Which guy in the dugout were you?

Great topic Smoke to bring a little levity to the beginning of the season.

In a word....I was the team prankster.  So, I'm giving myself some latitude here as I made the decision my freshmen year in high school to play tennis not baseball.  I would have been sitting behind an all-state catcher for 4 years or I could have played tennis (also a game I love) and been in the starting lineup for both singles and doubles with a chance to play in college.   I chose tennis and played through college.  I still play competitive team tennis today.  Old habits die hard and I'm always looking for any prank that I can pull on a teammate or opponent at any time.   There isn't anything I won't try.  In high school, if you fell asleep on the bus.....things would happen.  I vividly recall  one time when my hijinx back fired.  We had won a match in the first round of the state tournament when I as a high schools sophomore.  Myself and my doubles partner "mooned" our opponents bus.  These weren't just opponents but our next town-over rivals in all sports.   As it turned out, their coach saw it and had our bus stopped on the side of the road.  They identified one of the perpetrators who had very bright yellow tennis shorts, but couldn't identify the other "perp".   Thankfully, I only wore white tennis shorts in those days.   My teammate was suspended from the rest of the state tournament and he (thankfully) did not rat me out.   For future pranksters reading this post...the lesson learned is to always wear non-identifiable shorts when mooning.  

PS..My middle son carried the prankster torch in high school as well.   All 3 of my sons were great and supportive teammates from the dugout.  My oldest son isn't much of a talker.  One of his college teammates commented that during the game is the only time they'd hear him actually speak.

Techie nerd in the dug out before DL made us cool like the upside down Oakleys on the cap brim. I was always reviled by the large scorebook guy, fearing the tech and data. I always said to him I would never replace him just work with him to improve the quality of in game data that can provide realtime feedback to the coaches. 

In high school and Legion I was on talented teams with strong personalities. The barbs flew from BP to the end of the game. I was reserved. But I fired back with better barbs when fired upon.

What made me a target was being Joe Cool. I was the first to wear white spikes and flips. I always had my uniform tailored to fit me perfectly. I would cut my stirrups so only the strips showed on the side. 

College ball was the first time I wasn’t always on the field. Freshman year I was a fifth outfielder, pinch runner and situation lefty pitcher.  I drove teammates nuts in the dugout and the bullpen. I learned how to juggle. I was bored and talked too much. A friend joked I was trying to get sentenced to start to get me out of the dugout. I returned to my normal demeanor soph year when I started in the outfield.

I've got to go back a LONG way for this one, but 34 years ago I was a nobody walk on that spent most of my time pitching out of the bullpen for a not very good D2 team. I was mediocre at best and with that I kept my mouth shut. But baseball was just something to do in the spring after hockey season ended. Hockey was a big deal at my school and for that I was a BMOC.

I was better at baseball in HS and we were state champs or runner ups in 2 out of 4 years. Still, the highlight of my HS career was probably at the team banquet in my senior year and the cheerleaders gave me an award for having the best a$$. I'll take it.

Sheesh, I don't think I learned to throw a Baseball correctly until my son started coachpitch. In a dug out Never. No one would have had me. Not even Rec baseball.