Still Americas Pastime

Obviously, I want you visit my blog to get your baseball news, learn about the game, and come to love it.  Shouldn’t I tell you why you should come here?  After all, this is far from the only baseball blog, so why should my views and opinions receive your attention?  As an answer, I give you my baseball resume.

Teams:

Something Redsox?  (T-Ball, Little League):  I’ve been trying really hard to come up with the name, but this was some time ago, back when I lived in New Jersey and was about to start 1st grade.  I know it was a (Color)sox name, and that we had blue shirts with yellow lettering.  And I was upset that neither our shirts nor our socks were the right color.

W-T Rowdies (Coach Pitch, Knothole):  This was my first team after moving to Ohio.  Looking back, I see that my first two baseball teams had trouble with names.  First it was the color issue, next they were using an adjective as a noun.

W-T Rebels/R&R Rebels (From the beginning of Kid Pitch through 10th grade, Knothole): This was the team that I have the fondest memories of.  The Rowdies were too large of a team, so me and two other kids got shipped to the lesser W-T team.  We had some horrible years and some amazing years.  We always had a game against the other W-T team, the Rowdies (which had fixed their name problem by changing to the Bombers, then the Express, then back to the Bombers), and we lost every one.  Always hated that.

Amelia Barons (9th & 10th grade, Freshman/JV School Ball):  Had a good time Freshman year, although I was definitely not as relaxed (and therefore good) as I with the Rebels.  Sophomore year was terrible.  I didn’t like the coach, he seemed to not like me.  He also had a problem with wanting to have a lefty in the lineup no matter what the cost.  I finished with season with a less than stellar .181 avg (2-11).  This was still better than the 0-40 (or maybe 1-40, the point is less hits, more at-bats) lefty who often started the game in my place.  I also estimate I had around a .400 OBP, since I walked about every other plate appearance and reached on a few errors (though obviously, since I didn’t actually figure that out, the number could be inflated because of my indignation).  There’s more to the Sophomore story, but that’s the important stuff.

Tealtown Indians (11th grade, Knothole): At this point, I’d already been kinda hung up my glove.  I had decided not to try out for the school team because the JV coach had been promoted to Varsity coach.  Plus, I was in that awkward stage of the first girlfriend where you think you don’t need anything else, and she didn’t want me not to be able to spend the time I would have ended up spending at conditioning, and later practice and games, with her.  That summer, I had been looking forward to getting back to baseball with the Rebels, but the majority of the team was unwilling to make the commitment to three weekend games every week.  I joined the Tealtown Indians, but skipped a good number of practices and games.  I honestly don’t remember too much about this season because I was trying to cut myself off from baseball, as I saw I was done playing.

Positions Played:  In games, I’ve played every position but pitcher, catcher, and first base.  I spend a couple practices at first base, but the not enough to get the footwork down.  I also threw some batting practice, but we all know that’s not pitching.  I spend the most time as a third baseman (great range and quickness, average arm).  I also spent a majority of my limited playing time for the JV squad at second base.

I’ve also spent significant time as an armchair MLB manager.