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Did you ever play baseball & football when you were young?

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I played baseball, but I wasn't very good. May have been eye problems, but I probably just sucked. I also tend to prefer solo athletics. I want the whole success or failure to be mine. I enjoyed karate, and in pe in school, I liked fencing and archery. Later on I got into whitewater paddling. I probably just don't play well with others :^P
 
Both, also basketball, ice hockey, frisbee, swimming/snorkeling, rock climbing, skiing and more.

I miss being a kid! 🙂


My younger daughter is very athletic played organized soccer, basketball, was the star pitcher for her HS softball team and does club sports in college now so it can still happen.
 
That's quite hilarious actually. I guess when using the real thing vs a training situation you will learn very fast. 😛

I was never really much into sports but we played most of them at some point in gym class. Lots of hockey, baseball and Chinese baseball were quite popular. In high school we did play a bit of football. But football used to annoy me, you spend more time facing off than actually playing. Half the time it would also turn into a huge argument about a call, wasting even more time. Spent more time standing around than anything. One gym class I decided to just go climb a tree instead of going on the field. I was always the last guy to be picked for a team anyway so nobody even noticed lol.
 
lxskllr said:
I played baseball, but I wasn't very good. May have been eye problems, but I probably just sucked. I also tend to prefer solo athletics. I want the whole success or failure to be mine. I enjoyed karate, and in pe in school, I liked fencing and archery. Later on I got into whitewater paddling. I probably just don't play well with others :^P
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Maybe you're a control freak! I'm the same way; I don't want anyone fucking anything up except me, because it's easier to fix it that way.
 
Red Squirrel said:
That's quite hilarious actually. I guess when using the real thing vs a training situation you will learn very fast. 😛

I was never really much into sports but we played most of them at some point in gym class. Lots of hockey, baseball and Chinese baseball were quite popular. In high school we did play a bit of football. But football used to annoy me, you spend more time facing off than actually playing. Half the time it would also turn into a huge argument about a call, wasting even more time. Spent more time standing around than anything. One gym class I decided to just go climb a tree instead of going on the field. I was always the last guy to be picked for a team anyway so nobody even noticed lol.
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Dodge ball was always fun. But now our wittle sensitive schools won't allow you to play that anymore. That and Red Rover Red Rover. Hell, even notice how playground equipment has changed? Ever see a slide anymore?
 
Could the young instinct of wanting to climb a tree be part of our evolutionary traits? LOL

My own mom would climb trees apparently. I've never known too many girls that climbed trees, but my mom did. LOL
 
I did, but only for part of my HS freshman year. I was the best first baseman on the team at the time...The coach was pissed because he couldn't get me to turn out for football, so he fucked with me constantly. I finally told him to go fuck himself...in front of the entire team...

As for the subject in the OP...just more of the pussification of America.
 
vi edit said:
Or they just participated in different sports. Soccer is huge now. It was not even a blip 30 years ago when I was a kid. I started out playing football in high school but moved over to cross country my Jr year. It was a co-ed sport, the only one where the boys and girls teams rode the same bus, and it was generally just a much more positive, encouraging and enjoyable sport. It's what I will point my kids to as well. It's a wonderful discipline sport and continuously rewards you with goals/gains as you work harder. Some of the toughest and most disciplined athletes you will find are distance runners. Just don't ask them to toss a grenade. Hand eye coordination isn't their forte. 😛
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IDK where you lived but 30 years ago I was 6 and my sister was 9 and soccer was fucking everywhere. every kid played it in our area. our HS didn't even have a football team
 
i played baseball all the way from t-ball to high school. i loved it but couldn't keep up with pitchers once they started throwing above 80 MPH.
 
Skunk-Works said:
Could the young instinct of wanting to climb a tree be part of our evolutionary traits? LOL

My own mom would climb trees apparently. I've never known too many girls that climbed trees, but my mom did. LOL
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All my sisters did. I was the real monkey though, climbing until the branches couldn't support my weight. Freaked out the neighbors. Two sisters went on to rock climbing. I never got into that though, too much equipment.
 
Anubis said:
IDK where you lived but 30 years ago I was 6 and my sister was 9 and soccer was fucking everywhere. every kid played it in our area. our HS didn't even have a football team
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Rural midwest. Soccer was a rich kid sport at private schools.
 
I never played organized youth sports growing up. It was all amongst friends and I had a pretty good arm from 3rd base just from friendly kid games. Same with football.

All the organization these days (and I'm guilty of it too with my kids and hockey - but somewhat necessary) is taking away from kids just wanting to do things on their own. I won't say that it's all video games because many of their teammates couldn't care less about that during their down time either. With all the scheduled events already going on, they have no urge to just go outside and toss the baseball or football around like I used to beg my brother to do with me. All the time.

Also these days football as a youth sport is dying because of all the concussion awareness. They're begging for players. Helmets and mouthguards can't stop a brain from impacting the cranium any better. Have you ever seen Friday Night Tykes and how they hit even in practice? It's brutal and I'm not willing to risk my kids' health like that on every single play. Those folks in Texas are nuts, but that's Texas and they love their football. Baseball... simply too boring for my kids to keep going. And thankfully I don't have to sit and watch them either. There are plenty of other youth sports not involving a throwing arm like lacrosse, swimming & soccer that take plenty of time away from kids too. The less athletically-inclined - they have no hope as far as that goes, which is unfortunate because it's better to be well-rounded or at least attempt to be.

At any rate, I toss the ball around with my kids from time to time even in the living room (open layout). I want to be sure they don't throw like sissies because when they get to high school, kids can be cruel.
 
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Every Saturday there was a pick up baseball game. Every kid owned a mitt. It was a mixed bag of older and younger kids, good times. No one ever played soccer. Soccer balls were used to play kick baseball at recess.
 
Baseball (play and organized), basketball(play and organized), soccer(play and organized), lacrosse(play and organized), golf, football(play and organized), you name it (for north american major sports) and I played it at some point.

Played a lot of home run derby in the backyard. We had a huge yard with giant trees blocking the fence. Being from Boston, they were the other Green Monster for us. God that was good times...

Had a pool too. Had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of there during the summer.
 
I played baseball and football for a season each. Baseball is exactly as boring to play as it is to watch. Football I could never figure out, way too many rules. I played nose guard as that was the position where the coach figured I would be the least liability. I wasn't very aggressive and I got in on one tackle all season. Mostly the center would hike the ball and all these guys would plow into me. Every time I was like WTF?, you guys take this way too seriously. 😀 I would have been perfect for the Bloom County football team.
 
I played in the neighborhood but never in a league. My parents really didn't spend much money on ANYTHING other than basic necessities. I was a swimmer for several seasons because it didn't cost much extra for two kids in a family versus one, and my sister was an outstanding swimmer barely missing the Olympic team.

I was decent at football, pretty shifty with a good arm and good hands but way too damn skinny for real contact. Baseball was tough because one of the kids in our neighborhood threw 80mph at about age 12 and went on to be a pitcher in the MLB so none of us could hit him.

My oldest two kids played baseball from age 5 or so through high school. My middle son would have been the starting CF for his HS team this year but discovered tennis last summer and is incredibly passionate about it, so he made a tough decision to play tennis this spring instead. My eldest son made the USA Baseball tryouts and has represented the US in Australia...probably would have been D1 level but his grades in HS were abysmal. All three played football for a couple of years but it's such a brutal sport, both the practices and the actual contact.
 
Skunk-Works said:
Dodge ball was always fun. But now our wittle sensitive schools won't allow you to play that anymore. That and Red Rover Red Rover. Hell, even notice how playground equipment has changed? Ever see a slide anymore?
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lmao is that seriously banned now? Wow.

That was actually the only sport I was good at. I could not catch the ball worth a damn, or throw it, but I was always the last one out because I could dodge like nobody's business. 😀
 
I played softball from 1st to 4th grade, then played baseball in 5th grade and didn't like it. I always played basketball through highschool though.

Looking back I wish I had played football in highschool but I was too much of a pussy and I was tiny back then.
 
purbeast0 said:
Looking back I wish I had played football in highschool but I was too much of a pussy and I was tiny back then.
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Why? The potential for lasting damage later in life is too high.

I only played baseball a handful of times in my life. I pretty much played all other sports though. To me baseball is boring to watch, and only moderately more fun to play.
 
Red Storm said:
Why? The potential for lasting damage later in life is too high.

I only played baseball a handful of times in my life. I pretty much played all other sports though. To me baseball is boring to watch, and only moderately more fun to play.
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The potential to not have lasting damage in life after football is also extremely high, way higher than having permanent damage. For every 1 person you see with permanent damage (and they are typically NFL players which are a HUGE minority of football players) there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people who don't have permanent damage.

Football just seems really fun to play (organized at that level) and I have played in rec leagues in my late 20's and early 30's although it's been touch. I also think it would have molded me differently at that age as I was pretty shy and introverted in highschool. It also teaches a lot of comradre and team work, as well as lessons you would keep with you your entire life.

Football is by a fucking long shot my favorite sport to watch, play, and analyze
 
purbeast0 said:
The potential to not have lasting damage in life after football is also extremely high, way higher than having permanent damage. For every 1 person you see with permanent damage (and they are typically NFL players which are a HUGE minority of football players) there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people who don't have permanent damage.
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Watch Friday Night Tykes. Plenty of injuries, concussions, etc, for _9_ year olds. Tell me if you'd let your kid play youth football after watching it. It's as brutal as it appears. My opinion, why risk that sort of contact on nearly every play when the whole point is fun & entertainment? Plenty of other sports for that.
 
rh71 said:
Watch Friday Night Tykes. Plenty of injuries, concussions, etc, for _9_ year olds. Tell me if you'd let your kid play youth football after watching it. It's as brutal as it appears. My opinion, why risk that sort of contact on nearly every play when the whole point is fun & entertainment? Plenty of other sports for that.
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I'm not sure what playing football in highschool has to do with 9 year olds but okay...
 
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