I remember when a star athlete in my high school died…from shoveling snow. It was probably an undiagnosed defect, but it opened my eyes to the fact that bad things happen to kids all the time, even in leafy green suburbs.
A kid on my wrestling team died in a car crash involving alcohol. I didn't know him well, but I did get to know his younger brother, closer to my age. I think that was the first time I experienced the death of a peer, although there have been many more since then.
I remember that too. Car crash. He was the nicest smartest goodest looking kid and I had a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that he was just gone
Fourth grade we were playing football at recess. I was chasing ball carrier and reached out to tackle and his heel hit my mouth and chipped my front tooth and it discolored. We didn’t have dental insurance and I didn’t get a root canal and cap till in my 30s. I don’t know why I waited so long because I was self conscious about it.
Concerning third base, I played that in minor league. A batter hit a line drive and I flicked my wrist up and caught it. I wasn’t a good player. Played little league because the coach knew my dad and would pick me for the team. I only got to play the last inning, in right field. And if I got to bat, struck out every time except once, when I was walked.
Dale, you've reminded me to write about some football stories soon. We played tackle all the time, sometimes even in the street.
Also: I had a grey tooth when I was little! It was a baby tooth that somehow got damaged, though. My destruction of my permanent teeth would have to wait a few decades so the grinding could pile up!
I was playing chase/big-kid-hide & seek at my neighbor’s house. I was in kindergarten. Pam was a couple of years older than me and had a school friend over. Her brother, younger than me was also part of this debacle.
For some reason, we were playing in their finished basement. At the base of the stairs, when you turned right, there was this poster on the wall—looked like a window to outside with a creepy burglar-looking guy peeping in at the room. Freaked me every time I came around the corner. The stairs were in the center of the basement, so there was a path all the way around, linking all the separate spaces together.
It was my turn. They were all hiding together, but started to run from me when I found them. I wasn’t fast enough to catch them. Little Tommy was a speed demon for his size and the other two were taller and thus lankier than me. So after giving chase around the circle one time, I had a clever idea.
Hide on the stairs.
I could hear them coming, their laughter filled the enclosed space. Just as they were about to reach me, I hopped down, standing right in the doorway. I caught a glimpse of the freaky poster before Pam’s friend blocked my view. She was massive compared to my 5-yr-old self. A whole head taller than me.
In fact, her teeth were right at my hairline. And then, we collided and her teeth were IN my hairline. She backed up, dazed, holding her mouth that she’d smacked on my skull. When she took her blood-covered hand down, we all noticed it. A gap where her permanent front tooth was a moment ago.
I felt my head. No tooth. Pam looked too. She helped her friend look on the floor for the missing tooth. Tommy brought his mom downstairs, probably gloating that he wasn’t the one causing trouble *this* time.
I was in a daze, until I stood in the bright lights of the bathroom while Pam’s mom looked closely at my head to make sure no tooth was lodged in my skull. When I saw the blood running down my face, I flipped out.
Lesson: Being clever doesn’t mean you’ll win. You might just end up with a hole in your head.
P.S.: I had the BEST show-and-tell on Monday—stitches and a sticker for being a brave patient.
P.P.S: my older brother passed out while watching my head get stitched up.
The hot corner! My kid used to play 3rd and it stressed me out. Righties hit hard to third and the bounces come up quick and then you have to make a looooong throw to first.
Me, I played second and my core memory is turning a double play after fielding a high hopper, touching 2nd and then throwing out and around the runner barreling down on me to get the out at first. Man the reaction - I figured I was gunna be a superstar after that.
My "king of 3rd base" memory is diving to catch a fly ball that was foul. I had to hustle and I slid, catching that sucker! Best play ever, at least until I was placed at shortstop the next year. I have no memory of what I did at shortstop. Maybe I was awful.
No. You were not being overdramatic. Adults were just colder then cuz their version of adults were even colder. Fuck, they came over alone on ship smoking cigars at age 7 only to find work selling rotten apples in Brooklyn. These kids can handle an injury like that. I mean, it’s not like he got impaled by a flying bat or anything.
But for me, baseball was always intimidating. Invariably, the kids would all yell “easy out!” and move closer in towards me. Usually I did get out at first base after hitting a bouncy infield shot. But every now and then, I’d get a lucky bad bounce. I wasn’t great as a hitter but I was a pretty fast runner and had smarts to read the action. I racked up quite a few in field home runs cuz most of the kids either couldn’t catch or couldn’t throw.
I was definitely one of the weaker players but I got REALLY lucky and caught well enough to remain as a starter.
The same was mostly true of my BJJ career as well, especially at brown and black belt. Not terrible, but not impressive either… except for that big surprise every now and then.
I'm not sure yet, but I think I was 8, 9, and 10 for little league. It's not impossible that I played 4 years, but I think not since my family moved the previous year to an entirely new neighborhood... I'm guessing settle in for a year, then baseball.
I played a bunch of sports in the 'hood, but no organized sports 'til high school wrestling.
The whole 21st century has been one long "unexpected change". People died, stores closed, and the need to be more aware of politics was forced on me. And learning that just because you hold a public office does not mean that you are ethically qualified to hold it..
You reacted normally, I think. It could have been worse, though, so he got lucky with just the chipped tooth.
"Chad was on second base, and I was on third."
But Who's on first?
Crap, I should have set this up by admitting that I was "I Don't Know" all along.
There's always the next time!
Excellent! Now I'm heading to Youtube to watch that classic clip.
I remember when a star athlete in my high school died…from shoveling snow. It was probably an undiagnosed defect, but it opened my eyes to the fact that bad things happen to kids all the time, even in leafy green suburbs.
A kid on my wrestling team died in a car crash involving alcohol. I didn't know him well, but I did get to know his younger brother, closer to my age. I think that was the first time I experienced the death of a peer, although there have been many more since then.
Many? Damn, I've had a few and that shit hits hard.
I've had few with whom I was very close, but if I extend that group out just a little, it kinda grows exponentially, you know?
I do, and hear tell the numbers get worse as you get, yknow older.
I remember that too. Car crash. He was the nicest smartest goodest looking kid and I had a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that he was just gone
Fourth grade we were playing football at recess. I was chasing ball carrier and reached out to tackle and his heel hit my mouth and chipped my front tooth and it discolored. We didn’t have dental insurance and I didn’t get a root canal and cap till in my 30s. I don’t know why I waited so long because I was self conscious about it.
Concerning third base, I played that in minor league. A batter hit a line drive and I flicked my wrist up and caught it. I wasn’t a good player. Played little league because the coach knew my dad and would pick me for the team. I only got to play the last inning, in right field. And if I got to bat, struck out every time except once, when I was walked.
Dale, you've reminded me to write about some football stories soon. We played tackle all the time, sometimes even in the street.
Also: I had a grey tooth when I was little! It was a baby tooth that somehow got damaged, though. My destruction of my permanent teeth would have to wait a few decades so the grinding could pile up!
Great little stories.
My turning moment was also a tooth incident.
I was playing chase/big-kid-hide & seek at my neighbor’s house. I was in kindergarten. Pam was a couple of years older than me and had a school friend over. Her brother, younger than me was also part of this debacle.
For some reason, we were playing in their finished basement. At the base of the stairs, when you turned right, there was this poster on the wall—looked like a window to outside with a creepy burglar-looking guy peeping in at the room. Freaked me every time I came around the corner. The stairs were in the center of the basement, so there was a path all the way around, linking all the separate spaces together.
It was my turn. They were all hiding together, but started to run from me when I found them. I wasn’t fast enough to catch them. Little Tommy was a speed demon for his size and the other two were taller and thus lankier than me. So after giving chase around the circle one time, I had a clever idea.
Hide on the stairs.
I could hear them coming, their laughter filled the enclosed space. Just as they were about to reach me, I hopped down, standing right in the doorway. I caught a glimpse of the freaky poster before Pam’s friend blocked my view. She was massive compared to my 5-yr-old self. A whole head taller than me.
In fact, her teeth were right at my hairline. And then, we collided and her teeth were IN my hairline. She backed up, dazed, holding her mouth that she’d smacked on my skull. When she took her blood-covered hand down, we all noticed it. A gap where her permanent front tooth was a moment ago.
I felt my head. No tooth. Pam looked too. She helped her friend look on the floor for the missing tooth. Tommy brought his mom downstairs, probably gloating that he wasn’t the one causing trouble *this* time.
I was in a daze, until I stood in the bright lights of the bathroom while Pam’s mom looked closely at my head to make sure no tooth was lodged in my skull. When I saw the blood running down my face, I flipped out.
Lesson: Being clever doesn’t mean you’ll win. You might just end up with a hole in your head.
P.S.: I had the BEST show-and-tell on Monday—stitches and a sticker for being a brave patient.
P.P.S: my older brother passed out while watching my head get stitched up.
I can only imagine how epic that show and tell was!
Also: this was a really great little story-in-a-story. Thanks for sharing it here! Folks who read the comments will be rewarded.
The hot corner! My kid used to play 3rd and it stressed me out. Righties hit hard to third and the bounces come up quick and then you have to make a looooong throw to first.
Me, I played second and my core memory is turning a double play after fielding a high hopper, touching 2nd and then throwing out and around the runner barreling down on me to get the out at first. Man the reaction - I figured I was gunna be a superstar after that.
My "king of 3rd base" memory is diving to catch a fly ball that was foul. I had to hustle and I slid, catching that sucker! Best play ever, at least until I was placed at shortstop the next year. I have no memory of what I did at shortstop. Maybe I was awful.
See, you gotta go out on top.
I'm gonna make up a story that I got the nickname "King of the Double Play" because I was so good.
I am really enjoying adding drama to some of my otherwise perhaps only interesting to me stories
Psh. There's plenty of drama in there! You just have to tell people what you were actually thinking.
No. You were not being overdramatic. Adults were just colder then cuz their version of adults were even colder. Fuck, they came over alone on ship smoking cigars at age 7 only to find work selling rotten apples in Brooklyn. These kids can handle an injury like that. I mean, it’s not like he got impaled by a flying bat or anything.
But for me, baseball was always intimidating. Invariably, the kids would all yell “easy out!” and move closer in towards me. Usually I did get out at first base after hitting a bouncy infield shot. But every now and then, I’d get a lucky bad bounce. I wasn’t great as a hitter but I was a pretty fast runner and had smarts to read the action. I racked up quite a few in field home runs cuz most of the kids either couldn’t catch or couldn’t throw.
I was definitely one of the weaker players but I got REALLY lucky and caught well enough to remain as a starter.
The same was mostly true of my BJJ career as well, especially at brown and black belt. Not terrible, but not impressive either… except for that big surprise every now and then.
Did you do any other sports between baseball and BJJ? I think you got really into running for a while too - any team sports or anything like that?
And, do you know how old you were in little league?
I did cross country, track, and swimming. I was 9-12 for little league.
I'm not sure yet, but I think I was 8, 9, and 10 for little league. It's not impossible that I played 4 years, but I think not since my family moved the previous year to an entirely new neighborhood... I'm guessing settle in for a year, then baseball.
I played a bunch of sports in the 'hood, but no organized sports 'til high school wrestling.
The whole 21st century has been one long "unexpected change". People died, stores closed, and the need to be more aware of politics was forced on me. And learning that just because you hold a public office does not mean that you are ethically qualified to hold it..
You reacted normally, I think. It could have been worse, though, so he got lucky with just the chipped tooth.
Yes! I didn't realize it at the time, but this was actually pretty lucky in the grand scheme. And yeah, the 21st century has been a doozy.