Stacker Sports- Day 110- Put me in Coach \ stacker news ~Stacker

Stacker Sports- Day 110- Put me in Coach

1221 sats \ 22 comments \ @grayruby 24 Mar Stacker_Sports

Put me in coach

Trying something different today. I want to hear sporting stories from stackers glory days. Can be tales of greatness, agonizing defeat or hilarity. Highest ranked comment (by top sorting) by end of day for me (11:59pm est) gets 1000sats.

Here is my story to start us off:

I was around 11 or 12 years old playing little league baseball. Our team was in the first round of the league playoffs and the game was tied. It was getting dark and the field didn't have lights so the umpires had determined this would be the final inning- I think it was the 5th but I don't remember exactly. My team was up to bat in the home half of the inning. I walked and then stole second base. I don't recall the exact details but somehow ended up on 3rd base a couple batters later. I had a small lead off 3rd base and the pitcher whiffed on the catcher's throw back to the mound. The ball bounced off his glove and rolled about 10-15 feet away. I took off for home plate and he scrambled after the ball. Running as fast as I could, almost at the plate I saw the catcher moving towards me to receive the throw. As I started my slide the catchers mit was coming toward my face so I turned my head slightly to the left to glance where the ball was and SMACK the ball hit me in the left cheek. The slight turn of the head was enough for it to miss the ear flap of my helmet. I slid safely into home as the ball bounced off my face and rolled away and my team rushed to the plate to celebrate. They piled on top of me, my ears were ringing and I was disoriented. My dad who was our coach ran over and grabbed me and picked me up to hug me and I was balling my eyes out and he said "are you crying, what's wrong?". He looked at my face, it was red and starting to swell, you could see an indentation in my skin from the laces of the ball. He said "did you get hit with the ball, I thought it bounced off the catchers glove". Through my tears I yelled "Yes I got hit with the ball and then everyone jumped on top of me and YOU picked me up and spun me around" and walked back to the dugout to sulk.

I am laughed my ass off writing this.

Look forward to hearing your stories.

Sats for all, GR

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1373 sats \ 8 replies \ @Turdinthepunchbowl 24 Mar

I dunked, on a recently inducted NFL hall of famer (Julius Peppers) in a pick up basketball game when back home for summer in college.

That's probably the most fun story, there is also a time I had two monster jams, and a three pointer in ~15 seconds during a game. That was sweet. Unfortunately, it was probably one of only a half dozen games growing up my dad didn't record. So it only lives on in the minds of those in attendance.

142 sats \ 0 replies \ @Turdinthepunchbowl 24 Mar

I should add... Peppers was an exceptional Basketball player and UNC, and had 50+ lbs on me at the time (my fat ass probably weighs more than him now haha). So after that dunk he proceeded to work me in the post the rest of the game, very effectively.

171 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 24 Mar

21 sats \ 4 replies \ @grayruby OP 24 Mar

Damn that's definitely a highlight.

71 sats \ 3 replies \ @Turdinthepunchbowl 24 Mar

Honestly, at the time I didn't even know it was Julius Peppers. I knew he played for the Bears at the time, as there were a few other players in that pick up game (Matt Forte, Devin Hester, Johnny Knox before he got folded, and more). Plus I'm a Packer fan so I didn't really want to discuss it with them haha. Wasn't til after the game when I went to lift, that my friend told me who it was.

Years later in NYC that story nearly got me in a fight with a fellow drunk Packer fan as he was defending our players honor, as Peppers had joined GB for a few seasons haha.

30 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

That's a wicked story man. Musta been a great feeling. 💪💪

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @Turdinthepunchbowl 24 Mar

Yeah, it's fun to tell, but that's the strange thing about time. It only feels like stories and a different lifetime ago. It's tough not to look back with the Bruce Springsteen Glory Days song in your head. My life is great, but sometimes I miss being in peak physical shape like in my early twenties!

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

Amen to that. I abused my body in my 20s with booze and smokes.

Now, I hardly drink, I no longer smoke. And I spend more time in the gym and focusing on health than I ever did in my 20s

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby OP 25 Mar

Winner winner. Take that Julius Peppers.

113 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

Once upon a time. Before I hung up my cleats and retired from the game. I used to play competitive paintball.

There's this one game that really stuck out in my mind.

We were 2-0 down, a 3rd lost point would end it.

We were having our asses handed to us by this team who were top end of the division we'd only newly been promoted to. They were worlds ahead of us.

Buzzer goes and we drop both our snake and Dorito guys straight off the break. Our 2s tried to fill from the corners but got blasted tryna regain control of the game. We were at this point "O4, Gzero" meaning out 4 gone zero. (An opposing kill is a G. A lost team mate is an O (oh))

I am doing all I can getting pretty intimate with the Dorito corner I'd filled out to.

I snap out, and gogg (get the guy in the goggles, aka shoot him in the face) the guy who was coming down the wire at me. O4, G1. His mate cross field in the snake starts laneing (shooting a lane of paint) down the inside of my bunker, so me and that bunker get even more intimate so as not to expose any part of me as a target.

There's a guy at the center 50 laneing the other side of my bunker, so I "pop the top" (shoot over the top of the bunker) and manage to get the center 50yard guy, wrap round the side he was surpressing me on to get the cross field shot on the snake 50 and his back up who were stood tall and proud knowing they had the number advantage. 04, G4. It's one on one now. Just me and some guy I had no idea where he was. All I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears and the "pst pst pst" of my spire telling me I was down to a handful of paintballs at best in the loader.

Then he comes storming down the open side, paint lighting up the side of my bunker to keep me pressed in and unable to do much.

I made one quick snap and got that one lucky shot square into his chest and managed to snap back in before he could adjust his lane. 04, G5.

I went and hit the buzzer to score the point.

2-1

I came off that field having no idea what really happened until my coach grabbed me and just said "you clutch M****** *****r" then I got bundled by the team. We'd forgotten we still had a game to play by this point.

They walked through us on the next point to win 3-1. But that whole tournament we were the only team to knick a point out of them. They 3-0'd every other team and went on to win the tournament. But we took a point. I'll never win a 5v1 again... But there's few players who can say they ever did.

I'd started to question my spot on the roster up to that point, we had some younger more athletic guys who were gunning for my spot, but our coach always kept me in quoting "veteran leadership". I'd started to feel like the only reason I still held that spot was because they'd voted me captain. Turns out, the old timer still had something left in the tank. Even if the outcome from a tournament perspective didn't change. Still managed to achieve that feat.

I retired from the game at the end of that tournament.

Rode off into the sunset, cape flapping in the wind behind me. That feeling of coming off the field knackered after giving it all for that one point is one euphoria I'm not going to forget.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby OP 24 Mar

One last ride eh.

Nice to leave on a high note.

50 sats \ 0 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

Indeed. That was a helluva team, and we have some fantastic memories together touring Europe playing paintball competitions. Hell we even won some. But for sure those experiences will keep me smiling for a long time.

113 sats \ 6 replies \ @Undisciplined 24 Mar

Shouldn't you have been ruled out for interfering with the ball? I guess the umpire probably couldn't see well either.

During little league fielding practice the coach who was hitting balls out for us to catch managed to hit two straight towards me in a row. The first was a pop fly, which I lost track of because the second was a hard grounder, that was bouncing all over the place. While I was concentrating on fielding the grounder the pop fly came down right on top of my head.

My story for the bounty is also from little league baseball. My dad was our coach (he wasn't the coach in the previous story) and he was trying to incentivize someone to make a big hit. He said something like "Anyone who can hit it over the fence gets a burger on me." My best friend, who was also the most talented player on our team, was up next and sure enough he hit the ball over the fence...to the right of the field directly into my dad's truck window. It was the little triangular window on the driver's side that old trucks used to have that sort of swings open. Apparently, those little windows are way more expensive to replace than the much larger window right next to them. After the game, my friend insisted on getting his burger.

51 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

Haha 😂😂 a deals a deal. Broken smoking window or not, kid earned his burger as per the terms of the deal. Gotta pay up or that kid (and everyone else watching) will never believe you ever again.

41 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 24 Mar

I wish I had remembered what that little window was called. Yep, line drive straight to the smoking window.

41 sats \ 0 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

It came to me as I was reading your post. They opened almost backwards and it was so you could have your smoke on out the window without having to put down the whole window.

42 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby OP 24 Mar

No the runner is in play. Any ball thrown that hits the runner is a live ball. A batted ball that hits the runner is interference and the runner is out.

Haha that's a great story. We never had a broken window during a practice or a game but definitely had a couple balls bounce off the hood of a car.

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 24 Mar

I'll add that the burger incentive was an especially big backfire, because he was specifically targeting my friend with it. Years earlier (it might have even been tee-ball), he offered a burger to anyone who could hit a home run and my friend drilled one out of the park with his first swing.

Wording matters.

41 sats \ 0 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 24 Mar

Theres plenty you could get me to do for the promise of a free meal.

I once hired a van and worked all day helping a friend of mine move house... For a couple beers and a pizza... The van hire was £100 with a £1000 security deposit (I got that back because obviously I didnt steal the van or damage it).

You feed me, you get to put me to work, I'm a simple human.

50 sats \ 2 replies \ @gnilma 24 Mar

I was 12 years old, playing for my elementary school basketball team. Our team sucked, as we did not have size nor talent. I was 5ft8 at the time, was tallest in my team and was playing center.

We had a game with the best team in our school district. These guys were all monsters, most of them standing at or almost 6ft tall, and their center was probably 6ft3 or 6ft4. We started the first half hot, our point guard knocked down a couple mid ranges. Then I went to work, scoring 4 or 5 baskets in a roll. I remember the last one I went under the hoop and hit a reverse layup while the other team's center was chasing me. I was feeling pretty good about myself and thought we might actually have a chance at winning the game. I remember the looks of joy and hope in my teammates' faces when i scored that reverse layup and put us up by 8. We were leading through about midway in the first half, then the momentum shifted.

I don't know if they were just toying with us in the beginning or simply underestimated us. But when they decided to showed up, they showed up big. These guys destroyed us and we ended up losing the game by almost 20 points. Their center must have blocked me 3 or 4 times through the rest of the game, it was rough. But the beginning 10 or so minutes of glory was memorable and fun. Losing the game in a landslide though, not so fun.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby OP 24 Mar

I am just impressed you played C. I never played anything but guard when I played basketball which wasn’t much.

60 sats \ 0 replies \ @gnilma 24 Mar

Yes, and a 90s basketball style center. I had no choice because all my teammates were short and I was the tallest in my team. I was skinny, but I was strong. I can usually stand my ground and not allow opposing centers to back me down even if they were taller and heavier than me.

My coach also made me stay behind extra 30 minutes or so after practice to work on screening out for rebounds, as he thought rebounding was very important for the game. I wasn't very good at backing people down due to my size and weight, and I never really developed a shot until my late teens, but my rebounding game was on point.