#16
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As this is written there's probably some old-timer in Bensonhurst who never even made it to the minors, telling his great-grandkids about the day he whacked a three-sewer (the stickball equivalent of Mickey Mantle's 565-foot homer in 1953) off his old friend Sandy when they were both in sixth grade - and there's the time I took out a window in the third-floor school gym with a moonshot to deep right-center, in a schoolyard game against a buddy who later spent a few years in the NL minor league system... The harder they throw, the further they go - and we didn't mess around where I come from...
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"Mistaking silence for weakness and contempt for fear is the final, fatal error of a fool" - Sicilian proverb (paraphrased) |
#17
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#18
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Like a lot of kids, all of us in my neighborhood played baseball constantly. It’s a very adaptable game - we had different rules depending on where we were playing on any given day, and for how many kids were actually on the field. It was very rare - unless it was an actual formal team with uniforms - to actually have nine kids per side as the “real” teams do. There were no adults around. We learned so much about life in general from playing baseball. We’d have to compromise about picking teams, about where the bases were going to be, about special rules we’d have to invent on the spot based on where we were playing and the number of kids playing that day. What’s going to be an out if there’s no right fielder? The definition of what a single, double, etc, changed according to the conditions of the day. Fights happened regularly, arguments happened every game. We settled all of it ourselves, without adult intervention. You learned the satisfaction of being one of the first chosen for a team, and the agony and patience of not being chosen. It was an eye-opener to find out that there were kids you couldn’t trust, and others that had your back ‘til the end. I’d never trade those days for anything - I learned so many things that I still use in daily life.
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#19
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The other ball/bat sport related stat that blows my mind is that a fast-pitch 12" softball actually gets to the plate FASTER because the mound is closer!
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#20
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Thanks for your post. I can identify with a lot of what you wrote and it brought back memories. We used to do the same kinds of things. We'd get a group of friends together, two of us would grab a bat and take turns gripping it. The hand closest to the top, where no more hand could fit, (3 or 4 fingers still counted as a hand ) would get first picking of a player. We probably played more softball though, it was easier for everyone. We had at times a wide age range. As you know I grew up in Canada just north of VT, and in those days there were no Expos or Blue Jays. We were all Red Sox fans, so I never had to switch allegiances after moving down here. So many years ago now....
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Best regards, Andre Golf is pretty simple. It's just not that easy. - Paul Azinger "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." – Mark Twain http://www.youtube.com/user/Gitfiddlemann |
#21
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I really enjoyed watching the US ladies play softball at the Olympics, and was bummed to hear the event won't take place in the upcoming 2024 games. Not sure why. I'm guessing the French don't have a suitable field, and don't want to build one...
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Best regards, Andre Golf is pretty simple. It's just not that easy. - Paul Azinger "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." – Mark Twain http://www.youtube.com/user/Gitfiddlemann |
#22
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And remember, it is space, not the ball, that is moving.
Bob PS. I think the term actually came from the "Star Wars" initiative, which guitarist Jeff Baxter worked on.
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"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website) |
#23
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In Chicago, we play a lot of slow pitch 16" softball...it's really just an organized drinking game. But it's as fun as it gets. |
#24
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And as a nod to the hitters is watching one with two strikes fouling off pitch after pitch...
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"Here is a song about the feelings of an expensive, finely crafted, hand made instrument spending its life in the hands of a musical hack" |
#25
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I was a pretty fair schoolboy athlete but the thing I absolutely couldn’t do worth a (expletive of your choice) was hit a baseball, even one that was pitched in a manner intended to be easy to hit, let alone in a situation where a pitcher was actually trying to get me out. I just sucked at it. I was a pretty fair tennis player and an OK-ish golfer, so it wasn’t that I lacked hand-eye coordination, but I didn’t have THAT skill even a little bit. OTOH, I had the privilege of being a Phillies fan for a number of years when John Kruk did color on Phillies TV games. One of the funniest guys in sports. I recall some occasion when someone asked him a question about what it was like being an athlete, and his response was something like ‘an ATHLETE?!?!?! - I wasn’t an athlete, I was a ball player’! For my money, the greatest athletes I’ve ever watched are NBA players. To have the kind of body control, quickness, jumping ability, and ability to shoot a ball while moving at those speeds, and suddenly pull up for a jumper, with a guy equally quick and agile defending against everything you’re trying to do? To me, those are the ultimate athletes. But we obviously all have our own opinions. -Ray
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"It's just honest human stuff that hadn't been near a dang metronome in its life" - Benmont Tench |
#26
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stai scherzando? |
#27
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"It's just honest human stuff that hadn't been near a dang metronome in its life" - Benmont Tench |
#28
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A sat and watch some golf for a while last week and eventually realized it had been on pause the whole time.
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#29
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1) Run to one end of the court, throw the ball at the basket
(a) miss, go to the other end & repeat (b) score, go to the other end & repeat 2) repeat until the clock sounds time Definitely to me.
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stai scherzando? |
#30
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At it's basics, yes. but like all games, there is more to it...
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"Here is a song about the feelings of an expensive, finely crafted, hand made instrument spending its life in the hands of a musical hack" |