missed opportunities

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was making a post in another thread, when I reminded myself how truly stupid I can be at times. Here’s the excerpt from the other thread:

“I played second base from 4th grade till my senior year in high school, and even for my AF base team. . . . and lamented the fact that I should’ve accepted the college scholarship to play ball . . .”

What the hell was I thinking? No wonder my dad was so upset with me that I didn’t go to college right after high school. My logic was that I didn’t want to spend four years getting a degree in something I decided I hated as a career. I had a baseball scholarship!

True, I was never a great hitter (best year was my senior year when I batted .274 with 2 homeruns and 27 stolen bases) but I was wicked with the glove and had the nickname ‘Hoover’ since my sophomore year because of my great defense. Coach even mentioned to me a couple times that the reason I played every day was my ability to stop runs from getting through which made up for my lack of prowess at the plate.

Now I know a .274 average in high school isn’t that good, and I probably would’ve done worse in college where the talent pool is more shallow, therefore the competition is more intense. But now I can’t help but wonder, what if I’d continued to get better? Would I have ever had a shot at the big leagues, especially with my defensive play? After all, I once made an unassisted triple play, and turned more double plays in 1990 than anyone else in the history of my school. In 1991, I had one error in 65 games. Any ideas I had of pursuing it (was only 22 when I was discharged from the Air Force, still young) died after a car wreck during my last year in the AF that broke my left left and ruined my right knee.

:sigh:

I finally realize it’s true, you don’t regret the things you do, it’s the things you didn’t do.

I’m curious, what do the Teeming Millions occasionally kick themselves for doing or not doing?

2

I see how it is, apparently I’m the only bonehead in the bunch. :stuck_out_tongue:

3

I have wasted plenty of opportunities. As I don’t want to drown you and me in my sorrows, I’ll only mention one.

I was invited by a guy who was later MVP of the track team in high school to join said track team, which finished like fifth in our New England class that year. I declined because I was playing right field on our JV baseball team (I was fast as all hell but I couldn’t bat worth a lick).

However, I did join the track team the next year and was MIP (Most Improved Player).

Dunno if that’s a wasted opp . . . though not applying for a sure-in job at tobacco-free kids probably is.

Bear in mind I’m still only 18. I have lots of time left to make stupid decisions.

Oh . . . one more. Summer after my senior year of high school a girl friend of mine “asked me out” . . . asked me if I’d like to go over to her pool for a while. I had already said yes to my aunt/godmother, so I told her I was actually going to another pool. So I went another day. But still . . . “No, sorry, I’m going to my aunt’s pool” might be the single worst true turn-down I’ve ever heard of.

Said girl went back to California about a week later.

4

Maybe you and I should form our own SDMB club of bad batters. I mentioned my best year I batted .274. My other years were:
Freshman - .186, 0 homeruns, 12 RBIs, 19 stolen bases
Sophomore - .212, 0 homeruns, 15 RBIs, 28 stolen bases
Junior - .216, 1 homerun (inside the park), 10 RBIs, 23 stolen bases
Senior - .274, 2 homeruns, 24 RBIs, 27 stolen bases

The varsity baseball coach (I played varsity my junior and senior years) wanted to develop my batting eye between my junior and senior years, so he would put me in the batting cage, have the pitcher pitch around me (throwing balls around the plate, but still out of the strike zone for those of you who don’t know what that means) and dare me not to swing the bat. Not only am I the only player at my school to get an unassisted triple play, I was such a bad hitter in my junior year, I also became the only player who was asked to bunt with 2 outs, I was fast and coach was hoping I could beat out the throw. (I didn’t)

5

I can match the baseball story.

I could have played Division I basketball and didn’t.

I attended college because I was “chasing” a particular woman. (Never did catch her.)

Life was easy. I spent most afternoons at the gym, playing pickup games with the basketball team and the other guys that could play with them. My first pickup game I happened to draw one of the participants in the previous year’s NCAA finals as “my man” and fared quite well.

Over the next several years I continued to go to the gym and play. At 6’7" I was tall enough to play most anywhere and had excellent reflexes. I always was a poor jumper, and easily winded. But regimented training and practices could have helped that.

Anyway, one day I went to the head coaches office and discussed joining the team. He was honest with me about playing time and opportunity and all of that. He told me when practice started and to show up.

Well, I misunderstood him to say that practice started at 3:30 when in fact it started at 3:00. When I showed up about 3:25 practice was already in full swing so I just turned around and left. Never went back.
I was such a dope.

SouthernStyle

6

My lifelong regret: I started taking guitar lessons at age ten, but had to quit because the lessons conflicted with my Girl Scout meetings.

My current regret: having a fling with a really hot guy who I’d met through his best friend, who I also thought was cute but kind of boring. Guess which one turned out to be a complete arsehole and which one I’ve since fallen completely (and hopelessly) for.

7

My big regret-

In a fit of existential angst (the “where the hell is my life going?” kind of stuff) brought on by stress over trying to get an Education degree and stress over still living with my parents, I dropped out of college in order to work full-time and move out.

Long story short: four years later, I was back to living with my parents and finishing colleges, having been kicked out of an apartment by former friends, and having been fired by the company I had worked for. So I was back in the same stress situation, about four years behind everyone else and with a lot less self-esteem.

I often wonder what would have happened had I actually stuck it out and finished school with my Education degree. Maybe I’d actually be a teacher; maybe I’d have been able to go on and get my Master’s and eventually teach college.

As it is, that one decision started a long path of burning my bridges behind me, only to later realize that I really wanted to be back on the other side.

Pardon my whine.

8

BratMan007

I didn’t hit a homerun in high school ball. I got one hit my entire three years.

Freshman year, I got (I think) three official at-bats, not counting a walk I drew. I played in the field one half-inning.

Sophomore year, . . . hard to remember. We won one game. We lost 16. I got more walks and a bunt single down the first-base line. I was a slap hitter, which worked well with my average 4 seconds home to first. My average didn’t crack .100. I had about ten walks and about twenty stolen bases. I was caught stealing once, maybe twice. At one point I stole five bases in one game, including home once.

Junior year: more walks. Caught stealing twice. Stole lots of bases.

My baseball coach at the beginning of junior year gave me the green light to both bunt whenever and steal whenever. He and I both figured that I couldn’t hit the ball much harder with a full-contact swing than with a bunt. The hardest ball I ever hit was a 300-ft flyball into straight-away center field during batting practice. I never got a ball past the infield in a game.

Note that I don’t have complete stats for any year because I didn’t save them. SO I might not have had 20 stolen bases. Mighta been more like 17 or 23 or something. Also: defense was decent, but the reason I got put in RF was b/c I had a cannon of an arm. I had no problem throwing on a line 250 feet to homeplate and I almost doubled a guy up off second base after a rather spectacular catch, if I do say so myself (and I did, so there you go).

Senior year: I switched to track because I knew I wouldn’t get playing time in varsity. I did long jump, triple jump and 330 hurdles. 17.5 feet, 35.5 feet and 49.9 seconds, respectively.

So how, you ask, did I ever get MIP, nevermind varsity status?

Beginning of the year: long jump=13 feet. triple=25 feet. hurdles=55 seconds. you show me anyone who improves 4.5 feet in the long jump in a year, and I’ll give you . . . well, I don’t know, but it’s hard to do.

Anyway, that’s enoguh of sports from me unless you want more. I like tooting my own horn, but the more I say, A. the less I have to say, and B. the harder it is to believe.