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OT: Your Big Sports Moment

Ok...whatever they called it. I generically call it Babe Ruth but now that you mention it, FCBBL rings a bell. We also played games over in Edison behind Clara Barton school. This was around '81/'82
I played there in the early seventies. It was Boble Field. Not sure of the spelling. In between Clara Barton and Herbert Hoover schools.
 
Playing pick up basketball. A two time NBA Champion had a guy leave and his team was short a player. He picked me in front of all of my basketball playing friends. They were pissed since I had never played organized basketball in my life. I could shoot from anywhere though. He kicked it out a few times and I buried every single one of them hahaha. Pretty sure I was under the influence of something that is about to become legal in NJ soon 😉
 
Still got the no hitter so I was pretty happy but when you thought about perfect game you did have a sense of disappointment. I was a sophomore and thought I would throw another one. Never did.
How about the player who made the error
 
Still got the no hitter so I was pretty happy but when you thought about perfect game you did have a sense of disappointment. I was a sophomore and thought I would throw another one. Never did.

Mad Dog (Son # 1) threw a no hitter in high school on the JV team as a soph.

Typical WILD lefty pitcher; 7 inning game at home. Wall.
He struck out 17, and walked 7, but picked off 4 of those 7.
He had a fast ball than tailed in and dropped on lefty hitters if he kept it low.
 
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Won the PGA ProAm at Greater Erie PA Charity Golf Classic in early 1990's. My Pro, a western PA local pro shot 67 with 5 birdies and an eagle. The two holes he bogeyed, I birdied. Shot 74 that day, best competitive round ever.
 
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How about the player who made the error
I saw him at a reunion game and he would joke about me wanting to hit him or something but I never felt like that. Sports aren't easy. We are all out there trying to make the play to win. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. Of course, having said that, a chance at a perfect game.....
 
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Second or third game on the HS freshman football squad. Game opening kickoff and as a lineman my role is to be one of the guys forming a blocking wall for our returner.
Their kicker hits it crooked and short and the damn ball bounces in front of me then literally hits me in the hands. This was not part of the drill. It takes me a moment to realize I have the ball and look up to see no one between me and the goal line. Maybe I ought to head in that direction? I start lumbering down the sideline. Shortly a couple of their small fast guys jump on my back. But it does take more than one of 'em to topple me over. Those couple of yards gained remain my career game high.
 
Junior year at RBC (1987?) I scored a worldie from open play 30+ yards out as a center back against my home town Long Branch team. Upper 90, "where the spiders lay their eggs" as Ale Moreno would say. I will never forget how the ball felt coming off my foot.

For the record, I scored more own goals than goals in my high school career.
 
And still the last one thrown by a RU hurler.
Wow, that's hard to believe when you think of those great years, hell decades under Fred Hill. Funny I thought I saw that someone had thrown one but if that's true that I threw the last one, I'll take it.
 
In 4th grade my friend and I beat the 5th grade tough guys that sat at the back of our bus in a 2-on-2 football game before school.

In 5th grade I beat the class bully in tug-of-war.

In high school I played in a local roller hockey league. We were in the semifinals and our goalie couldn't make it, so we had the coach's son suit up even though he wasn't normally a goalie. We really tightened up defensively and played a hell of a game that ended with me scoring the clinching goal in a shootout. Late in the ensuing championship game, our team up I think 1-0 or 2-1, there was a rebound or something that resulted in the puck landing in our slot, right in front of the league's most dominant player. He was much stronger than me but with all the adrenaline in that moment I was able to lift his stick and muscle him off the puck. Our forwards took it and scored to pretty much seal the championship for us.

On the Rutgers roller hockey team, we were pretty depleted skill-wise our senior year with all of our top players having recently graduated. We were probably about halfway through our season with a record of 1-6-1 and facing a very good Temple team. We were up 3-2 late in the game but they pulled their goalie and were really pouring it on, that clock couldn't tick down fast enough. With about 10 seconds left the puck ends up behind our net. I get to it first and pin it against the boards to kill the clock. Felt like I had their entire team pounding me into the boards, kicking my skate, doing whatever they could to get me off it. After what felt like 5 minutes, the buzzer finally sounded and we completed the upset. One of my wheels was broken in that scrum. I still have it and use it as a Christmas ornament.

A couple years after graduating I played semi-pro roller hockey. Right before the start of the season, one of my former roommates and coworker who had just started playing semi-pro ice hockey had just passed away. I was feeling pretty down from that and didn't do well in my first couple games and was starting to wonder if I even belonged at that level. In the locker room before the third game, I remember staring at the new sticker I put on my helmet with his jersey number and was thinking of the confidence and determination he always brought to the ice. On my first shift I won a battle for the puck along the boards and beat the goalie for my first semi-pro goal. Not to be overly sentimental, but my friend always said he liked getting assists more than goals, and although they announced my goal as unassisted I knew that play probably wouldn't have happened without his inspiration.

But none of that compares to my first season of organized sports when I was the pitcher on my tee-ball team and I struck someone out. The umpire let the kid swing until he hit the ball, but I know I had that strikeout.
Actually, just thought of another one (that I will probably elaborate on with tons of unnecessary details). In my last semester at Rutgers, finishing up my sport management degree, I decided I would rather work at a local hockey facility than go into sport marketing, and I told myself I was going to run a men's league better than any in the area were being run. Most men's leagues seem to be an afterthought because the youth stuff is what keeps rinks in business. My academic advisor within the sport management department always taught us to find a way to "cut through the clutter" and differentiate yourself from the others, so I saw this as an opportunity. I took over a league that had just gotten off the ground and had three teams and was overshadowed by much bigger leagues nearby that had more divisions than we had teams, and had been in business for years, so I said we had to do something to make ours a more engaging experience. We did written recaps of every game, gave players nicknames, published power rankings every couple weeks, ran skills competitions, started an interleague championship with another nearby league, etc. Eventually we picked up so many teams from the competing leagues that our biggest competitor no longer had enough to run their league and had to shut it down.

The moment where I realized I had really accomplished my goal was actually after my team had just lost a very close championship series. Immediately after losing, still in my jersey, I awarded the championship trophy to the other team and took their team picture. After taking the picture, a couple guys from the other team came to me before even taking the trophy and told me I run a top-notch league and that it's the best league around. To me, that was better than a championship.
 
368 HR's in backyard summer Wiffleball 1972

I gave some of my highlights earlier. And to be honest, it kind of sucked to have been put into school early at 4 y/o and wouldn't turn 5 until 5 full moths later. Which means, in HS, trying out for the freshman baseball team, it was the first time I played on a regulation sized field. Not being a big kid either- no way I was making that team. I had a pretty good Babe Ruth League career the next few years but like many HS teams, not easy to make it on the team after freshman year ...

Anyway- sometimes fun to also talk of the bad shit too-

First game in Little League at 9 y/o old, I am facing this Samoan kid that had to be close to 6ft tall. MF'er drills me right in the helmet.
After my team came in 2nd in NYS bantam league bowling, the next year starts and I am so damn full of myself that first weekend that I bowl a 345 series.
Playing Adult Softball in those old IBM leagues- week before my wedding, playing SS on a field with no lights with a 6:30pm start. About the 4th inning it started to really get a bit dark...guy hits a wicked hard grounder straight at me- I get down into position to field it cleanly and never realized that ball I saw hopping on the infield was it's shadow...screaming linedrive straight into my mouth and nose. All I remember is opening my eyes and having my crazy 3B standing over me laughing and saying "what's the matter, did it huuuuuurrrtttt" My soon to be wife was at game and only thing she cared about was the pictures at our wedding coming up. lol
Only other one is freshman HS wrestling- I wrestled 112lb but only weighed 102. Go into a tourney and first match had to go against the kid that won the state the previous year. Kid had me pinned in under 30 seconds. And I was happy as shit he did. First time he locked one of his arms on me, i thought I was dying.
 
I went to Bergen County Academies (BCA) and played 3 varsity sports; we were perpetual underdogs in every sport so plenty of exciting moments as the "David" to our opponents "goliath". Couple moments for my life in particular:

- Hoops: BCA played in the NNJSC. My senior year we had Bogota away to start the season, and they were a very solid program (and still are). We beat them in epic fashion 50-43, and I drew the toughest assignment -- Terence Holley. Guy had no neck then, and apparently doesn't now either.
HolleyTerrence2010.JPG


Went onto play collegiate football at Pace. Just a monster of a guy. His center of gravity and explosive ability was ridiculous on the court. And I bottled him up pretty good that day...

-Lacrosse: We had Northern Highlands at our home field on an idyllic May afternoon. Of course, they thought they'd roll over us (and for good reason, they've all been playing the sport since they were little kids, most of us didn't start until high school). We played them to an 8-7 game. We lost, but it was the most inspired effort I've ever been a part of on the field. We also beat the daylights out of them physically.

- Adulthood: I was playing in a zog basketball league in Manhattan. Playing on a pretty good squad and there's a guy on my team who's a bit taller than me at 6 ' 6''. We had a good chemistry on the court; low and behold, turns out the guy is the major film director, screenwriter and playwright Cory Finley. We win the championship in the zog league and he invites me to the premier of his movie, "Thoroughbreds". I tell my wife, "you're not gonna believe this, but my teammate in the bball beer league just invited us to his movie premier tonight at alamo in Brooklyn". Was very cool. Kind of surreal. We're still friends.
 
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Mine goes back to 1968 when I hit what turned out to be my only home run ever. I was a right handed batter and stuck my bat out late and hit a line drive over the 2nd baseman’s head which promptly went through the right fielders legs. I touched em all and my teammates went wild and I was on cloud 9. When I got home from the game - still basking in my glory - my brother was playing “Mrs. Robinson” on his stereo and that song has conflated in my mind with my home run and I think about it every time I hear it. And please don’t bother to point out to me that I really didn’t hit a homer because of the right fielders error - in my 9 year old mind it was a home run and it remains so to this day

Well my worst sports day goes back to 1968 some kid hit a line drive to me in right field but my coaches wife Mrs. Robinson was in the bleachers in a mini-skirt. I was distracted and the ball went through my legs so the kid touched them all. Sure made that kid‘s day! Thanks a lot Mrs. Robinson.
 
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Well my worst sports day goes back to 1968 some kid hit a line drive to me in right field but my coaches wife Mrs. Robinson was in the bleachers in a mini-skirt. I was distracted and the ball went through my legs so the kid touched them all. Sure made that kid‘s day! Thanks a lot Mrs. Robinson.

I don't blame you.

 
Well my worst sports day goes back to 1968 some kid hit a line drive to me in right field but my coaches wife Mrs. Robinson was in the bleachers in a mini-skirt. I was distracted and the ball went through my legs so the kid touched them all. Sure made that kid‘s day! Thanks a lot Mrs. Robinson.
That was you?

Outstanding post
 
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