[DrMitchJ]

Last May we played in a softball tourney for the Ripken foundation. Each team was given a "coach" that was a former Oriole or established major leaguer. Our "coach" was BJ Surhoff.....that dude is HUGE. Monstrous forearms and shoulders. Spent a little time with Billy Ripken, hilarious guy. Best part of tourney was the championship trophy....each player on our team received an autographed ball of Billy and Cal Ripken. Fricken cool!

That's just about the coolest trophy EVER!

The tournament that I played against Quick Mick was for the Dan Marino Foundation ... A signed Mickey Rivers baseball or Dan Marino Football would have been a nice gesture. Instead we got a signed thank you letter from Famed Dolphins placekicker Garo Yepremian.
You did much better, considering I have no idea where that letter is today ... Landfill, decomposing?

[mffpatrick]

That's just about the coolest trophy EVER!

The tournament that I played against Quick Mick was for the Dan Marino Foundation ... A signed Mickey Rivers baseball or Dan Marino Football would have been a nice gesture. Instead we got a signed thank you letter from Famed Dolphins placekicker Garo Yepremian.
You did much better, considering I have no idea where that letter is today ... Landfill, decomposing?

Without a doubt the best trophy I ever won. And Billy had a new best friend the entire day.....my youngest boy spent the entire first game hanging with Billy in the stands, just the two of em. Best tourney ever!

[SGC300ier]

The older I get the better I was. I pitched and played centerfield in high school. My fast ball was 115 mph, with a change up in the low 100's. I had a knuckleball that danced like a stripper at De Ja Vu. My curveball started at 18 o'clock and dropped so much it dug holes in the dirt 6 feet deep.My nickname was "The Undertaker". I was 27-0 and only pitched in 17 games. My ERA was -32.50. I struck out 637 batters in one game. I never issued a single walk. My games were so good that they tried to think of a term better than a "perfect game".

However hitting was my specialty. I hit 1.0001 one season, with 296 home runs in only 113 at bats. I only drove in 1,234 runs that season. None of my teammates could get on base. I stole 1 base, because every hit I had was a home run, but my eye was so sharp that I took a walk once. I was so fast that I was on third from first before the pitcher even looked over at me. The stat keeper didn't know how to mark it, so he only gave me 1 stolen base. I tried to bunt once, but I accidentally got it on the sweet spot and it went 397 feet, just clearing the fence. My coach was mad.

In the outfield I could throw it from 200 feet beyond the fence and one hop it into a coffee cup. One time a kid smacked a ball and thought it was a home run. I climbed on top of the fence and jumped 127 feet in the air and caught it. The kid went into a deep state of depression and lived in his parents basement for 47 years. In fact, if any person ever hit the ball into the outfield in any direction, I ran it down. My coaches decided to put the other two outfielders in the infield because they weren't needed out there with me.

I was drafted #1 overall into the Japanese league at the age of 9. I was offered a 4 million dollar signing bonus, but turned it down to focus on my studies. I knew I was destined to make the big bucks being a teacher.

After my senior year of high school I was offered a full ride scholarship to the University of Central Miami of Ohio State College. I turned it down. The Yankees drafted me in the 14th round. Apparently, I had some character issues. Something about not being able to tell the truth and making up outlandish stories.

I decided to end my career as a baseball player and continue working on my teaching degree. In fact, instead of playing college ball and getting college for free, I decided to pay for my college and just get really far in debt, just to make $35,000 a year and deal with whiny little brats all day.

I tried my hand at professional bowling, but realized I wasn't very good at that. Every now and then my story pops up on ESPN 8. It's called "The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth".

I get asked a lot if I regret my choices to not play MLB ball. I don't. Sure I would have been in the Hall of Fame before I even retired. Sure I would have won the MVP every season, and won multiple World Series. Yes, I would have made millions and scored lots of good looking girls in every town I travelled to, but then I wouldn't have been able to tell my story to all of you today.

[soey10]

I grew up playing little league from the age of 5 and played until I was 18 years old. I played my junior and senior years in high school and then was asked to play at my local junior college. After summer ball I quit because I wanted to focus on making money (pizza hut delivery boy) and my girlfriend at the time. 3 years later I transferred to a university and was told that I needed to complete one more class at my junior college before I could take any more classes at the university. I decided to try to walk on the team and made it. I ended up staying to play for 2 years all the while taking classes just to be a full time student to be able to play even though the classes were not helping me. After my 2 years I got a few scholarship offers and settled on a full ride to a small Lutheran college in Nebraska. Even though I was only eligible to play one year at the school they paid for the 2 years it took to get my degree. I was a pitcher and only topped out at 87 mph but I had a great changeup and a pretty wicked curve. Our team went 32-32 my senior year and I had 6 wins with a 3.00 E.R.A. After school I went to a couple of open tryouts but nothing transpired. Moved back to California where I played on a couple of tournament teams where the competition was pretty good, Jose Canseco was in our league. I ended up tearing my rotator cuff and had to hang em up. Overall I was very happy at my accomplishments even though my dad didn't like or know anything about baseball and I never really had a coach take me under my wing. I can't wait to teach my son all of the ins and out's of the game.

[mffpatrick]

I grew up playing little league from the age of 5 and played until I was 18 years old. I played my junior and senior years in high school and then was asked to play at my local junior college. After summer ball I quit because I wanted to focus on making money (pizza hut delivery boy) and my girlfriend at the time. 3 years later I transferred to a university and was told that I needed to complete one more class at my junior college before I could take any more classes at the university. I decided to try to walk on the team and made it. I ended up staying to play for 2 years all the while taking classes just to be a full time student to be able to play even though the classes were not helping me. After my 2 years I got a few scholarship offers and settled on a full ride to a small Lutheran college in Nebraska. Even though I was only eligible to play one year at the school they paid for the 2 years it took to get my degree. I was a pitcher and only topped out at 87 mph but I had a great changeup and a pretty wicked curve. Our team went 32-32 my senior year and I had 6 wins with a 3.00 E.R.A. After school I went to a couple of open tryouts but nothing transpired. Moved back to California where I played on a couple of tournament teams where the competition was pretty good, Jose Canseco was in our league. I ended up tearing my rotator cuff and had to hang em up. Overall I was very happy at my accomplishments even though my dad didn't like or know anything about baseball and I never really had a coach take me under my wing. I can't wait to teach my son all of the ins and out's of the game.

Did ya get to pitch to Canseco?

[soey10]

No never pitched against him, that would have made for a great story. I did play on the same team in high school as ex dodger Delwyn Young and also pitched against Jason Kubel in high school. I played against Evan Longoria in junior college and my Junior college coach for 2 years was ex-major leaguer Jeffrey Leonard (super cool guy)

[Gtbrian23]

I played all the way through high school, I was a damn good outfielder with a cannon for an arm and hit for decent power. I made varsity my sophomore year but got lazy and never really took practice seriously and the competition caught up to me quick. If I had one regret in my life it would be not working harder at baseball. At the least it could have paid for college!

On a side note, our coach played ball against Roger Clemens in high school and hit a homer off of him. Haha

[jtysver1]

Not knocking your coach but he's probably one of the thousands who hit a homer off of Clemens in high school.

[rybowski97]

i flat out sucked at baseball. i played jv as a soph and new i had no chance at starting varsity as a junior, we had alot of guys who only played baseball and were a big d-1 school so i quit and stuck with track football and basketball. if i went to a smaller school or only played baseball i probably would of started at 2nd base. its sad too cause baseball was my favorite sport growing up.

[Phillies_Joe]

Loved the game but needed to start working @ 13 so only played sandlot/pick-up ball with friends. Went to tryouts in high school for kicks & giggles and made it to the last cut, but they knew I wasn't serious at all about it. Like alot of you did the softball route and am now confortably retired (lol), just doing grounders and playing catch with my girls. Really wish now I had been a little more serious, eh, but life has still been wonderful.

Thanks Zep and keep the stories coming..oh yeah, guy 3 years ahead of me in HS played briefly in the majors for the Padres......other than that and sitting in the front row, not to close to playing MLB.