Interesting larry Bird trash talk article.

[steve B]

Pretty interesting, but then I find most of this inside stuff interesting.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/dominique-wilkins-shares-early-larry-bird-story/ar-AA9aIs4?ocid=ansNESN11

Steve B

[jb67]

Great article. Thanks for posting it. Made me laugh!

[stlcardsfan]

That's great. Larry Legend.

[rsn1661]

Nice story, l love reading this kind of stuff. Wish it was longer!

[Lgarza99]

Great story. I can only imagine the trash talking going on in that epic playoff game where Bird and Dominique went off. Those were the days!

[Physedteacher25]

Great article, from back when athletes trash talked to create an advantage not to create a media frenzy. I miss the days of catchers messing with hitters, opponents seeing if they can mentally crack you by getting in your ear. I coach high school baseball and kids do not have any idea what to do when another kid starts to mentally crack them. I'm not talking about low level hs baseball, that inability to deal with a mental onslaught stretches all the way to our major D1 commits.

20-30 years ago you learned how to deal with that and respond to it on the town courts, or down at the field with your friends. Now that every single sporting event is organized in suburbs from ages 6 and on, the coaches are there to prevent any kid from making another feel bad during competition. Don't get me wrong, I am a big component of boosting self esteem in young lives, and I'll become very upset with any kid that tries to bring down another in a malicious manner as sometimes kids do. On the other hand, most sports are a version of bullying in themselves and these kids have to learn how to deal with guys that get in your head like Larry Bird. Every pitcher wants to bully hitters by throwing FB's buy them and in essence, embarrassing that kid at home plate. Every shooting guard wants to school their defender. Every linebacker wants to up end anyone across the middle. Sports were always a forum to teach kids how to be mentally tough, how to deal with adversity may it be physical or mental. Larry Bird would get T'd up so quickly in HS in 2015, he probably would have a HIB report on another kid by the 7th game of the season and his coach would be in big trouble. Is that good or bad in the grand scheme of things? I think you can make a case for it either way.

I'm curious to see the other members feelings on how sports have changed verbally, and mentally. Feel free to respond.

[steve B]

I haven't seen it firsthand, but I'd buy that it's changed. The whole thing about not keeping score in teeball, to the not making someone feel bad. I'm mixed on it too.

In lower end little league one of the better moments was our catcher homering off the pitcher that called him fat. Only actual homer our team had in two years. A few inside the park ones, but only that one actually over the fence.

My one big chance was in gym. About half the FB team was in the same class including the QB. Since I was slow and not good at coverage I was basically left to do what I wanted. Which was usually trying to get the QB. One class he was always a step or two out of reach and doing "some" taunting. Like holding out the ball to me before throwing it. After a bit of that a kid on my team asked if I could hit. Yeah, I can. But will you? Yeah, I will. He was one of the teams LBs, and rushed the opposite side. QB runs away from me, sees him and turns back just in time to get clobbered. Full speed, which with me was never much, but wrapped up and driven into the ground. Damn that felt good. :D It'd be a big penalty in any league today. Only 5 for tackling instead of touch then. He whined and got told not to taunt anymore and I was warned that he was needed for an actual game in a couple days.

I still couldn't play worth a damn, but the trash talk pretty much ended entirely.

Steve B

[Physedteacher25]

That's awesome, I love that story.

[gopherfan]

Kids are weaker now then before. I live in MN, and if it's too cold, they call off school. They did this last year when is was -2. You have to be kidding me. It used to be that kids helped out with chores on the farm, or around the house at least. They were more diverse. Now it is all specialization. Not many multi-sport athletes anymore. The basketball coach doesn't want you to play football because you might get injured. Pitch counts in baseball....IN THE MAJORS. I'm a Twins fan, and I don't remember the last time we had a pitcher throw more than 110 pitches. And they usually get pulled at 100. Not keeping score at games? Do you think that kids don't know if they were crushed? They might not remember the exact score, but they know if they were close or not.
I refer to most of this as the pussifying of America.

I need to stop now. My head is going to explode.

[steve B]

Someone I know had a kid in tee ball a few years ago when they stopped keeping score. They also had everyone bat at least once every inning. They were believers in the whole not keeping score thing until after a particularly bad game. They were doing the post game- on the way to the ice cream place - pep talk about how the team played pretty well. Their kid finally said "Dad we were terrible. It was 63-5. " And yet somehow the kids had all had fun. So at least the coaches got something right.

Not being particularly good at sports I've somehow developed what seems to be an odd attitude. For me it's all about the competing, I don't overdo it in something like a softball pickup game, but if someone can hit they get tougher pitches and stuff like that. (Never try to sneak a borderline pitch especially a low one past a cricket player. The two I played with/against were by far the best bad ball hitters I've ever seen) One acquaintance who had competed in wrestling and weightlifting at a pretty high level was amazed when I said I'd love to see a few pitches from a major leaguer or try to run against an NFL player - Like on the Pros vs Joes show. He wouldn't want to at all because he'd be embarrassed, I figure I'd be outclassed by nearly anyone and it would be fun to see what it was like against someone really good. I did eventually play softball on a team with an Olympic athlete and a guy who played college baseball until the coach insisted he choose between engineering and baseball. The immense gulf of a gap in raw talent is really hard to explain. Like watching someone with a blown out rotator cuff make a throw that I'd need a pitching machine for. About 150ft, maybe more pretty much on a flat line and right on for accuracy.

I think if more parents and even coaches could see that there'd be a lot more realistic estimates of little Johnnys chances at making the pros. And a lot more actually having fun playing sports.