Archive for January, 2010
Playing Softball in Combat Boots
Back in the late 1960’s I spent three years in the US Army. After spending 14-months in South Korea, I was reassigned to Germany which was like going to a party for 16-months compared to Korea. I was stationed at a Nike-Hercules Guided Missile Battery located in the middle of nowhere. We did however have a softball team which I wasn’t on.
One day, our battery had an “away game” but they were one player short of a team. The team captain asked me if I could play third base. I told him I could but I didn’t have any softball equipment, not even shoes. He said they had plenty of softball gloves, but I would have to wear my own footgear. So, I played my first softball game in Germany wearing combat boots. We lost 8-3…
Time to Pass the Baton
With Little League baseball many decades behind me, I had a son of my own. When my son Andy became Little League age, he wanted to play also. We would play catch to improve his skills so naturally, the next step was to buy him a catchers mitt of his very own. Andy was a little excited about being catcher until he found out there was pain involved.
He managed to squeak out one season as catcher, but he really didn’t like it-not like I did when I was a kid. If you don’t like being catcher it’s just too hard a position to play and be any good at it. That was when Andy started his pitching career which I blogged about back in November. At least he was involved with a catcher…
My Catchers Career Ended Early
I got to play catcher for two years in Little League and then it was over. There was another kid on our team who wanted to play catcher, but I was better than he was so I got to be the main catcher. Being a kid, I didn’t know much about politics, but I soon learned. This kid’s dad decided to coach a team the next year and picked me to be on his team.
On our first day of practice, our “manager” took all the catchers equipment and gave it to his son and said that he would be the starting catcher. I asked the manager where I was going to play and he said I would be back-up catcher and utility player. Not only did I not get to play catcher that season, but no other position either! The next season, the same guy picked me again, so my dad pulled me out of baseball. Politics…
How to Break In Your Glove
A new glove is a paramount item when purchasing baseball equipment. Choose a baseball glove that you can fit your hand all the way into and won’t slip off. The proper way to break in a glove is up for dispute, but here is one of the most popular methods:
~Purchase baseball glove conditioning oil; this oil will soften, enrich, and preserve your leather glove. It will also get that sweaty hand smell out.
~Put the ball in the glove, tie it with string, and leave it out in direct sunlight for most of the day. This will get the leather hot and easy to shape.
~After you take the glove out of the sun, untie it, take the ball out, and shape the glove by pressing in the pocket and opening and closing it. Throw the ball into the center of the glove’s pocket as hard as possible. Repeat this step several times.
~Close the glove around the ball tightly and wrap it with the string again and store it overnight or over a weekend in a dry, dark corner away from small children.
~After the set time is up, retrieve the glove and remove the string and ball.
My First Season as a Catcher
After my first year of Little League was over, I couldn’t wait for the second year to begin. I was chosen to be back on the same team that year. I was on Nashville and playing second base again. In our second game, our catcher was up at bat and for some reason I tried on his catchers mitt. My manager saw me and asked if I wanted to be a catcher. Apparently, our catcher wanted to play another position-ANY position!
I said sure and the next thing I knew I was dressed in catchers gear and heading out to squat behind home plate. I was a natural. I loved it. Being catcher was my new favorite position. There was action on every pitch and I really looked like a ballplayer in all that catchers equipment. We finished in first place that year, but I was most excited about being catcher…
My First Year in Little League
Way back in the 1950’s I played my first season of Little League baseball. What a thrill for an eight year old boy to play on a “real” team with uniforms and a manager. I don’t remember if he asked us what position we wanted to play, or if he just assigned our spot. At any rate I played second base, which I loved.
The name of the team I was on was Nashville and we had red baseball hats with a white “N” on them. We looked good! I got my first Wilson baseball glove and got pretty good at playing second base. It was a great year of learning. I think we finished 8 and 8…
Kickball and a Big Head
When I was a kid I loved to play baseball and was pretty good at it. Another favorite sport was kickball that we often played at school when I was in fifth grade. I was even better at kickball than I was at baseball, and when teams were being chosen, I was picked either first or second. One day, I bet the girls in my class that just two of us guys could beat their whole team of girls. They took me up on it.
The game was scheduled for the following Saturday in the field next to my house. My best friend Tilton and I took on about twelve girls that memorable day. We used my catchers mitt for home plate and three other gloves for the bases. The game began and Tilton and I got pounded 15-2. I don’t remember liking kickball much after that…
My First Steel Baseball Spikes
Way back when I was 13 years old, I bought my first pair of steel baseball spikes. I couldn’t wait to try them on and to wear them on the practice field. Whenever I got a new piece of baseball equipment I was always in a rush to try it out. It didn’t matter if it was a new Wilson baseball glove or new baseball bat, I just had to use it.
A few of us went to the practice field for a little infield practice. I was playing shortstop and fielded a ball hit sharply to my right. I gloved the ball and put the breaks on thinking I would “slide” a little like when I wore tennis shoes. Wrong…I almost broke my ankle as I went tumbling head over heals. I found out that afternoon just how good steel spikes held their grip…
Breaking in a Baseball Hat
You ask is there really a correct way to break in a baseball hat? Well of course there is! Just ask any kid who has ever gotten a new baseball hat. Unlike breaking in a new baseball glove, you never add any oil. Your hair and greasy forehead have more than enough oil for any hat that you could ever try to break in.
The best way to break in a hat is to just wear it. Wear it to school or your job; wear it while you eat and sleep. Wear it to the bathroom or the boardroom. Wear it to the mall and of course-when you play ball. The more you wear it, the sooner you’ll break it in. Also, VERY IMPORTANT, you must shape the bill by bending it. The last thing you want is a flat bill…that is not cool. Good luck with your new hat!
Some Variations of Baseball
It is widely believed that Abner Doubleday first invented baseball in 1839 and of course there have been numerous changes to the game over the years. That will be a fun subject to go into at another time. Just think of all the variations and offshoots that have been started because of baseball.
First there was softball; just playing catch; playing “500” that was explained in an earlier blog; whiffle ball with all of it’s variations; stickball from the cities; homerun derby; kickball which is played on a baseball field without using either baseball bats or baseball gloves, just a big rubber ball like a soccer ball, and probably 100 other variations. It is amazing what you can come up with if you only use your imagination…