Sports Teams, a Weird Little Society

[Jake]

http://deadspin.com/football-players-hate-...dium=socialflow

 

Pretty interesting piece and one that definitely resonates. I played a lot of sports and playing baseball meant I had yet another new club team virtually each summer. College ball, of course, looked a whole lot like this article. I can definitely see the different people and kinds of people he is describing in this article. In college, I spent a little time as a "Loaf" but I had the good fortune or good sense to be the mysterious guy who does all the team things but socializes with mostly different folks. I imagine everyone has felt that pull to embraced by the team, though, as well as seen different guys become the punching bag. I have a few really fond memories of teams that were extremely cohesive, but it seems that the majority of the time it isn't much different from what he describes. And it isn't really anyone's fault. Maybe it isn't even an inherently bad thing. It is definitely strange, though.

[witesoxfan]

During my last baseball playing experience, I was the Loaf. It was the summer after freshman year and my family was in the process of packing up to move out of town. I played 2B and was basically a backup. Between innings of games you didn't play, you had to run poles from the dugout to the foul pole. We had practices every day, but my coach basically just hit us grounders, let us hit quick, and we were done within an hour. I missed a doubleheader that he supposedly told me I was supposed to go to but I had no idea (because rather than having a list, he lined us up and, from a distance, pointed and said "You're going/not going, eh, no you're not going/going, eh, nevermind you are going/not going") and he made me run 28 poles, 1 for each half inning I missed. I ran 20 of them and called it good. I'd play once every 3 games or so and just generally could not get in a groove. Finally, I have a game I get in and I've played fairly well up to this point (meaning I haven't screwed up). There's a grounder to short, I cover 2B and go to fire to 1B to turn it, and this dude is still standing up coming into the base. My coach yells "Throw it anyways!" so he's mad at me for not throwing it. Runners on the corners now, 1 down, and he calls a bunt play...which we've practiced like 3 times 2 months prior...and I mess it up simply because I have no idea what's going on. I cover 2B when I was supposed to cover 1B. Everyone's safe. They score like 4 more runs. He comes up to me between innings and says "You're out. Go hit, and then you're out." I went up to the plate and singled to left, stole second on the second pitch, advanced to third on a ground ball, and scored on a wild pitch. I think it's pretty heady baseball and grab my stuff to take the field. He comes up to me and says "no, you're still out. Go run your pole."

 

I'd had it by that point, didn't run my pole, and basically said "f*** it." Took my jersey and belt off. He approached me the next inning and said "Why aren't you running your poles?" I just looked him in the eyes, tears running out of mine, and said "I can't take this bulls***. I quit."

[chw42]

During my last baseball playing experience, I was the Loaf. It was the summer after freshman year and my family was in the process of packing up to move out of town. I played 2B and was basically a backup. Between innings of games you didn't play, you had to run poles from the dugout to the foul pole. We had practices every day, but my coach basically just hit us grounders, let us hit quick, and we were done within an hour. I missed a doubleheader that he supposedly told me I was supposed to go to but I had no idea (because rather than having a list, he lined us up and, from a distance, pointed and said "You're going/not going, eh, no you're not going/going, eh, nevermind you are going/not going") and he made me run 28 poles, 1 for each half inning I missed. I ran 20 of them and called it good. I'd play once every 3 games or so and just generally could not get in a groove. Finally, I have a game I get in and I've played fairly well up to this point (meaning I haven't screwed up). There's a grounder to short, I cover 2B and go to fire to 1B to turn it, and this dude is still standing up coming into the base. My coach yells "Throw it anyways!" so he's mad at me for not throwing it. Runners on the corners now, 1 down, and he calls a bunt play...which we've practiced like 3 times 2 months prior...and I mess it up simply because I have no idea what's going on. I cover 2B when I was supposed to cover 1B. Everyone's safe. They score like 4 more runs. He comes up to me between innings and says "You're out. Go hit, and then you're out." I went up to the plate and singled to left, stole second on the second pitch, advanced to third on a ground ball, and scored on a wild pitch. I think it's pretty heady baseball and grab my stuff to take the field. He comes up to me and says "no, you're still out. Go run your pole."

 

I'd had it by that point, didn't run my pole, and basically said "f*** it." Took my jersey and belt off. He approached me the next inning and said "Why aren't you running your poles?" I just looked him in the eyes, tears running out of mine, and said "I can't take this bulls***. I quit."

 

That hit me right in the feels wite. Right in the feels.

 

Was this high school or college?

[witesoxfan]

That hit me right in the feels wite. Right in the feels.

 

Was this high school or college?

 

High school. I was basically just his whipping boy and the goat for all things wrong. I was having fun that summer too even as Loaf, but when he took me out and kept me out even though I had begun to atone for my mistakes with the hit and run scored, I just lost it. And frankly, our lack of preparation in the field extended beyond me as others made mistakes too and was an indictment on his coaching, yet he decided to embarrass me in front of all of my teammates right out in the middle of the field (because when he told me I was out, he had come out and huddled all 9 of us at the pitcher's mound).

 

It sucked, because baseball always has been my one true passion, but it felt so empowering to quit on that asshole like that.

[Jake]

During my last baseball playing experience, I was the Loaf. It was the summer after freshman year and my family was in the process of packing up to move out of town. I played 2B and was basically a backup. Between innings of games you didn't play, you had to run poles from the dugout to the foul pole. We had practices every day, but my coach basically just hit us grounders, let us hit quick, and we were done within an hour. I missed a doubleheader that he supposedly told me I was supposed to go to but I had no idea (because rather than having a list, he lined us up and, from a distance, pointed and said "You're going/not going, eh, no you're not going/going, eh, nevermind you are going/not going") and he made me run 28 poles, 1 for each half inning I missed. I ran 20 of them and called it good. I'd play once every 3 games or so and just generally could not get in a groove. Finally, I have a game I get in and I've played fairly well up to this point (meaning I haven't screwed up). There's a grounder to short, I cover 2B and go to fire to 1B to turn it, and this dude is still standing up coming into the base. My coach yells "Throw it anyways!" so he's mad at me for not throwing it. Runners on the corners now, 1 down, and he calls a bunt play...which we've practiced like 3 times 2 months prior...and I mess it up simply because I have no idea what's going on. I cover 2B when I was supposed to cover 1B. Everyone's safe. They score like 4 more runs. He comes up to me between innings and says "You're out. Go hit, and then you're out." I went up to the plate and singled to left, stole second on the second pitch, advanced to third on a ground ball, and scored on a wild pitch. I think it's pretty heady baseball and grab my stuff to take the field. He comes up to me and says "no, you're still out. Go run your pole."

 

I'd had it by that point, didn't run my pole, and basically said "f*** it." Took my jersey and belt off. He approached me the next inning and said "Why aren't you running your poles?" I just looked him in the eyes, tears running out of mine, and said "I can't take this bulls***. I quit."

 

I was playing club ball on a team that had an absolute stud at shortstop. He was about 6'3" and was clocked at 96 throwing across the infield at a showcase. I never believed the arm of an infielder could really play a big role in a game, but his was constantly getting us extra outs because nobody expected him t make the throws he did.

 

Anyway, we had that situation. It's actually a fairly close play, but the kid stays high trying to break it up. He takes a 96 mph heater right in the chops. It was so point blank that a couple people in the bleachers thought that he didn't even release the ball and had just punched him. Nope. We couldn't even figure out where his mouth ended and his nose began. After we got him off the field, we had to rake the area near second base because of all the blood. I know you're supposed to throw it, but I know my buddy at shortstop didn't feel much better about it just because he was supposed to.

 

[IlliniKrush]

During my last baseball playing experience, I was the Loaf. It was the summer after freshman year and my family was in the process of packing up to move out of town. I played 2B and was basically a backup. Between innings of games you didn't play, you had to run poles from the dugout to the foul pole. We had practices every day, but my coach basically just hit us grounders, let us hit quick, and we were done within an hour. I missed a doubleheader that he supposedly told me I was supposed to go to but I had no idea (because rather than having a list, he lined us up and, from a distance, pointed and said "You're going/not going, eh, no you're not going/going, eh, nevermind you are going/not going") and he made me run 28 poles, 1 for each half inning I missed. I ran 20 of them and called it good. I'd play once every 3 games or so and just generally could not get in a groove. Finally, I have a game I get in and I've played fairly well up to this point (meaning I haven't screwed up). There's a grounder to short, I cover 2B and go to fire to 1B to turn it, and this dude is still standing up coming into the base. My coach yells "Throw it anyways!" so he's mad at me for not throwing it. Runners on the corners now, 1 down, and he calls a bunt play...which we've practiced like 3 times 2 months prior...and I mess it up simply because I have no idea what's going on. I cover 2B when I was supposed to cover 1B. Everyone's safe. They score like 4 more runs. He comes up to me between innings and says "You're out. Go hit, and then you're out." I went up to the plate and singled to left, stole second on the second pitch, advanced to third on a ground ball, and scored on a wild pitch. I think it's pretty heady baseball and grab my stuff to take the field. He comes up to me and says "no, you're still out. Go run your pole."

 

I'd had it by that point, didn't run my pole, and basically said "f*** it." Took my jersey and belt off. He approached me the next inning and said "Why aren't you running your poles?" I just looked him in the eyes, tears running out of mine, and said "I can't take this bulls***. I quit."

Thanks for sharing. I actually quit after my junior year of high school summer ball. Could not stand the coach, he took all the fun out of baseball, and besides that, I and others felt he didn't know the game very well, he was full of odd strategy. One of the last things I remember about summer ball that year was I was in RF, bases loaded and no outs, there was a pop fly to shallow right, I came in and dove for it and missed it by just a little bit. It got by me by a little bit since I was on the ground post-dive, and instead of it being bases loaded again, the extra run scored and it was 2nd and 3rd instead. He was adamant that I should have just pulled up and kept it in front of me. Well, hindsight's 20/20 after the catch isn't made. I was within a foot of making the catch, you never tell a guy to pull up on that if he's that close to making the play, especially on a pop fly, it's not like it was going to the wall. I would have loved to see his reaction had I pulled up, it probably would have been "why the f*** didn't you dive and catch that, it looked like you could have had it." Couldn't win either way. That kind of pushed it over the edge amongst all the other things that year, and there was plenty.

 

I was a backup OF my JR year and even though there was a very good chance I was going to start as a SR, my heart just wasn't in it anymore after that summer. He made me hate baseball. Tryouts were in the winter, and I didn't tell anyone I wasn't trying out, I just didn't show up. A couple of my good friends had a feeling that might happen, but they didn't know until I never showed up that morning. Sometimes I look back and think I should have sucked it up and played, but in the moment, I hated baseball, hated the coach, it wasn't fun anymore. I don't know that playing would have been worth it.

 

Oddly enough, my start in umpiring was largely due to me not playing my senior year, and I happened to be needed for an emergency game. I did a 14 year old travel game with absolutely zero experience on how to umpire and the mechanics, just a good understanding of the rules. I had about a 2 hour notice. Somehow I got through without major incident.

 

[Quin]

In HS baseball the head coach always told my dad that I was the hardest worker on the team and a lot of teammates backed it up.

 

I ran through leg injuries while we had guys fake injuries and walk, skip practices, all that.

 

Guess who didn't play more than 7 innings all year?

 

The OF coach didn't take me so I was left at 2B, where I'm terrible. The OF coach just had 0 respect for me as a player. He often yelled at me and a few other bench players for mistakes made in the field while we were in the dugout.

 

So we had a hitting contest where we split up into two teams and went in the batting cage. Losing team had to do 20 pushups, coaches picked teams.

 

Each team had six hits, I had two of my team's hits. As a tie breaker, the coaches pick the hitter from the other team for a 3 pitch hit-off. My coach (the head coach) picked the team's starting 1B who was one of the injury faking, practice skipping, self-entitled jackasses. I get picked by the OF coach. The first basemen fouls off one, strikes out on the other two. I hit two fouls and have the OF coach and first basemen shouting s*** at me.

 

Next one I hit nearly broke the pitching machine. Walked out of the cage, dropped my bat, and smirked at that coach. That was the highlight of my season.

 

Finally though my back began to give out at second and our third coach sent me to OF practice one day. RF had been my natural position and I played a good LF as well because I had worked on OF skills every day my first two years of baseball. It's worth noting here that other than our CF, our outfielders were god awful. We had 3 or 4 guys taking reps at LF and RF each and only our CF. Since it was only one day of OF practice for me, I was sent to CF, which for the slowest guy on the team who hadn't had a OF rep in two years, seemed like a bad idea.

 

I shocked everyone. At 2B my arm was non-existent but in the OF I could throw a rocket to home. Our SS (who also had a low opinion of me) was taken aback when I through the ball to him in a simulated situation of getting the runner at second. He didn't expect the ball to come in so fast so it went right by his unready glove. When we finished the head coach and our bench coach each told me I would start getting to see playing time because even with so much rust I was our second best OF defender.

 

Then shagging fly balls I hyper extended my knee and my season was done.

 

But those two moments made a lot of it worth it.

[IlliniKrush]

In HS baseball the head coach always told my dad that I was the hardest worker on the team and a lot of teammates backed it up.

 

I ran through leg injuries while we had guys fake injuries and walk, skip practices, all that.

 

Guess who didn't play more than 7 innings all year?

 

The OF coach didn't take me so I was left at 2B, where I'm terrible. The OF coach just had 0 respect for me as a player. He often yelled at me and a few other bench players for mistakes made in the field while we were in the dugout.

 

So we had a hitting contest where we split up into two teams and went in the batting cage. Losing team had to do 20 pushups, coaches picked teams.

 

Each team had six hits, I had two of my team's hits. As a tie breaker, the coaches pick the hitter from the other team for a 3 pitch hit-off. My coach (the head coach) picked the team's starting 1B who was one of the injury faking, practice skipping, self-entitled jackasses. I get picked by the OF coach. The first basemen fouls off one, strikes out on the other two. I hit two fouls and have the OF coach and first basemen shouting s*** at me.

 

Next one I hit nearly broke the pitching machine. Walked out of the cage, dropped my bat, and smirked at that coach. That was the highlight of my season.

 

Finally though my back began to give out at second and our third coach sent me to OF practice one day. RF had been my natural position and I played a good LF as well because I had worked on OF skills every day my first two years of baseball. It's worth noting here that other than our CF, our outfielders were god awful. We had 3 or 4 guys taking reps at LF and RF each and only our CF. Since it was only one day of OF practice for me, I was sent to CF, which for the slowest guy on the team who hadn't had a OF rep in two years, seemed like a bad idea.

 

I shocked everyone. At 2B my arm was non-existent but in the OF I could throw a rocket to home. Our SS (who also had a low opinion of me) was taken aback when I through the ball to him in a simulated situation of getting the runner at second. He didn't expect the ball to come in so fast so it went right by his unready glove. When we finished the head coach and our bench coach each told me I would start getting to see playing time because even with so much rust I was our second best OF defender.

 

Then shagging fly balls I hyper extended my knee and my season was done.

 

But those two moments made a lot of it worth it.

My 11 and 12 year old years I played travel for our town, and was the 10th guy on that team. We had absolutely crazy coaches, our whole team was afraid of them. We had so many ejections that year it was nuts. Our team was nasty (went 55-5-1), but our coaches were something else. They were the total live-through-your-kids guys. Anyway, same thing that you had - me and my buddy would get screamed at for errors etc. It was intimidating just to be on the bench.

 

[Jake]

On another note, I think I'd hit Chris Sale better than I can hit a pitching machine. I could never time them up for some odd reason

[Quin]

My 11 and 12 year old years I played travel for our town, and was the 10th guy on that team. We had absolutely crazy coaches, our whole team was afraid of them. We had so many ejections that year it was nuts. Our team was nasty (went 55-5-1), but our coaches were something else. They were the total live-through-your-kids guys. Anyway, same thing that you had - me and my buddy would get screamed at for errors etc. It was intimidating just to be on the bench.

 

I remember once I had enough of it. A guy had just made a bone head play in RF (which again, where I would have been a huge upgrade) and he turned the bench and yelled "GOTTA STOP WITH THESE ERRORS GUYS" and yelled at us.

 

And I just looked at him and said "So when are you gonna play new outfielders or are we supposed to just will the ball into their glove?" There was a dead silence because the bench coach and other bench players all knew that he couldn't really respond in a way that didn't make him look like an ass.

[chw42]

On another note, I think I'd hit Chris Sale better than I can hit a pitching machine. I could never time them up for some odd reason

 

It's a timing thing. I sucked at hitting them too.

[IlliniKrush]

On another note, I think I'd hit Chris Sale better than I can hit a pitching machine. I could never time them up for some odd reason

As a right-handed hitter, I hated to hit lefties. It's not logical, I realize that...but it was so rare to see them, and I didn't hit as well against them.

[danman31]

As a right-handed hitter, I hated to hit lefties. It's not logical, I realize that...but it was so rare to see them, and I didn't hit as well against them.

That's most high school age kids.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I wonder if I am the only person here who never played baseball a day in his life. Funny how that works. I played every major organized sport out there, but never played baseball. And now, it's EASILY my favorite sport, my obsession, really.

[LittleHurt05]

I wonder if I am the only person here who never played baseball a day in his life. Funny how that works. I played every major organized sport out there, but never played baseball. And now, it's EASILY my favorite sport, my obsession, really.

 

I played T-ball as a little one and my junior high had a 16 inch softball team I played for, but never baseball.

[cabiness42]

My Dad was an All-State lefty pitcher in high school. Went to a small D3 college nearby (one ss2k is very familiar with). Had ML scouts watching him pitch when he blew his arm out. He was finished.

 

Figuring that I might have inherited some of his talent (I'm also a lefty), I started throwing when I was 6. Where I lived ages 7-8 were t-ball thus no pitchers but I still kept working with my Dad. Then, my Dad got a new job and we moved to a new town. In the new town, all the little league teams had established pitchers (established pitchers = kids of the coaches). I played for two years and never got a chance to pitch in a game. At age 10 I quit baseball forever.

[Jake]

I write left-handed as well as do some other stuff with my left.

 

When I was little, I would pick up baseballs and throw them with both left and right arms.

 

My dad, after 3 other sons, decided I should throw with my right hand since we already had gloves for right-handed throwers. I'll never forgive him!

[cabiness42]

I write left-handed as well as do some other stuff with my left.

 

When I was little, I would pick up baseballs and throw them with both left and right arms.

 

My dad, after 3 other sons, decided I should throw with my right hand since we already had gloves for right-handed throwers. I'll never forgive him!

 

I was taught to golf right handed because you couldn't find a set of used left-handed junior golf clubs anywhere. Of course this was before Ebay/Craigslist, so it would probably be easier today.

[Texsox]

I ran so many laps playing baseball I became a distance runner. It's just not right for a catcher to be running.

 

My "I quit!" moment came after playing travelling ball four seasons for a well respected, knowledgable coach. I was done playing but I got a phone call from a coach looking to fill one last team in the house league. The guy was clueless. The cool thing is I was a career .275 hitter on travelling teams, I was batting .500 in the house league. Could throw out almost everyone. I was finally feeling like a stud.

 

After half a season of the coach not knowing squat the final straw came. About 15 games into a 20 game season I'm up with runners on the corners and one out. I would screw around in practice and bet lefty sometimes, but never in a game. The coach calls time and tells me to bat lefty. WTF??!! Ok, so I do. On the second pitch he sends the guy down from third to steal home. He's out by 30 feet. The coach then tells me to bat righty. I get in the box, back out. Walk down to third and tell the coach, ok yell at the coach "THAT WAS STUPID!". First off I'm hitting insane in that league, second you want a righty to hide the runner, you have to tell the batter, I was the best bunter on the team, a suicide would have accomplished the same goal. A few minutes later I am standing on third and the coach says some b.s. to me and I started arguing with him again. The ump came down and started to throw one of us out, but looked so confused he just said stop it. LOL I didn't finish the season. My parents had planned a vacation that I was going to skip, but I said screw it, I'll go.

[Jake]

I used to be a very good catcher. I still wonder what would have happened if I had stuck with it. I was also my town's best pitcher (take note of big fish, small pond). When I was younger, middle school and early high school, I got freaking abused. I would catch one end and pitch the other end of all doubleheaders. If I pitched on Thursday, I'd catch both ends of Saturday's doubleheaders. Screw that.

 

I tore my groin playing basketball and I hung it up, as far as catching goes. I still struggle getting into a decent looking squat position.

 

But yes, catchers should be exempt from running. My asshole middle school coach used to make me run with my gear on.

[Texsox]

The squat was the first clue I had that the coach and I were going to have a problem. I was taught when there are runners on base to get up off the back of your heels to be able to get into a throwing position quicker. You also call a lot of fastballs if the other team likes to run. As soon as he saw me "up" he told me it was cheating and I had to stop. I went to my travelling coach and asked, he of course told me it wasn't cheating. So I had my first argument with the new coach.

 

I think he coached a team so that his son could play.

[RockRaines]

Thank God Miami axed mens soccer before I arrived on campus my freshman year. I never would have lasted much longer playing organized sports like that. Year round in at least two sports since the age of 8. Burnt out was an understatement.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I played T-ball as a little one and my junior high had a 16 inch softball team I played for, but never baseball.

 

I never even played T-ball growing up. Ha. My older brothers both played t-ball and little league, but somehow my parents never signed me up for it. I played soccer, hockey, football, bowling, softball, and even a regional basketball tournament in elementary school, although I never liked basketball or played on a real team. But never once played on a field with a baseball. It's weird that I love it so much.

[Iwritecode]

I was one of the guys that played sports and then hung out with a completely different crowd when we weren't practicing or playing. I was pretty much the only guy that would hang out in the computer lab during the day and then go play baseball after school.

 

I got along with my teammates well enough but we never really became more than acquaintances. Just enough to maybe say 'hi' while passing them in the hallways. They tried to come up with a nickname for me but none of them were clever enough to stick.

 

[iamshack]

Thanks for sharing. I actually quit after my junior year of high school summer ball. Could not stand the coach, he took all the fun out of baseball, and besides that, I and others felt he didn't know the game very well, he was full of odd strategy. One of the last things I remember about summer ball that year was I was in RF, bases loaded and no outs, there was a pop fly to shallow right, I came in and dove for it and missed it by just a little bit. It got by me by a little bit since I was on the ground post-dive, and instead of it being bases loaded again, the extra run scored and it was 2nd and 3rd instead. He was adamant that I should have just pulled up and kept it in front of me. Well, hindsight's 20/20 after the catch isn't made. I was within a foot of making the catch, you never tell a guy to pull up on that if he's that close to making the play, especially on a pop fly, it's not like it was going to the wall. I would have loved to see his reaction had I pulled up, it probably would have been "why the f*** didn't you dive and catch that, it looked like you could have had it." Couldn't win either way. That kind of pushed it over the edge amongst all the other things that year, and there was plenty.

 

I was a backup OF my JR year and even though there was a very good chance I was going to start as a SR, my heart just wasn't in it anymore after that summer. He made me hate baseball. Tryouts were in the winter, and I didn't tell anyone I wasn't trying out, I just didn't show up. A couple of my good friends had a feeling that might happen, but they didn't know until I never showed up that morning. Sometimes I look back and think I should have sucked it up and played, but in the moment, I hated baseball, hated the coach, it wasn't fun anymore. I don't know that playing would have been worth it.

 

Oddly enough, my start in umpiring was largely due to me not playing my senior year, and I happened to be needed for an emergency game. I did a 14 year old travel game with absolutely zero experience on how to umpire and the mechanics, just a good understanding of the rules. I had about a 2 hour notice. Somehow I got through without major incident.

I had a coach just like this when I was like 11 years old. I was friends with his son and one of the better players on the team, so I didn't get yelled at individually a lot, but man, he used to tear into us after a loss. After the game, he'd take us out just behind second base in shallow center field and rip us all a new asshole. At 11 years of age. I remember my mother fuming as she drove me home after the game, asking how could this idiot have the nerve to swear and yell at a bunch of 11 years olds like that.

 

Personally, that stuff never really bothered me until much later, when I knew better.

 

My "career" ended when I tried out for my freshman year team and didn't make the team. I was always one of the best players on the team until about the 7th grade, and then I simply lost the ability to hit anymore and seemed to psyche myself out in the field. It was like I developed a permanent case of the shanks.

 

Ended up taking up golf instead and played throughout high school. Now that I think about it, my decline in baseball seemed to coincide with my introduction to golf...probably jacked up my baseball swing.