Amuse me with your story of how in your youth a coach didn’t recognize your talent or treated you unfairly and you otherwise would have been a contender.
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My Little League Coach was my sob story. lol
I was always on the small side so was never going to hit for power. But a very good fielder, good arm, speed and hit for contact. I was a kid that also started school early and right at the very young borderline. I would say about 6 months younger than most of my classmate. The good thing was that I was good enough to get into LL at 9 when most of kids started at 10. Thus, allowing me to be playing on teams along with the kids in my class that were older.
So, Coach would play me pretty much 6 innings each game either at 2b or SS and I always responded with very good D and somewhere between .365-.600 for my 4 years in LL but...it was almost always all singles with a few doubles mixed in. Of course, ended up on 2b or 3b many times as my speed allowed me to just keep going as soon as an OF made a mistake. All sounds good except- the F-ing guy would never select me for the All Star team that traveled for Tourney's. He would send a couple of kids on the team that would barely hit .300 but could hit HR's. I also asked him if I could take a shot pitching- I always had a pretty good arm for a small guy. One summer league- he gave me a shot. I pitched 12 innings and maybe gave up 5 or 6 hits and struck out somewhere between 10-12 hitters. Come the regular season, and he refused to let me pitch. I went to his house one day at like 11 years old and asked him why he had such an issue with me. I'm sitting down with him and asked why he wouldn't let me pitch- his answer, you are too small. Even when I pointed out how well I did for him during the summer. But he kept just repeating that in his opinion, I was too small. OK- so, I ask, what was his problem with me and never selecting for the AS team when I was his SS best fielder and the previous year batted something like .545 and that he sent a kid that hit under .300 but had 2 HR. His answer- is that he didn't feel I was a good enough hitter because too many of my hits were to CF and RF...I really wanted to punch this guy in the face but figured it was my final year and then on to Babe Ruth League and a new coach.
So, the next year- we have the BR tryouts and then the draft. I am waiting at my phone waiting for that call(you guys remember how gut wrenching that was in the days were everyone DID NOT get a trophy. lol
So- phone rings- I know from friends that they are still calling the kids that made it so I am excited as hell until I answer the phone. That MF'r, who I spent 4 years hating playing for and who told me hitting to right and center field was a sign of a bad hitter, drafted my ass to play for him again. - freaking 3 more years of the same shit except with my speed, I was able to add SB's to my game. Still played SS, still hit near .500 and still all singles and doubles but taking extra bases like crazy and still not getting any recognition from this AH...