childhood baseball highlight

[Charger567]

I sure know mine..

Williamsport Sectionals debut. My league, NSLL was not exactly a powerhouse (won district 5 times in 54 years... I was on the team for 2 of them in a row.)

I got the start. First pitch of the game.. Home run. Two batters later.. Home run.. Quickly 2-0. After that, I was in the zone.. somehow. I threw twice as hard, faster than anyone there had ever seen. Hit the corners PERFECTLY, like a major leaguer. This kid was crowding the plate, and I threw the ball right on the inside corner, missing him by about two inches for a strike. Did it three times in a row for a strikeout. I struck out 13 guys that night, and retired 16 in a row after the home run. We won in extra innings.

[PopTop]

My last year in Little League, one of the sponsors was a steakhouse and they put a sign in right-center for a free steak dinner if you hit it. I managed to ring it up four times, once on the fly and three others on a bounce. Coaches all thought I had a great opposite field swing, but the truth was even then I couldn't get around on a fastball

[Charger567]

Did you get the steaks?

[CanadianKid]

I was 12 years old and I had pitched the previous inning and when we were going up to bat I was going to go to the washroom but my coach told me thta I was leading off. One of the parents jokingly said to hit a homerun and then I could go to the washroom. Next pitch I hit it over the rightfield fence, however I didn't jog I sprinted around the bases.

[PopTop]

Did you get the steaks?

Yep, was able to treat most of the family to a dinner out, felt like the king of the world when my 12-yr-old butt strutted into the restaurant with the free dinner vouchers.

[Charger567]

Actually I have one more. My city all stars coach thought I sucked, that I just made the team because my williamsport team got so far. The first game in, he told me to throw a change up, I refused. He said that if he saw one hit because I didn't throw a change up, he would take me out. I went out there, throwing the hardest I had ever thrown, and struck out batter after batter using only fastballs. I threw a no hitter, and had a double and two home runs at the plate.

[CanadianKid]

I have the 2 game balls from my 2 1 hit shutouts from last year. As well as the my first homerun ball which was in the city championship semi finals.

[Richmond Hill Phoenix]

One time when I was catching, a throw was coming in from CF to nail a guy at the plate. I caught it, and while I was dropping to block the plate, the guy absolutley demolished me. I didn't even see it coming (held onto the ball though ). But the ump didn't throw him out of the game because he said that "I was too far up the baseline". I had to, because the throw was up the line anyways.

So three innings later, the same guy is at 3rd and the guy at the plate hits a fly ball to LF. The guy on third tags, but is DOA. I have the ball, and its deeply in my mitt and I am anchored at home waiting for the guy. But he decides to try to run me over again. This time I was ready, and I nailed Him. I brought my shoulder up at the last second, and he went down like a sack of potatoes. The ump ejected him that time, and there was almost a brawl. My teammates had to hold me back.

Typically, I'm a gentle person. But when a guy runs you twice in the same game, in a NON-Contact league, I want to give him something in return. That is probably my highlight from youth baseball (so far).

[jays632]

I've got a couple.

1) Playing catcher when I was about 12 I had the plate blocked with a runner coming around and the throw coming from RF. I got the ball and made a really quick/agressive tag that more resembled an axe-handle to the runner's face. He got called out, knocked out cold and lost 2 teeth.

2) Fouling a ball through the umpire's windshield when I was 10-ish.

3) Diving catch on a soft-liner up the middle while I was playing shortstop, I landed on 2nd base to double a guy off. The kicker to this story; it was t-ball and I was 6. Literally every parent in the park was just staring with a dropped jaw. AFter the game to my mom I was like "What's the big deal? Alomar does it all the time"

[-Kyle-]

Happened last spring...

Just a real quirky basball team that went 10-0...wasn't the best team in the leauge, but we won almost all of our games by 1-2 runs. In the final playoff game, we were facing the best team in the league. 2 outs bases loaded, bottom of ninth, they are down one run, I'm playing shortstop. 3rd hitter(Colin) hits a double. There 4th hitter is up, a kid named Ryan, very big. He hits a long fly ball......the opposing team starts running out onto the field...and it curves foul by 5ft at most...hits my moms car ... Would have been a walk off home run. Next pitch is hit a mile high to the 3rd basemen...Colin pushes our 3rd basemen out of the way and he misses it. Ump calls it 3rd out due to interfernce. Eah-Yah!

[CanadianKid]

Forgot to mention this one...when I was 12 my team turned a triple play Runner on 1st and 2nd, batter hits a line drive, for some stupid reason the runners break 2Bman catches it throws it over to me at 2nd and I relay it over to 1st. Probably greatest moment teamwise so far in youth baseball, either that or getting 3rd in OBA's (Provincial championships).

[SamtheBravesFan]

Didn't have much experience. Best thing I did was get hit by a pitch, I went to second on a wild pitch. I went to third on another wild pitch and the next thing I knew, I saw the ball whiz past my chest and into left field so I ran home and scored a run. My only run the entire season. My other highlights were various walks and hit-by-pitches, and two foul balls and a pop up to short.

I also felt a good sense of satisfaction of doing exactly what I was supposed to do on a ground ball single to right field: kneel down, glove in front, get the ball and throw it to the cutoff man.

That's it.

[Seattle1]

I made the All-Star team a couple times. One of the things they liked about me was that I was a good bunter, and a switch-hitter.

[Atlanta Braves Freak]

My baseball career was short lived, sort of like Eddie Gaedel, only I played one more game than him. I was either nine or ten years old and I decided I wanted to play baseball instead of watching and taking stats. So I ended up playing with my younger brother's team and I hit for the cycle in my only game with them. I was the only player on the team to not have a jersey number and despite my great performance the team lost their first game. My only other game was with the correct age group and I walked in my only plate appearance.

Career Stats (short-lived)

HR-1
RBI-5
Triple-1
Double-1
Single-2
BB-1

[rockiesfan4ever]

Ok here are my 5 greatest moments:

1. I was like 10 playing Parks and Rec I got walked then I took second when everyone was just standing there.

2. Again playing parks and rec (I was 10 still) I stole second but the ump said I left to early so I was able to run back to first BEFORE they tagged me. Then they over threw the 1st baseman so I got 2nd.

3. I was playing this year at 3B the ball hit off my knee to my SS who threw the runner out at first.

4. I was playing SS and my mom said she commented on how deep I was playing. The ball was hit between SS and 3B. I got it on the hop (backhanded) then threw and with ALL my momentum going to LF threw a strike to 1st to get the guy out.

BRB w/ the 5th one.

[rockiesfan4ever]

ok number 5.

5. I was batting (I'm not the best hitter in the world). I hit a medium bouncer to 3B who got it on 2 hops and he didn't bobble it. I was able to leg it out. OK it is 75 foot bases but. It was this year

[Dravecky43]

One of my most memorable moments was in the league championship game when I was in 6th grade. I started and played like four innings, and in one of my at bats I crushed a two-bagger that drove in two runs. We ended up winning the game 10-8. Great thing about those playoffs was that we were the fourth seed out of four teams but went 3-1 in the double-elimination tournament to win it all.

Oh, and another one happened when I was in 3rd grade. We had a runner on second and I was at the plate. A pitch went behind my back and hit my bat and rolled fair down the first base line. Everyone just stood around until the third base coach said, "RUN." So the pitcher ran over and picked up the ball to throw me out at first, but he completely missed and threw the ball into right field. My teammate scored and on the throw home I went to second. That was pretty interesting.

[Chewybar]

There was one year that i didn't have my uncle be my coach because i wanted to see if it would be any better or worse...well i went to the coach told him i could pitch and play 1st and 3rd base...so he sticks me in right field the whole season and doesn't let me pitch...so next year i go back to my uncle...play his team strike out the coaches son every time he came up to bat and also hit a homerun off his son while he pitced...we ended up beating them 14-2...i still have the homerun ball in my room

[Sparksdale]

I was coaching an 9-10 year old team. My worst player comes up to bat, poor kid was just terrible. He quickly gets two strikes on him. All the sudden he turns to the umpire and says something, I can't hear what was said. Suddenly he runs off the field, the umpire calls time and tells me to get another batter.
What's the matter I asked?
The boy had to go take a leak, the ump replied.

Of course I take one of my best players and put him up to hit. The coach on the other team goes nuts. He tells me I had this all planned and I just wanted to get my best player up to bat.

I smiled and gently whispered to the coach....."coach, I can't make this stuff up because this is just too funny."
Then I told the coach to pick any player I had on the bench to hit, after all I thought that was only fair. Besides, I was laughing so hard that I really didn't care about the "at bat" anymore.

Sparks,

[jrh31584]

I only played one season of organized baseball, when I was nine. In my first game, we were losing 12-0, and the opposing pitcher was one out away from a perfect game. I stand in, watch a ball and a strike go by, foul tip the next pitch, and then...THUD. Right off my left arm. So that's my highlight: breaking up a perfect game.

[GotMelk?]

1.I was playing in a first round playoff game. I was playing firstbase and the ball was hit foul past the fence. I started to run after the ball and made a sliding catch in foul terriotory past the oppents dugout. It ended the inning and we were only down by one.(I was always put on the bad teams after my one team went 19-0).This got my whole team pumped. Too bad my parents weren't looking. We lost 1-0. Anyway when i got into the dugout I told my team mates it was do to the fact I played MVP Baseball 2004.(I was 12.)

I always wanted to pull off the hidden ball trick.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

I only started playing baseball when I was 25. During the 4 years before I played softball.

One home game I was playing left field, where I had a very busy day. I caught a lot of lazy fly balls. But I also made a couple of diving catches, shoestring catches and a over-the-shoulder-grab.

I don't remember if we won that game, but when I came out of the dressing room, our coach was talking with the coach of our oponent.

The opponent's coach said:"Wow, your left fielder was awesome."

You can imagine that I had a HUGE smile upon my face.

[tripledup22]

mine are

1. catching a fly ball and throwing home to get the runner from mid center field.
2.getting an out then using the hidden ball trick.

3. always using the idden ball trick after our pitcher walked someone.

[hellborn]

OK, this is ancient history...when I was a kid, we started playing organized ball around 8, and the first season was 1/2 tee ball followed by 1/2 kid pitch. I was the only kid on the team who could throw strikes and was being groomed to pitch, so I was on the mound for our first game. Before the game started, I noticed that the prettiest girl in my grade, who was also in my class, was in the crowd...I started sweating bullets.
Being the first game, most of the kids were pretty bad at hitting off the tee, including me. About half the kids on the other team popped the ball up between the plate and the mound, and I handled all of the pops without an error...I guess 9-10 chances in 6 innings. My coach, who turned out to be a lunatic, was really happy with me and clapped me on the back after every half inning.
Next Monday in class, the girl walks up to me and tells me she saw me in the game. I said that I saw her there, too. Then, she gushed, "You caught SOOO many fly balls!!" I was the happiest guy in existence...I told her that it wasn't so hard, but she insisted that I must be really good. I was walking on clouds for days...
Anyway, never got the girl...also, made the league all star team, but didn't get to play because I was coming home from out of town and my father refused to bring my uniform to the Greyhound station and drive me to the game right away. Told me that it wasn't important enough for all that effort.
Family issues kept me from playing the next season and I just decided to not ask to play any organized sports after that because it just added to the strife in the household. That was my only organized baseball until I joined the NABA at age 25. I kept playing pickup ball and spent hundreds of hours at batting cages learning how to hit fast stuff in the meantime...but, breaking stuff was a revelation to me at that late age.
Please don't read me as being too bitter...my parents had serious problems, and I'm grateful for what they were able to do for me despite them. I was never the big sports star again, but I became successful in other ways and still love to compete as best I can.

PS - for funny highlights, there was the time one of my teammates wet his pants and started crying during the game...

[EdmondsFan#1]

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