What Level Player Were YOU? Be Honest...

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But my love for this awesome game has never waned. I played .....a couple years in the Men's Adult Baseball League. ...

I can remember Baltimore playing against Chicago North in the MSBL >40 at the World Series in Scottsdale. Tossed a shutout vs Rich Nye (ChC LHP). I ran into Jose Cardinal in 2005 who was a Sr Advisor to the Nationals GM, who continued to complain about the strikes being called for ny slide pieces on the black.

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Originally posted by biggerpapi:
The Charlie Brown picture I posted was supposed to be a joke, but it really is pretty accurate.

My love for the game far outreached my ability. I was probably an average or below average player. Played one year in high school.

I'm 43 years old and I vividly remember hitting a double my 8 year old year. Would have been a triple if I hadn't rounded first too wide and run into the grass behind the second baseman.

I vividly remember catching a towering fly ball at second base to help my team with the city championship when I was 10.

My one and only pitching appearance came in Colt league (what's that, 14 or 15?) I only threw one strike and that's because the ball went behind the batter's head and hit his bat for a foul ball.

My one and only HS memory was getting thrown out of my first ever game after bowling the catcher at home plate.

But my love for this awesome game has never waned. I played a little softball and even a couple years in the Men's Adult Baseball League. But my true joy in life is watching and coaching my boys.

Maybe this picture will more accurately portray by ability:

Hey nice pic. Question: did you just hit it or are you way out in front of a low change up? be honest!

I was fortunate to play high school and Legion with a couple of top prospects. It provided several of us with D1 opportunities. In college we played in the regionals a couple of times. Had I chosen one of the other schools that recruited me I would have played in the CWS. I made the right academic choice. No regrets.

I was an outfielder with speed who would occasionally hit a mistake out of the park. Mostly I was a dirtbag. I did whatever it took. In high school I was an all-conference power hitter. What a shock to start college ball 0-16 with 9K's. That's when I learned the concept of adjustments.

I also pitched the first two years after the coach asked my freshman year, "Is there a bleep'n lefty here who can throw strikes?" It provided the opporunity to toss up walk off homers in both ends of a doubleheader. The pitches were strikes. They were very hittable strikes, up in the zone, with the wind blowing out.

As a kid I pounded the side of the house and the garage with rubber balls throwing and fielding grounders. I caught balls rolling off the roof over my shoulder. We lived at the baseball field in the summer. When we weren't there we were playing whiffle ball in someone's yard or Stat-O-Matic. One of my friends (former MLBer) was awed he was on a Strat card.

I sucked at baseball, stopped playing after a year of Little League. Stuck with Football, Basketball and Track.

Ended up having some D1 opportunities with football. 6'4 180lb Free Safety, skinny but would try to take your head off. Ended up playing at the Air Force Academy Prep School, could have gone to West Point but loved Colorado Springs.

Ended up leaving and attending NC State, stopped playing football which I regret all my friends tried to get me to play and even a couple of the coaches asked me to. They remembered me from a camp in the past. Lost the love for the game and wanted to be a student and party.

cball, I learned the term "comebacker" at a very young age.

Ah strat o matic...loved that game.

bigger,
You weren't so bigger. Might be interesting to see some of the old, OK really old for some us, pictures from LL days.

Hey lets post that picture in the hitting section and ask for opinions on the swing.....Bluedog can start some esoteric argument that will go on for 3 months, 10,000 views, 500 posts. (pssss don't tell anyone it is 100 years old )

Must say I'm not impressed with the pivot foot position. The umpire's gear might give it away although they aren't stirrup socks which we wore in the day. That would be a dead giveaway. A cap with a sponsor's logo would be even more of a giveaway. Our sponsor was 7up and we had some sort of 7up logo on our caps. We also didn't have the partial helmet when catching.

And Larry the Cable Guy coaching 3B. Priceless

Those cleats came from our Coast to Coast Hardware store.

#Swag

I just hope the picture was taken post contact and not when the ball was still making its way to home plate.

I prefer to remember this as one of those really super hard hits that hits in front of the plate so hard that it shoots over the entire infield for a spectacular hit.

Yeah, that's right. That's the way I remember it.

One batting glove.
Pants up at the knees.
Wood bat.

Old school, baby!

Im diging the umpires gear... now that is old school.

I played in H.S., NAIA and then 3 years in the independent professional leagues. Had a nice career - definitely more due to hard work, determination and mental toughness more than God-given ability. The older I get, the more I certainly appreciate and cherish some great memories.

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Originally posted by bballdad2016:
Im diging the umpires gear... now that is old school.

My first few years in LL, the umpires stood behind the pitcher. They weren't coaches and they didn't wear 'blue'. They just wore whatever.

Dare I even enter into this? It is quite interesting though, for sure.

HS All State, signed free agent 2 weeks after graduation with MLB affiliated, played seven years pro- ball, up to AAA with a couple major league spring trainings thrown in. Played with or against the likes of Bill Freehan, Norm Cash, Mickey Lolich,Denny Maclaine, Mark Fidritch, Ron LeFlore, Vern Ruhle, (PG'S) Bruce Kimm, etc etc. Claim to fame... getting Jim Rice to hit into doubleplay and being managed by Jim Leyland.
Be very carefull how you hold onto "the dream", it is very delicate!

teams best back-up catcher.........caught a mean bullpen

Here's to all of us who hit when a metal bat that was basically an aluminium pipe and wood was better!

I think I have said this on here before, but I was the fastest 238lb 2b in the state of Michigan playing high school varsity baseball.

May have been the only 238lb 2b in Michigan, but at least it sounded good when I used to claim it back then.

I absolutely hated metal bats as they arrived my sophomore year. Had something to do with hitting in 35 degree weather. Stuck with wood bats all through high school, and made a living DH'ing when my speed was not required at 2b.

I remember that to maintain my strength for my speed game, I packed 3 or 4 sandwiches and a few Pepsi's for the away double headers we played. I would DH the first game and snack, flirt with the cute blonde scorekeeper while everyone else was in the field. Then grab my glove for 2b the second game.

Some of the best times of my life were on the baseball field, and those memories never fade.

From where I came from in the Philippine Islands, there was no baseball in high schools. There was a Rizal Memorial Sports Complex where some MLB greats visited during the off season to teach the game.


NEWS EXCERPT Babe Ruth Scored Homeruns in RP
Babe Ruth, the American baseball legend who had over 200 homeruns in his professional career, once played in the baseball field of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. In 1934, Ruth and another baseball great, Lou Gehrig, selected an All-Star team that toured Asia where they played 18 games. The All-Star selection stopped in the Philippines and played at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex from December 2 to December 9. Gehrig beat Ruth when he scored the first recorded homerun at the Rizal complex on December 2. Ruth scored the 2nd homerun on the same day and 4th homerun on December 9. The other players of the same selection who also scored homeruns at the Rizal complex were Earl Averill and C. Gehringer.


If you guys didn't know before Japan, China and rest of current Asian powers..The Philippines was one of Asia's baseball powerhouses during the first half of the 20th century well into the early 1970s.
Lack of government support led to a decline in interest as it is a relatively expensive sport for a 3rd world country. Add the fact that there were just no room for fields to be played on in schools.
Currently baseball is making a comback of sorts and the country won the 2011 Southeast Asian Games Gold trophy.

Now with that backdraft, I grew up in the 70s and was in high school by 1980. Played competitive basketball during those times including high school varsity/intramurals and college as it is and still is the # 1 sport back home. A cousin of mine who played Philippine collegiate baseball started to lived with us prior to my freshman year in HS ( we only go to grade school for 6 years and enter HS at 12yo) and engaged me in the game of catch. For some weird reason feeling that ball hit the mitt of the glove gave me the same good feeling shooting the basketball leather in the hoop.

I was very fortunate (Bless my parents) that I went to a good sized HS that has a big field and offered Men's fastpitch softball in PE and in the intramurals. I guess with very limited training during those times, practicing throwing and catch,fielding and dry swinging the bat ( I do not recall doing any BP practice) helped developed some muscle memory to play competitively.

Given that we only played men's softball during intramurals, our team was pretty much the same team from freshman to senior years. ( I am not sure how intramurals works here in the US but in my HS for example, you will only play with all freshmans during your freshman year and just play with same group all throughout your HS careers)

I played 2b and always enjoyed tagging that stealer since our catcher had a great arm. Don't recall much double plays. I believe I was just a contact line drive guy and remember hitting a walk off in the championship game during my sophomore year. The one lasting legacy for our team is that we were the INTRAMURAL CHAMPS all 4 years of our HS careers.

Those short 4 years in the diamond were pretty good. Sorry for the long post but my experience with this game was influenced by the MLB greats who visited our country during the golden days of baseball in the Philippines.

It's been awhile but I wasn't too bad back in the day . We didn't have AAU , Triple Crown and all the leagues we have today , so it was just Pony and High School . Got a couple of looks but nothing much after that .