.S. -- I later found out that certain kids who were on that team throughout that entire 11U year (from September through June) had been disinvited, or univited, to the big year-end tournament in Colorado so that they could bring in a couple new kids, like my son . . . not my kind of program . . .

Yes these stories are great.

My younger son always had some kind of funky luck, weird things happen to him when he was playing Dixie Youth All Stars. When he was in tee ball it was his turn to bat and just at the moment he was to go out there was a wasp in his helmet and dang if he didn't get stung on the head. Crying and all, there was a time out but after a delay for him to gather himself up, that tiny little 6 year old got himself together and went out there to bat. A couple games later he had a tooth come out right in the middle of a game.

The next year he was running, waiting on 2nd for the next batter (no stealing/leading off), who comes up and line drives right into his helmet as he was still standing on the bag and the umpire shouts OUT! OMG, let the coach arguing begin. Half hour later and several reviews of rule book, everyone learned that day that you must avoid being hit at all cost no matter where you are or you will be out. Especially my son. LOL! Prior to that had no clue. That's what happens when your parents have never watched a second of baseball before the kids start playing. Then we started reading the rule book to learn it.

So many wacky things happen in baseball. That's what's great about it. You never know.

Cabbage's story reminds me of the #4 hitter on my Little League Majors team one year.  He's slow as heck and can't play defense worth spit but has a beautiful MLB style swing and hit 15+ jacks for us that season. We're down one in the bottom of the 5th and he comes up with, I think, one out and one on.  He stops at the dugout opening and whispers to me at 3 base, "Coach, I gotta go bathroom." Really, I say? "Yeah, really bad.  Number 2"  Jeese.  I say, OK, look, swing at the first pitch and I'll get you a pinch runner.  So he does, and he  knocks it out. After managing to get around the bases without soiling himself he heads to the can.  The team keeps hitting. Next thing I  know, HP ump is saying, Coach, we need a hitter.  I'm asking the kids, where's #4? They shrug.  I start looking at my lineup card for a pinch hitter when the kid comes running round the OF fence from the can, grabs his bat, and heads to the plate. First swing, bang -- HR #2 of the inning. 

My kid did that during his 10U season (no homers though). The end of game handshake was awkward. His team jokingly changed his uni number to #2

This story is about a determined parent who almost got "killed" at his son's baseball game.... 

Believe it or not, I fractured my back in two places while "fishing" for salmon on a charter boat about and hour and a half south of Seattle in Rockport.  Our tiny boat crashed a wave and I landed awkward on my tailbone which caused the fracture.  So much for the context of the story. 

As I was recovering back in Ohio, I was wearing a corset brace and told to move as little as possible to allow the fracture to heal properly.  My son was playing a game that evening and I thought, "Who the hell are they to deprive me of watching my son's game?"  So, I decide to go to the game.  The walk from the parking lot to the field is normally about 30 seconds and it took me almost 5 minutes to walk it as I had to walk very gingerly or risk excruciating pain. 

I parked myself (standing) behind the bleachers and looked forward to watching the game.  About an inning or two into the game, someone hit a high popper and I mean high.  It was so high that it hurt my back to try and look up.  It seemed overhead but I figured it would be well out of my way by the time it reached the ground.  Wrong.  The "ball" had my "name" on it.  I started to move and each time I moved the ball tracked closer to me.  I heard someone say get out of the way but I could not move fast enough.  The ball missed my head by about six inches.  People were asking me "Why didn't you move?"  I said, "I couldn't because of injury."  They said, "What the hell are you doing at your son's baseball game then?"  I guess they don't understand baseball parents well enough.      

ClevelandDad posted:

This story is about a determined parent who almost got "killed" at his son's baseball game.... 

Believe it or not, I fractured my back in two places while "fishing" for salmon on a charter boat about and hour and a half south of Seattle in Rockport.  Our tiny boat crashed a wave and I landed awkward on my tailbone which caused the fracture.  So much for the context of the story. 

As I was recovering back in Ohio, I was wearing a corset brace and told to move as little as possible to allow the fracture to heal properly.  My son was playing a game that evening and I thought, "Who the hell are they to deprive me of watching my son's game?"  So, I decide to go to the game.  The walk from the parking lot to the field is normally about 30 seconds and it took me almost 5 minutes to walk it as I had to walk very gingerly or risk excruciating pain. 

I parked myself (standing) behind the bleachers and looked forward to watching the game.  About an inning or two into the game, someone hit a high popper and I mean high.  It was so high that it hurt my back to try and look up.  It seemed overhead but I figured it would be well out of my way by the time it reached the ground.  Wrong.  The "ball" had my "name" on it.  I started to move and each time I moved the ball tracked closer to me.  I heard someone say get out of the way but I could not move fast enough.  The ball missed my head by about six inches.  People were asking me "Why didn't you move?"  I said, "I couldn't because of injury."  They said, "What the hell are you doing at your son's baseball game then?"  I guess they don't understand baseball parents well enough.      

The things we do for the kids. When I was coaching my younger ones team (somewhere around 9-10U), we had a practice scheduled for the day of my vasectomy (I know TMI).  The other coaches were going to handle the practice, which is at a park in the middle of my neighborhood, about 3 houses down from my house.  I was feeling decent, not a lot of pain and I decided to walk down to practice.  The kids kept asking me why I was walking funny.  Lets just say I spent the next few hours with a package of peas on my crotch high on vicodin.

Valley League game-we were playing on the road and when I arrived, just before the game, my head coach is seated at a table eating a hot dog. Of course I asked why he wasn't coaching.  "Got tossed out at the home plate meeting."  Seems the plate ump and our coach had "history" and he felt if he stayed around, we were dead. So he walks to the plate and calmly says (parapharasing some for family content) "So in what inning are you going to screw us tonight?"  Ump says, "You wanna get tossed? "  Coach says "Sure". Ump says, "Just say the magic  word".     Coach: "Which One?"     Ump: "Just pick one".     Coach says pretty much all of them and  gets tossed.  The opposing dugout gave him a standing ovation. I truly laughed so hard I cried.   And we won. 

Love it Hokieone!

One bittersweet story: I grew up in Spokane and in the summer of 1971, when I was 14 (ugh, that was a LONG time ago), I often went to the Spokane Fair Grounds to see the Spokane Indians play.  This was when they were the Dodgers' AAA affiliate and many of the players from that year went on to play for the big club: Bobby Valentine, Davey Lopes, Tom Paciorek, Ron Cey, Von Joshua, among others.  Hooking up with the team part way through the summer was none other than 48 year-old Hoyt Wilhelm.  He started games several times for the Indians that summer (and was called up to the Dodgers for the pennant race) and I remember one game in particular.  The bullpen at the Spokane ball park is so close to the stands, it might as well be IN the stands. Wilhelm was warming up before a game and had drawn a crowd of about 20 or so to that part of the stands.  I squeezed down to get as close as I could, just to watch the legend throw his knuckler (this was about a year after Jim Bouton--another hero of mine (!)  and another knuckleballer-- had published Ball Four, so the pitch (and the book) was all the rage with hormonal pubescent boys).  I was a pitcher with a crappy fastball and I was looking for any edge I could get to make my school team.

Anyway, this guy, about the same age as Wilhelm, kept hectoring him for his autograph.  Wilhelm did the best he could to ignore him.  It was crazy.  Some people were trying to get the guy to leave Wilhelm alone, and others were badgering Wilhelm just as bad as the first guy. "What, we're not good enough for your autograph?" and other crappola like that.  Finally, he looked over and said, "Thanks for asking but I'm getting ready for work."  For some reason, everyone took that as a good enough reason to leave him alone.  I'm still not sure I understand what actually happened, but his steady demeanor is even more impressive now as I think about it.

(fun side note: In summer of 2015 I went back to the ball park in Spokane and sat in about the same spot I had watched Wilhelm from, and there was this young U of Wash product who relieved late in the game, HSBBW's very own Just Baseball's son.  I almost asked him for his autograph while he was warming up.)

Love these stories

Summer after my freshman year I was playing on a local rec team and we had a bunch of characters.  In one one we had this big chunky but very athletic black kid on the team.  He rounded second and was going to third.  He tried to head first slide but he got stuck and next thing you know he's doing a scorpion (laying on chest but feet have went over your head).  Well he's at that point we weren't sure if he was going to keep going over or come back down and he just sorta balanced there for what seemed like eternity until he came back down then finished crawling to the base.

Later that same summer we had this kid pitching who had never pitched.  He had been pestering coach to pitch and finally got his chance because we ran out of pitching.  He gets on the mound with runners on, comes set and picks his leg up to deliver home.  Next thing we know he's going head over heels down the mound and the ball is "thrown" towards 3B.  His stirrup came out of his shoe and got caught on his other shoe which caused him to fall.  Nobody advanced a base because everyone was laughing so hard and didn't realize he balked.

I think it was my Junior year and I get the hit and run sign as a hitter.  Well runner takes off and the pitch is a fastball but it bounces in front of the plate.  I swing and hit a double into right center gap scoring the runner on first.  Coach is amazed I was able to hit the ball and I told him it wasn't that hard.  He said it will never happen again.  About a week or two later basically the same situation and I swing again but this time I only get a single and runner stops at third.  I'm on first, look over to coach and hold my hands up and tilt my head (think what Jordan did in NBA championship after hitting a shot running down court) and coach just shakes his head.

Summer after my Junior year of HS and I'm playing on this team that I didn't know a soul going in.  It was such a ramshod run team we didn't have uniforms.  The high school I went to was green and gold but the high school they went to was red and white.  So I really stood out as not being with them.  One game I'm playing first and I'm throwing the ball to IF while pitcher warms up.  Catcher throws down and I toss the ball into the dugout.  Everyone is ready for play when all of a sudden we hear "hey wait up, I'm not ready, give me a second" coming from CF.  The guy playing CF had went to the concession stand behind the CF fence while the pitcher got ready.  He comes running back to the fence with a hot dog and pepsi in hand.  Without breaking stride he hurdles the fence and takes his place in CF.  He puts the hot dog in his back pocket and puts the Pepsi on the ground.  Puts his glove on and says "let's go I'm ready".  Later in that summer I'm going up to hit and the umpire looks at me and says "You're not really with this bunch are you?" I said "no sir I guess the different color clothing gives it away".  He said "yeah but what really gives it away is you have some common sense unlike the rest of these idiots"

My senior year of HS we are driving to a game in cars because we couldn't get a bus.  I think we had 4 total cars in a row and there was a guy jogging on the side of the road.  Without fail every single car had people hanging out the passenger front and back door windows yelling at him.  Nothing thrown at him but just yelling.  We get to the game and we get done with IF / OF and sitting in the dugout.  The plate ump walks up and tells us to be careful of who we yell at walking down the road because he may be calling balls and strikes during our game.  Yup that guy was the plate umpire.  He was cool with it and did a great job but we thought we were going to get screwed.

Freshman year of college my first ever college game.  It was a cold February day and I'm talking cold - probably around 30 degrees.  Nobody was at the game except for a small student section in the RF corner.  Our PA system was broken so no lineups or anthem.  We were going to just play.  Our team takes the field and when pitcher was done warming up we were ready.  Batter was stepping in the box when all of a sudden we hear the students in the RF corner start singing the anthem.  Everyone stopped, took hats off, other team scrambled out of the dugout to the 3B line and stood at attention while the student section sang the anthem.  It wasn't planned but it was pretty cool (and hilarious - they had been keeping themselves warm with beverages so needless to say the quality of singing wasn't up to American Idol standards.......well maybe they were) to see everyone respect our flag like that in 1993.  

I'm a head coach and I'm watching our JV team play this powerhouse.  We were actually winning in the bottom of the 7th something like 3-2.  Well next thing you know the bases are loaded with no outs and it's pretty obvious we are going to lose this game but I was happy with my bunch because they normally wouldn't be in a game like this due to how great this program was.  Next thing I know line drive up the middle which would easily score 2 runs and end the game.  My SS flashes over and catches it in the air (1 out), without breaking stride he touches second to get that runner before he could get back (2 out) and because it's still JV the runner on first just took off on contact and was almost at the bag by the time my SS got there.  So SS runs this kid down as he turns to go back and tags him (3 out) for us to win the game.  Nobody really celebrated because it took a few seconds to process how we snatched victory from defeat.  One of the best plays I've seen at any level.