Tigers X - Number one Source to Talk Auburn Tigers Sports
Pat Dye Field => Plainsman Park => Topic started by: Kaos on February 14, 2016, 10:55:16 PM
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I played baseball until I was 20 and softball until about 40 when I "retired" due to continued nagging injuries and an erosion of skills. I never figured the last time I walked off the field would really be the last time though.
Coaching filled some of that void. Haven't done that in a long time either. Tried to help this fall but my patience with little kids isn't the best. So I backed out.
When I played ball I was never a long ball hitter. One HR in high school. To a very short right field wall.
So this weekend my daughter is helping with this charity thing for where she works. One of the things was a baseball pitching machine. Went out to help her set it up. High school field. She ramped the machine up to 70. I haven't swung a bat in anger in at least a decade. Two of my first five swings were hammered to left. And out. Banked another off the fence. Two more line drives. All of it dead center of the barrel.
So I have no idea. How do I have more power at 50 than I did at 20? Or 30?
So now I think I might want to try to find an over 40 league. See if I have one more season in me.
Anybody here ever tried to play old man ball? I probably should hit some more to see if it was a one-day insanity.
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What kind of bat were you using. Technology has come a long way since 1959!
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I only offer a reason to your question about hitting. As you get older, your young man drive may weaken but the old man strength gets stronger. That is the ability to when to use that inner man. TheRe is wisdom but at the same time exerting yourself when the time is along with just love and enjoyment of a said sport. I love coaching even more so than playing but after coaching X amount of years I fully believe I would be a much better player. I believe that has made you better in my opinion. I different aspect of the game you love.
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Not the same thing here but I had a baseball revelation of my own a few years back. From T-ball up through 12-13 years old, mini played ball and I made sure and was either head coach or an assistant coach on every team. In addition, I was taking him to personal hitting lessons at one of the baseball academies here. I paid close attention to everything so I would have something new to pass along to the players.
One day, we went to the batting cages here. After working with my boy, I decided to step in and take a few cuts. While in the cage, I hade the crazy notion to turn around and hit lefty. As much baseball as I played in my life into college, I never really tried that because I felt totally uncoordinated. But I stopped and thought of all the things the instructor had been teaching my kid. Building a swing from the ground up. Sweet Haysus, I was knocking the cover off the ball. It felt completely natural. And I did go back several times. Each time, I got better and better. I was thinking why in the world did I not try this when I was in H.S. or college?
A couple of things. I went back to the instructor and told him about it. He did an "eye test" on me he does with his students and found I was completely "right eye dominant". He said I'm surprised you could see anything from the right side of the plate. Second, I realized the total sum of hitting instruction I got growing up was a teammate's dad, who worked as a teller at the local bank, telling me to "Step into it and hit that ball". I had completely taught myself the right way to swing on the side I could see the ball from. Where was this instruction when I was 12?
So many pedo jokes teed up in this post. Fire away.
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I would suggest trying to hit live pitching before you go all in. You may find that straight ball you hit very much, but curve ball you no hit.
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Second, I realized the total sum of hitting instruction I got growing up was a teammate's dad, who worked as a teller at the local bank, telling me to "Step into it and hit that ball". I had completely taught myself the right way to swing on the side I could see the ball from. Where was this instruction when I was 12.
I could totally see this happening. I was NOT a baseball player. Why, you may ask? I could not hit shit. There was absolutely NO HITTING coaching.
Now, I would out athlete you and and make some of the most awesome catches in the outfield you had ever seen.
When little CT first started playing, I wanted to coach. I had seen parent coaches before. Most had no clue how to even jog, much less play.
So I watched guys who were really good with young players. And I hit up every clinic I could find. I was amazed at how easy coaching hitting was for beginners. If I had only gooten half of what I taught, I would have played college ball easy.
With eh advent of cheap video, they were able to break down the natural swing of all the greats and teach it in steps. So if you could hit naturally from the right side, then you could follow the steps from the left and create a technical hitting ability to go with your natural eye for the ball.
We live in a great age. If any of you younger dads want to coach, but think you can't, go to clinics. Watch videos. Learn to teach it simply from the ground up and you'll be helping out a whole generation of kids.
And get a pitching machine. Yes. Get a pitching machine....
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I would suggest trying to hit live pitching before you go all in. You may find that straight ball you hit very much, but curve ball you no hit.
Well yeah. I had trouble with that through juco ball.
Most high school players just rared back and tried to throw heat when I was in high school. I was a catcher and I'd call for curves and sliders but it was sometimes hard to tell the difference. Most teams had one good pitcher and the rest just flung it. I could hit okay in high school. Not for power ever. Contact. So when I got to juco and pitchers were actually pitching as opposed to throwing? I struggled. Fine defensively but a liability at the plate.
You're right too. Zero coaching on what to do. Most of our practices were just variations on live scrimmages and then go hit in the cage. Nobody telling me what I did wrong or right. No instruction on technique. Keep your eye on the ball and get that back elbow up. That was about it.
I did find out about ten years ago that my eyes don't "line up" Left eye saw lower than the right whatever that means. Was causing headaches and messing up my depth perception. Corrective lenses straightened that out.
I might still look for a league and see if I can make a team. But my elbow hurts like hell today. Ha.
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I had a few friends try to talk me into playing a couple of years ago in a league here in the Ham. I politely turned them down and stayed in the
beer slow pitch league.
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Most of you have probably heard about how great of an athlete that I am and was. Well, I got picked up to play mural softball my sr year for a fill in one game. Struck out whiffing.
People laughing and girls giggling.
No way I will put myself through that again.
Now, put me in a batting cage with a baseball and I actually do better. I don't get it.
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I had a few friends try to talk me into playing a couple of years ago in a league here in the Ham. I politely turned them down and stayed in the beer slow pitch league.
And your mom was so proud!
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What kind of bat were you using. Technology has come a long way since 1959!
Very true actually.
About half the players on my HS team still used wooden bats. Aluminum didn't become legal for high schools until like 75 or 76. They were expensive. Those metal bats were heavy and clunky. Hollowing out a wooden bat and filling it with super bounce balls was a better option.
Those early metal bats were nothing like the Easton I was using last weekend.
When I played softball I used better bats.. Bought myself a DeMarini or two. Still didn't show the power I had Saturday I figure now it was just an anomaly. Maybe I'll just try to find a softball team. Co-Ed or something easier.
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Very true actually.
About half the players on my HS team still used wooden bats. Aluminum didn't become legal for high schools until like 75 or 76. They were expensive. Those metal bats were heavy and clunky. Hollowing out a wooden bat and filling it with super bounce balls was a better option.
Those early metal bats were nothing like the Easton I was using last weekend.
When I played softball I used better bats.. Bought myself a DeMarini or two. Still didn't show the power I had Saturday I figure now it was just an anomaly. Maybe I'll just try to find a softball team. Co-Ed or something easier.
Try umpiring, your on the field the whole game, yea you get bitched at by clowns half your age, but watching them melt down when you get even is more than fun.
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Try umpiring, your on the field the whole game, yea you get bitched at by clowns half your age, but watching them melt down when you get even is more than fun.
Good call, blue. If you had one more eye, you would be a cyclops!
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Very true actually.
About half the players on my HS team still used wooden bats. Aluminum didn't become legal for high schools until like 75 or 76. They were expensive. Those metal bats were heavy and clunky. Hollowing out a wooden bat and filling it with super bounce balls was a better option.
Those early metal bats were nothing like the Easton I was using last weekend.
When I played softball I used better bats.. Bought myself a DeMarini or two. Still didn't show the power I had Saturday I figure now it was just an anomaly. Maybe I'll just try to find a softball team. Co-Ed or something easier.
If you were using a BBCOR, that was some nice hitting. (same coefficient as wood bat)
If it was a BESR, those things are dangerous.
I remember the first aluminum bats. They were like one size fits all. The only good thing about them was they wold not break.
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Try umpiring, your on the field the whole game, yea you get bitched at by clowns half your age, but watching them melt down when you get even is more than fun.
Did it for a year. No way in hell. Never ever again. Did softball and little league/pony league the same year.
I umped a little league tournament and wanted to go up in the stands and whip every parent's ass. After I beat all the coaches with a bat. Regular season was bad enough but this pissy little tournament was awful.
Did one of those all-weekend softball tournaments and DID end up in a pushing and shoving match over balls and strikes. It was like 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning, I'd done probably 15 games and everybody had enough of it. Dude at the plate didn't like the call, he could go fuck himself and chaos.
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Good call, blue. If you had one more eye, you would be a cyclops!
Hey ump! Is this your cell phone? It has five missed calls!
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Hey ump! Is this your cell phone? It has five missed calls!
Hey Ump, that guy was out as a deaf kid playing musical chairs.
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Hey ump! Is this your cell phone? It has five missed calls!
Hey red(USSSA) you work for AT&T? Cause you make all your calls long distance.
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Hey Ump, I thought only horses slept standing up.
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Did it for a year. No way in hell. Never ever again. Did softball and little league/pony league the same year.
I umped a little league tournament and wanted to go up in the stands and whip every parent's ass. After I beat all the coaches with a bat. Regular season was bad enough but this pissy little tournament was awful.
Did one of those all-weekend softball tournaments and DID end up in a pushing and shoving match over balls and strikes. It was like 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning, I'd done probably 15 games and everybody had enough of it. Dude at the plate didn't like the call, he could go fuck himself and chaos.
I've done it for 20 years now, from the lowest level all the to the Major's and world series down in Disney. It use to be fun and we get $19.00 a game. Now it is a 50 minute bitch session in most leagues and especially Tournaments. I have backed off to just two nights week. It pays for my golf.
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He red you ever miss a call? I say nope, the play didn't develop to my call.
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He red you ever miss a call? I say nope, the play didn't develop to my call.
you're a ginger?
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He red you ever miss a call? I say nope, the play didn't develop to my call.
I never got the fun ones. It was more (at a little league game of 10-12'yearolds):
Oh JESUS CHRIST! What the HELL were you looking at? That ball was CLEARLY HIGH. STRIKE? Are you FUCKING kidding me? Who's paying you? Have you lost your mind? OUT? OUT? Look at the GODDAM play next time you jackass." And then grandpa would tell grandma to settle down.
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Hey Ump, I thought only horses slept standing up.
Hey ump! You should have made that call on your knees because you blew it!
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I never got the fun ones. It was more (at a little league game of 10-12'yearolds):
Oh JESUS CHRIST! What the HELL were you looking at? That ball was CLEARLY HIGH. STRIKE? Are you FUCKING kidding me? Who's paying you? Have you lost your mind? OUT? OUT? Look at the GODDAM play next time you jackass." And then grandpa would tell grandma to settle down.
We have been lucky here where I live. We developed a Dizzy dean park here in the community that does not allow that type of behavior. You can give the ump a hard time. But the first sign of foul language, you are gone. And that will be from the park officials and the fans. If you disparage a player directly, you will be asked to leave.
It makes for a competitive league and a fairly respectable one. We have folks move in and start with the trash. It only takes about one game to set them straight.
I grew up in P'ville where the daddy and the sons would wait for the ump after the game. That shit sickens me.
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you're a ginger?
I like to think of myself more of a "Mary Ann".
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We have been lucky here where I live. We developed a Dizzy dean park here in the community that does not allow that type of behavior. You can give the ump a hard time. But the first sign of foul language, you are gone. And that will be from the park officials and the fans. If you disparage a player directly, you will be asked to leave.
It makes for a competitive league and a fairly respectable one. We have folks move in and start with the trash. It only takes about one game to set them straight.
I grew up in P'ville where the daddy and the sons would wait for the ump after the game. That shit sickens me.
The competition for the Softball Dollar around here is pretty bad, with parks selling beer to the players that they can have in the dugout things can get pretty bad. I quit doing Saturday nights because if I was going to deal with drunks, I was going to be one of them.
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The competition for the Softball Dollar around here is pretty bad, with parks selling beer to the players that they can have in the dugout things can get pretty bad. I quit doing Saturday nights because if I was going to deal with drunks, I was going to be one of them.
^^^REALLY?^^^
Hole cow. Just begging for trouble.
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The competition for the Softball Dollar around here is pretty bad, with parks selling beer to the players that they can have in the dugout things can get pretty bad. I quit doing Saturday nights because if I was going to deal with drunks, I was going to be one of them.
:thumsup:
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I've done it for 20 years now, from the lowest level all the to the Major's and world series down in Disney. It use to be fun and we get $19.00 a game. Now it is a 50 minute bitch session in most leagues and especially Tournaments. I have backed off to just two nights week. It pays for my golf.
I don't blame you for continuing. In your case, the hatred continues regardless of your uniform or circumstance.
You may as well become a cop.
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^^^REALLY?^^^
Hole cow. Just begging for trouble.
If your talking about the beer? As much as I hated it while I was umpiring its a cash cow for the complexes. Pitcher of beer with a bag of ice in it (last time I looked) was $12.00, got 10 to 12 players per team with 4 to 5 pitchers of beer about every 30 minutes. You get about 5 regular cups of beer out of the pitcher.
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Hey ump! You should have made that call on your knees because you blew it!
Hey Ump, what were you, a lookout.. at Pearl Harbor?
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Hey Ump, what were you, a lookout.. at Pearl Harbor?
Hey ump! You'd better get a hammer and some nails because that plate is movin' around!
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Hey ump! You'd better get a hammer and some nails because that plate is movin' around!
Hey Ump, they started putting your calls on the back of milk cartons.
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Hey Ump, they started putting your calls on the back of milk cartons.
Hey ump! You couldn't make the right call if you had a phone book!
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Hey ump! You couldn't make the right call if you had a phone book!
Hey Ump, you're making more bad calls than a telemarketer.
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I never got the fun ones. It was more (at a little league game of 10-12'yearolds):
Oh JESUS CHRIST! What the HELL were you looking at? That ball was CLEARLY HIGH. STRIKE? Are you FUCKING kidding me? Who's paying you? Have you lost your mind? OUT? OUT? Look at the GODDAM play next time you jackass." And then grandpa would tell grandma to settle down.
You know as well as I do it all depends on the park you are at. In our league the shit calls when we play Gardendale. Some of that comes from the Rocket Homers who can't stand the fact Clay has owned their ass in the MS and HS ranks.
Football I will say is much worse than baseball....in this areas at least. Baseball is the big boy for youth but the shitty comes more into play with football. I have literally watched the eyes of some hometown ref and his eyes as he saw the same outcome as I and still call a foul because he lived in Gardendale. Money in the pocket, that is all.
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Hey Ump, you're making more bad calls than a telemarketer.
Hey ump! Carmen Sandiego just called. She can't find your strike zone!
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Flip that plate over, the instructions are on the other side.
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Actual A.J. Pierzinski ejection insult.
"Hey ump, give me a new ball. One you can see."
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I can feel a TigersX day at Plainsman Park coming up.
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I can feel a TigersX day at Plainsman Park coming up.
All the uncle ricos will be ready to take state.
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I can feel a TigersX day at Plainsman Park coming up.
Oh! What an unfortunate event on dozen egg night.
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Best player to player cat call I ever heard was doing a co-ed state tournament down in Austin. Out here in Texas you only get three balls and two strikes. First two pitches to the female batter were balls, and from the dugout in a females voice " Don't swing he gotta do what men can't do: come twice to you. :gig:
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"Hey UMP! We know you're blind...we've seen your wife!"
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"Hey UMP! We know you're blind...we've seen your wife!"
Swinging low for the fence! Ouch.
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Hey ump! I've gotten better calls from my ex-wife's attorney!
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Hey Ump, the French judge says it's a strike.
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Hey Ump, the French judge says it's a strike.
Hey ump! Open your eyes! You're missing a hell of a game!
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Hey ump! Open your eyes! You're missing a hell of a game!
Hey Umpire, your gay. And..and your a looser.
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Hey ump! Open your eyes! You're missing a hell of a game!
And when I hear that one I usually say on which field cause it ain't the one I am standing on.
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And when I hear that one I usually say on which field cause it ain't the one I am standing on.
(in my best Christopher Walken impersonation) You gotta lotta nerve talking to me like that, ump. Whaddaya say I come down there and stab your seeing eye dog in the neck with a soldering iron?
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(in my best Christopher Walken impersonation) You gotta lotta nerve talking to me like that, ump. Whaddaya say I come down there and stab your seeing eye dog in the neck with a soldering iron?
Guys like that that tell me I suck as they are walking off the field, I simply say, 'Coming from a ball player of your caliber, I'll make note of it".
In one city I ump in they have a end of league tournament for the top 6 teams of that league. Well, one team that lost this guy came up and was getting his moneys worth, could not do anything about it as it was the last game and so I stood there and listened. 3 weeks later, (new season) he ends up on my field pitching. He didn't get out of the first inning before I launched him to the parking lot.
I always get even. :haha:
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Guys like that that tell me I suck as they are walking off the field, I simply say, 'Coming from a ball player of your caliber, I'll make note of it".
That's pretty ballsy around a bunch of beer swilling softball players.
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That's pretty ballsy around a bunch of beer swilling softball players.
They pretty much know not to touch an ump. One did and he was arrested and the city pressed charges. Spent time in jail and was banned from playing for 5 years. Word got around.
Besides we are bunch of beer swilling umps (In the parking lot after the games)
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They pretty much know not to touch an ump. One did and he was arrested and the city pressed charges. Spent time in jail and was banned from playing for 5 years. Word got around.
Besides we are bunch of beer swilling umps (In the parking lot after the games)
circle jerking is no way to go through life.
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circle jerking is no way to go through life.
You would know.
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circle jerking is no way to go through life.
Not a bad part of the journey, though.
Hey Ted, pass that lube over here.
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Not a bad part of the journey, though.
Hey Ted, pass that lube over here.
Its those guys that don't aim well that makes things all messy and sticky. :gig:
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Its those guys that don't aim well that makes things all messy and sticky. :gig:
Skeet is the new age pine tar.
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Its those guys that don't aim well that makes things all messy and sticky. :gig:
Skeet is the new age pine tar.
I'm Gonna watch a lot of women's softball this year.
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