Who did you play sports against in those younger days?

[jsq]

if the below facts were about beautiful weather california they would not mean so much, but coming from gritty industrial frostbite falls illinois it is somewhat interesting.

played with/against these guys all from major league baseball:
jesse barfield mlb hr champ, also w 241 lifetime homers, bill gullickson p, 162 major league wins, jeff reed c, 17 yr mlb career, (and his brother kurt who played minor league ball then coached minor league teams (probablly still coaches)), may have played against a few others in various leagues or pick up games - such as mark grant p 9 yrs mlb, jack perconte 2b - 6 yrs mlb. 2 of the above had real solid careers and the rest at least hung around a while.

tom thayer, played pro fb for the nfl super bowl bears for a while and we played against him in high school.

about 20 additional guys from our 8 team conference and same age range were drafted and played minor league ball but never made it out of the minors. 7 of my high schools starting 11 (counting the 3 main pitchers) were drafted as i recall and 2 other teams in the 8 team conference had some pretty good draft numbers at that same time, which is how the 20 players drafted as mentioned above came about from the 8 team high school conference. one common trait of most of the people mentioned above is they were all underfed. no money where i came from and the people were small. this is no joke, true statement. for example jesse barfield was about 160 lbs as a senior in high school. he was a solid player but not yet a star in a very very competitive league when he weighed about 145 lbs as a sophmore as i recall. another good example is a guy named lorenzo who lived in the projects. lorenzo did not have money for a glove, he also had a really really low iq, but was a nice guy and good athlete. so lorenzo and some friends "borrowed a car" one night and went outside of town to a farm and stole a pig. took the pig back to the projects and sold it and now had the money for a glove, which he was quite proud of his entreprenurial effort!

ironically all the better high school players peaked in high school and early minor leagues, the 2 high school all americans we had never made it out of the minors. the guys listed above who made the majors kept growing and kept improving and made it to the big leagues and had long careers.

some of us migrated to softball as we got older. a national championship tournament softball team i played on had for a starting line up 7 or so guys out of the 9 starters who had played on final 4 teams from pony league, american legion, bronco league etc. and or played in the minors when they were younger. they had all tasted some relative sucess at one point from a national perspective.

a real hotbed of sports fanatics to say the least.

it was quite a line up of weekend warriors. almost all of the starters on the tournament championship softball team had at least one major league attribute ie a major league arm but couldnt hit at the, major level etc. so it was quite a joy to see on a regular basis, albeit with softball, some spectacular plays and players. our softball center fielder was a small college all american fb center. his arm was as good as jesse barfields and if you ever saw jesse barfield gun someone down from deep you know how awesome that arm is and why jesse led the majors in outfield assists several times. i was the catcher on that softball team and the opposing players who were fast and trying to come in to home to score that got gunned down could not believe what happened. watching fast runners hit what appeared to be sure singles to the outfield and thrown out at first base, etc. fielding plays that the pros dream of, hits out of the park.....truly awesome to see stuff like that on a regular basis.

some of the older guys on the softball team had been on teams with larry gura (won the national college championship w Arizona and reggie jackson and then won 126 mlb games and made the all star team in the pros, and bill sudakis who played 7 yrs at mlb level.

all of the above from a town of 75,000 people.

also while playing some basketball at chicago stadium played pickup games with/against patrick kane of the blackhawks and bill wennington of the bulls. i used to have a 39 to 40 inch vertical leap.

oh to have my body back from those days!!!!

getting older is a cruel joke on us humans.

[glynparson]

Played hundreds of back yard sporting events in our old neighborhood with former NFL QB Matt Lytle, former NFl linemen Ross Tucker was my water boy senior year, he was in i think 5 or 6th grade. Played against Kerry Collins (Wilson) in baseball and basketball but not football.Played against Donyell Marshall (Reading High) many times in basketball. I know i outscored him the lsat time we played against each other.Former MLB Pitcher rich delucia coached us at a baseball camp when i was little, Rich like Ross and Matt Lytle went to my HS Alma MAtter Wyomissing Area just outside Reading PA. I was on the Kutztown University Football team with John Mobley (Denver Broncos) but was injured and never on the field with him. One of my very good friends was one of the best modified import race car drivers in the world when that was his passion, Christian Rado. Also played some pick up hoops with reality tv star jon gosselin, another wyomissing alumnus and TV celebrity reporter Katrina Szish was a cheerleader for my football and basketball teams.

[Joshwesley]

Played with and against Jake peavy as a child.

Its pretty commonly accepted around here that I was the better ball player up until about 15....... then he decided to focus in on pitching!


Went to school with Katie Mixon (east bound and down and American housewife)

My mom and her mom were really good friends

[kmac32]

Eddie Vedder, Marc DeCarlo, Lee Smith, Bert Hooten, Fergie Jenkins, Joe Pepetone, Leon Durham, mike Bielecki, Shawn Boskie, and a whole bunch of other Cubs

[clydepepper]

I played on the same semi-pro team for a few games with Tony Pierce, Sr. and a state tournament with Mike Spilman, younger brother of Harry Spilman.

I'm sure I faced several future minor leaguers during my time as a pitcher but their names have eluded me.

Sometimes your memory hides things or events you don't really want to remember, perhaps to protect your ego. lol



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[bnorth]

Never played any team sports, I boxed and did MMA before is was cool. I trained with pretty much anybody that was anybody in the mid 80's and early 90's including rolling with Royce Gracie. But the 2 guys I respected the most and was lucky enough to learn from on several occasions was Sherman Harrill http://www.theihof.com/046-sherman-j-harrill and George Shin http://www.theihof.com/072-george-shin-sr.

Sherman was one of those guys that could touch you and make it hurt more than getting full power punched by most. George was by far the most brutal man I have ever met in my life. Outside of training they are/were the most gentle, kind and friendly people I ever had the privilege to meet.

[chris6net]

I played youth Baseball with Craig Biggio. He was a year younger than me but I could tell he was going to be special in Junior High. I never played varsity baseball but he was the star of my HS team. The year he graduated he was the best Football player in Suffolk County(averaging 10 yards per carry).
I remember having a conversation with Craig in HS and him telling me that he was going to be a catcher because he felt along with the coach that he had a better shot at making it to the bigs if he was a catcher. 3000 hits later he made the right decision!

[rdwyer]

I played with Wiilie O'ree at Hockey summer camp.

[tjenkins]

Played against Kelvin Torve who had a short stint with the Mets and Twins in baseball. Coached against Chad Greenway, Ben Lieber and Brock Lesnar. In fact, I coached a kid (Chad Duenwald) who beat Brock Lesnar in high school wrestling and Chad is now my next door neighbor. Chad Greenway was tremendous all around athlete!

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by tjenkins

Played against Kelvin Torve who had a short stint with the Mets and Twins in baseball. Coached against Chad Greenway, Ben Lieber and Brock Lesnar. In fact, I coached a kid (Chad Duenwald) who beat Brock Lesnar in high school wrestling and Chad is now my next door neighbor. Chad Greenway was tremendous all around athlete!

Everybody in Clark is your next door neighbor.

[VoodooChild]

"Played" HS Football with Jason Taylor (DE with the Dolphins/Redskins/Jets). I use the term "played" loosely as I never made varsity and he was a year older.

He was a tall and skinny TE in high school. I don't think he even played defense. My high school was known for it's football program and I wouldn't even say he was a top-10 player on the team. Everybody was surprised when he got a full ride to a D1 school (Akron). They must have saw something in him. Four years later, he was 100 lbs. bigger and a 3rd round draft pick. Now, he's a potential HOFer.

[ibuysportsephemera]

I don't know if this counts or not, but I played video pong (pre Nintendo days for those who aren't old enough to remember) with Bobby Nystrom (NY Islanders) when I was 13. He let me score 20 points before he scored 21 straight to beat me.

When I was 15 I worked in a racquetball club and played doubles a bunch of times with some of the NY Islanders that belonged to the club.

Jeff

[coolshemp]

Nothing for me. But my late neighbor played a short game of ball as a kid with Honus Wagner when he was in Boston. Said the guys hands were enormous! And that he was very nice to the kids...

[darkhorse9]

I had a double dip in High School...not playing against, but playing with.

On my baseball team I actually got a chance to pinch hit for Wally Joyner. (blow out game and a courtesy at bat for me)

On our football team I started the pre-season as the second string kicker behind Kevin Butler (I didn't stick around for the season)

[oldjudge]

I curled against Reggie Leach and played rugby with Blaine Nye and Jim Merlo. I have played golf with Ron Yary (absolutely horrible) and Harry Carson (very solid). Both Robert Brazille and Ralph Garr worked out at my gym when we lived in Houston. My sons played against Dwight Freeney in 1996 when Darien HS defeated Bloomfield HS for the CT state championship.

[Tyler]

I was on the JV squad when Alex Rodriguez came over from Miami to play our varsity team. He was already a pretty big deal at the time. We lost.