Eight Men Out

Baseball has always been an enormous part of my life. Since as long as I could remember I loved playing the game, watching the game and generally being around the game. I have no idea where the passion came from, neither my Mom or my Dad had any interest in it at all when I was growing up. I don’t remember an uncle or a friend introducing it to me. I guess I just found it when I was young, and it stuck.

I was incredibly blessed to be born left handed. For that reason, and really that reason only, I was able to play baseball in college. Left handed pitchers are hard to come by, and I was one…and I guess, all things considered, I was good enough for some college coach to recruit me and want me to play for their team.

Spending four years on a college baseball team was pretty much like spending four years of my life in a sitcom. It was non-stop laughter. Not stop jokes. And absolutely non-stop ball busting. I mean, Professional Ball Busting.

Look, no doubt, we can give eachother a hard time at an AO…and it’s funny and we all get a kick out of it. But it PALES, dramatically, to somewhat intelligent baseball players in college…many of whom were from above the Mason Dixon Line.

Not surprisingly, it took some time to get used to. Early on my freshman year…and, honestly, throughout my whole career, I was a pretty easy target. Put a non athletic left handed pitcher with a big nose on the squad with those guys and it’s like throwing chum in shark infested waters.

I can distinctly remember calling home and lamenting to my Mom. (Who else are you going to lament to, in that case…the strength coach?) And Mom would remind me about her first job when we moved to NOVA when I was 16. Mom worked for the Fairfax Government in the adoption services division. Here she was, this distinctly southern woman working with all these government working grizzled veterans. What she would tell me is this…

“David, you just have to keep being yourself. Keep loving on them. Keep ‘killing them with your kindness’ and they’ll soon figure out that you are genuinely that nice…and they won’t help but like you.”

At the time, it was counter to the advice I wanted, which was “just punch them in the face”. But in the end, it was about the only way I knew how to handle the situation (do you know any un-athletic left handed pitchers who could win a fight? Me either.)

There were times during college that I was close to pulling the rip cord and wanted to transfer. It just wasn’t worth it in the end, I thought. But I heeded Mom’s advice and did what she told me to do.

All those guys are really good friends of mine now. Mom was exactly right. I go to football tailgates and it’s all laughs and hugs and chuckles. They still bust my balls…but usually pretty funny and well deserved. Again, Mom was exactly right.

So here’s to you, Sandy Robinson…here’s to you bee-bopping into that 5th floor in Fairfax County with a smile on your face…just loving on those county government workers until they loved you right back. I hope you know how much I miss getting a bit of that love here on earth.

The Thang

Donald Quixote X12

Helicopters X9

Side Straddle Hops X42

Arm Circles X15, Reverso X 15 (did this twice)

Russian Soldiers X12

Hillbillies X15

Arm Circles X15, Reverso X 15 (twice)

Mosey to the west end of the TES Blacktop for baseball-esque agilities.

Head East at your own pace on the Blacktop. At the end do 5 burpees. Head back and do 5 mercans.

PAX then did the following agilities Kareokes

Ballerinas

Straight Steal of 2nd

Left Handed Pickoff Move Steal (Needs to be a better tutorial on this) (twice)

Tag Up at Third

Mosey to the Bottom of Lindsay

Explained “Bat Pole’s” to the PAX. A Bat Pole is when you run with your hands over your head, as if you were holding a bat over your head. The Genesis of this was when our team got caught violating curfew one night and the next day we had to run with a weighted bat over our head for about 45 minutes.

Bat Pole run halfway up Lindsay and Back

42 Lunges to halfway up Lindsay and Bat Pole Back

Bat Pole Arm Circles…clockwise, counter clockwise…X9

Bat Pole run halfway up Lindsay

Partner Up….Partner Bear Crawls while other runs to the top of Lindsay. Rotate

Bat Pole Arm Circles, clockwise/counterclockwise…X9

Bat Pole run to the bottom of Lindsay

42 Lunges up Lindsay, Bat Pole run to the top

Arm Circles X15

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