WHERE HAVE THE BASICS GONE?

One of the Greatest Stickball Players of all time--WILLIE MAYS

TR:

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
The kids playing punchball with a spaldeen?

Any thoughts ????

Yes...I've got thoughts.

This brings back some haunting memories for me.

Neighborhood toughs punched me in the spaldeen and I had to have a spaldeenectomy!

Be home when the street lights come on.

quote:

My game of choice was half ball although wire ball was a good one. speaking of basics I watched a high school jv game yesterday and watched as several players on one team walked on and off the fiels. that is as basic as you get and some dont do that.

I can't stand it when I see players do that. I learned from my HS coach to never, ever walk anywhere on a baseball field. He told us he didn't care if we won or lost as long as we were hustling everywhere we went. When we walked at the plate...we ran to first like we just hit a gapper...when we got the third out, we ran off the field like a doberman was after us........when we left the on-deck circle, we ran to the plate......by the way, we won a lot of games during my HS career losing in the state semi-finals my senior year. I learned a lot from my coach about hustling. I thank him for that!

To all those out there with all their recruiting stories let me relay this one to you

About 25 years ago(yes I am an old timer) I had a kid who had a lot of tools. He was being heavily recruited. One day a recruiter came up to me and asked about him. He had tools but his attitude could have been better and I was constantly on him about it. I sort of bit my tongue and said nothing about attitude(you know minimize the negatives) Well a spot came up early in the game where he did not run a ball out. In oldtimers jargon he loafed. I looked behind the backstop and the recruiter closed his book and left.

TR - you crack me up - SPALDEEN!!! haven't heard that word uttered since about 8th grade. I went to a Catholic grade school - every day at lunch we played handball - throw a pimple ball up and hit it with a closed fist - fielders fielded, 'batters' ran the bases, etc - hit it on the roof - HR but you either had to climb up and get it [without Sister Jerome seeing you!!!] or sneak off to the 7-11 behind the nursery to get a new one

I know when I was growing up, which wasn't many years ago. I used to watch the Cubs play because Ryne Sandberg was my favorite player and still is my favorite. After the game, I would go outside and throw a tennis ball off of my grandmother's brick wall and play a fielding game. If I made an error, I started all over. I had the best time of my life doing this. I also remember every Sunday, my dad and I going to the local park and playing pick up games for hours and hours but like many posters have stated all of those times have gone out the door because of other things a kid can do in this day and age.

I never heard of any of those games but we used to play Indian Ball.

Basics? Chicks dig the long ball baby. How often on Baseball Tonight do you see a great sac bunt as one of the plays of the night?
How often do you see a 9-3-2 put out? How often do you see the right fielder air mail the cut off man and allow the hitter to advance to second? The basics don't make Sportscenter. And where are our kids getting their baseball fix, Sportscenter.
Respect the game

callaway, please don't take this offensive. I bought my oldest son the same bat, had same great results. But the first thing I told him is that if he wants a bat like that he had better be able to produce with wood, not in the same aspects but produce. hit for power and hit for avg. that is all I have ever told my son. Reason why I say this is that once the 12 yr old super hero home runs end then reality sets in. My biggest thoery I have ever had was, train with wood win with aluminum.