OT: Your Baseball Playing Days

[kmac32]

Hey Waz,

I was a left handed catcher at Cubs camp and Lee Smith wanted to practice so I caught him. Remember after several warm up pitches, I told him I know you can still bring it as you haven't been retired from MLB that long. He threw me a 90 mile per hour fastball That made my mitt pop. Caught it in the webbing so it didn't hurt. That was a blast. Also remember being the closer for the campers one year and picked Big Lee Smith off of first base. I also lined a single off of Big Lee in my first at bat off of him. After the game he asked me where that one came from as i wasn't known for my batting average. Great Memories and yes, they are all on tape.

Kmac

[prewarsports]

I played at Utah State University in 1997 before tearing my rotator cuff. We played a game in Ogden, Utah and something was wrong with the Ogden Raptors Minor League Field we were supposed to play on so it got moved to a High School Stadium that had not been used for a while and the infield was like concrete (literally). I remember all during pre-game thinking no matter what happened, I was not sliding on that field because I already had a huge open wound on my leg from earlier slides (I was really fast back then and stole a lot). First at bat, they play me to pull as a Right Handed Hitter because their starter was pretty slow, fastball in the low 80's and I tried to go opposite way and it worked, I slashed a line drive over the first basemans head and I am thinking triple all the way, as I am rounding second I pick up my third base coach and just started saying prayers in my head that he keeps his hands up. Sure enough about half way down the line he starts telling me to get down. In the heat of the moment, between curse words in my mind, I dont even think about it and slide safely for a triple. It was so bad the pain didn't hit me at first but I loked down at my leg anyways just to be safe and what was at first a pin sized red dot turned into an apple sized red stain of blood in about 2 seconds. They bandaged me up and I finished the game, but the wound was still open in some form or another for Months afterwards. NO triple is worth that unless its the MLB World Series!

Rhys Yeakley

[z28jd]

I was a pitcher most of the time, but liked playing almost anywhere else(except catcher) better. I'm a lefty and I played every position at least once.

My favorite baseball story is the time my catcher came out before the first pitch, a kid I couldn't stand, and said we should go over the signs. I was throwing high 70's when I was 15, hitting as high as 81 then and didn't throw anything besides fastballs. I sometimes changed to sidearm if some kid was taking good swings, but normally I just threw inside to the first batter, as hard as I could and that was good enough to keep kids from getting comfortable at the plate.

Anyway, after he asks for signs, I basically said shut up and catch. So on the first warmup pitch I decided to bounce one in the dirt and I did...it broke his cup in half. Made my day back then

[mybuddyinc]

I stunk, and mean stunk.

Never made varsity in HS (small <400 prep school), and played only a handful of innings and at bats on JV (even as a junior).

Tried out for Dickinson College team as freshman. 16 tried out, 15 made the team, if you know what I mean. The coach felt bad for me and let me coach 1st base that year. We went 1-18.

[7nohitter]

MY baseball career ended in high school...much to the chagrin of my father who pitched AAA for the Houston Colt 45's and the Cleveland Indians.

[novakjr]

This is taking me back.. My age 13 season(1st year in the 13-15 age group) was the last time I can remember hitting under .500.(barely played that year, just bad luck that I wound up on a team loaded with 15 year olds). The last year I played was at 17, for a summer traveling team. I hit well over .600(I wanna say it was in the .640s but really can't remember for sure). I was always a solid contact guy. Never concerned myself with HRs. Hit a few, but my focus was always more on hitting the gaps. I remember taking great pride in the fact that I rarely struck out too. That age 17 season, I wound up with 2 total strikeouts that year, somehow both came in the SAME inning.

Caught and played some 3B. Pitched a little, had good movement, but didn't really have the mental end of pitching figured out. I was a perpetual nibbler, always walked way too many guys. For some reason, I always thought if I was letting guys make contact then I wasn't pitching well. Perhaps it was just the strikeout mentality of the time.. In hindsight, contact isn't such a bad thing...

Wrestling season always overlapped with baseball season, so I was never available for tryouts during HS..

As far as being able to still hit. I can tell you, it's not like riding a bicycle. Took my son to the cages a year or two ago, after not having picked up a bat in close to 14 years, and it wasn't pretty. Could've had something to do with my glasses though too(I'd always worn contacts when I played). I had a good laugh about it though..

[chris6net]

I grew up in the same town as Craig Biggio(I was 1 year older) and remember him being a great player even in elementary school. He was a catcher back then but he was always the best player from day one. In his senior year in HS he won the award for best football player in Suffolk County. Most of the really good players are good in all sports.

[Wite3]

I played little league ball through middle school. My distinction was two all-star teams and led the league in hbp twice...I liked to crowd the plate a bit. As a freshman in high school, I played one year of baseball. I quit after getting hit by a pitch from Rod Beck who was two years ahead of me. He was insane even in high school. I moved on to basketball after that and played basketball in high school, college, and the hollywood entertainment league until I was 32.

My father on the other hand played high school ball and college ball and then took off for 20 years. At age 41 he decided to try out for a 30 and over fast pitch league. He did not make it. The next year he hired an ex-major leaguer to coach him. At age 43 he tried out again and was drafted by a team. He played fast pitch baseball in that 30 and over league here in Southern California until he was 63 years old. He played third base and pitched. He played against ex-major and minor league players (he loves to brag he got two hits off of Oil Can Boyd in a game) and college players. Proud of him!

Joshua

[kkkkandp]

Although I was a better football player, I was a decent baseball player, too, and played all the way through freshman year of college.

In eighth grade my town (Palisades Park, NJ) team was in the Babe Ruth state tournament. We were playing in the semifinals against Ocean Township in Freehold at Nescafe Field. We were down 6 - 2 in the top of the fourth when I hit a towering fly ball to left center with two men on and almost immediately out of the box I broke into my home run trot. Unfortunately, my "homer" bounced off the 330 foot sign on the chain link fence and I had all I could do to hustle my ass to second base for a double. Needless to say the coach was not pleased, but I scored when the guy behind me singled. We still lost 8 - 7 and we were eliminated the next day.

In freshman year of college, the varsity had just come back from their Spring trip down south. We were scrimmaging them and a bunch of the guys were chewing tobacco. Never having chewed before, I figured I'd give it a try. An inning later I was at my first base position when a very good lefty hitter ripped a screaming one-hopper that clipped the edge of the infield grass and took a wicked hop headed for right between my eyes. When I jerked my head to avoid the ball I wound up swallowing the chaw. My teammates said I actually did turn green. Makes for a good laugh at reunions now, but at the time hurling in foul territory was not nearly as humorous!

[buymycards]

I remember striking out a lot in little league. A good day was when I got hit by a pitch and made it to first base. Ah, the memories.

Rick

[MacDice]

My playing career ended when I was diagnosed with cancer. By the time, I was healthy enough to resume baseball activities, I felt like my window of opportunity had closed and I walked away from the game something that I regret.

WAZOO- As a college coach, yes your junior year is important but it is not the end all if you struggle a little. I would recommend that as a hitter do all of your training and as much BP as you can with wood bats not with aluminum. If you can hit with wood then you can hit with anything. A lot of young hitters have flaws in their mechanics and approach that can be covered up with an aluminum bat but as you play against higher competition those flaws come out. Players also get worried that if they don’t early sign that they won’t end up getting an offer and they stress. The truth is sometimes it is better to wait. I have seen a lot of players sign in late June and end up in real good programs. The reason is grades, some players get cut or decided to leave programs and some programs lose players to the draft thus opening up scholarship money late. You also need to be realistic with yourself, I have seen players whose parents have spent more money sending their kids to showcases only to get a scholarship that was a fraction of what they spent going to said showcases. They would have been better off spending that money on their kids education. The last thing to also remember is the D-1 can be overrated. There are a lot of D-1 programs that are horrible and would lose constantly to a D-2, NAIA or JC team. Unlike other sports, you can still get a chance of playing pro baseball even if you are not at a D-1 team but at the end of the day your education and the degree you will earn is the most important thing.