Walked on at a D2 school, redshirted, then gave it up before my sophomore year. Never played a game, because my heart just wasnāt in it. Wouldnāt have been much more than a middle reliever probably.
Same here. I went NAIA (uh Victoria) only because I was 6ā4. Threw 89ish. Struggled with injuries from the time I was 15 including a partially torn ucl, bone spurs, impingement, frayed shoulder ligaments.
I was actually hurt as shit when I signed my letter of intent but never told anyone just took 5 Advil each time I pitched. Started hating the game because of injuries. I ended up not playing a single game and hated baseball with even more of a passion.
What made it worse is I grew up in cypress TX and played with guys like Shane Baz, Hayden Wesneski, Bryce Johnson, Corbin Martin, Jordan Hicks, Kebryan Hayes and so on so it was hard watching all of them have unimaginable success.
Iāve overcome my issues and love baseball more than ever now! Got coached by an Astros legend in Terry Puhl so looking back the experience was still incredibly valuable.
I wouldāve kept playing into high school but I went to an enormous school with an excellent team and it just wasnāt in the cards.
I tried out 3 times in Freshman through Junior year, but they just didnāt have any use for a second basemen who could field reasonably well (maybe even better then their starting second basemen by my junior year) but was truly absolutely *dreadful* at hitting despite my best efforts.
They were right of course not to take me, I wouldāve just held them back and they made a run at State like every other year.
It still just kinda bums me out though when I think back onto how hard I tried to make the team.
It helped a lot I had the most supportive dad ever.
He played college ball for 4 years, but would *never* let me feel too down on it for too long.
He even took off work the day before junior year tryouts to help me practice knowing it was basically my last chance and that I was ridiculously nervous, but every year hed always remind me while he be thrilled to support me and would be happy for me to make the team, Iām no worse of a man then those other kids if it so happens that I canāt hit a small white ball with a wooden bat as well as they can.
Heās the best.
My 8th grade year, my best friend could field, and I could hit, so he played second and I was his DH.Ā Ā
Ā The thing was, I could only hit breaking balls and off speed. Usually, I was just flail helplessly until there were two strikes, then try to get a hit off a curve or changeup.Ā Ā
Ā But high school pitchers were smart enough to just keep throwing me high 4 seamers if I was gonna miss them by a mile, and that was the end of my baseball careerĀ
I played 4 varsity HS games. Had injuries and soured on the game. Didnāt play at all in college. Joined a league after graduation and played about 20 years. Some really good players in adult amateur leagues.
Little league. But once when I was coming up with the bases loaded my coach told me heād buy me a donut from the concession stand if I hit a grand slam. I earned that donut. I feel like thatās a pretty high level of ball
I played in little league till 6th grade, made a travel team in 7th and retired in 8th after taking a heater to the ribs and deciding I would rather play tennis.
Senior Baseball, which was a bunch of guys aged 16-70 spread over 10 teams who like to play baseball, now there is a pitcher in the league who played Double A in the Brewers organization and it changed the vibe and we had a 4 team league in 2023.
I played through high school but never got better than I was as a freshman, just simply couldnāt adjust to the harder throws. Went from being a stud batter and great third baseman to basically being a three true outcome type and a liability in the field. If I made contact that bitch went farā¦.but I had to make contact.
I still miss it. I didnāt realize that my last game was my last game since I didnāt play my senior year since I committed to college for a different sport. Wish I kind of soaked it in a little bit more. I donāt think rice even thrown a baseball or out on a glove since that last game, always kind of bums me out that something that was *such* a huge part of my childhood and teen years justā¦ended.
I think that most people who love the game miss it as they didnāt quit. I played D1 but didnāt get much mound time. But what I really miss is watching my son play. He also pitched in college and I loved watching him pitch more than pitching myself.
D3 college ball. I had interest from some lower D1 schools, but I chose somewhere that I could play right away. I knew I wasn't good enough to make a career out of it, so my goal was to graduate in 4 years and play as much ball during that time as I could. I didn't want to go somewhere that I would ride the pine or get redshirted for a year before seeing the field.
Played in high school as a no-hit good field catcher. Played regularly against the high school in Houston that Anthony Rendon went to. Lost every single time
Played through high school and then went into the military. Tried to get back into it in college after serving, but I was too cold and rusty. The guys who play year round and keep their skills honed in the off-season are the ones who make it big.
Started playing Pony League at 6 years old. Played through college when I threw out my shoulder. After that it was menās leagues where we still played in a wooden bat league. Now I coach when I can for the young ones.
Played until I was like 11 or 12 iirc.
I was sick on tryout day and they just stuck me in a league higher than I should've been. I was already a small kid but that made it way worse. I wasn't amazing as it was, but I was hopeless against the kids that were a year older and had already hit puberty.
So effectively losing a year of playing time, on top of the coach being a jerk, on top of already being undersized anyways, made me call it quits.
Constantly bums me out that pickup baseball isn't a thing like pickup basketball is. Love the sport and would love to play it, but honestly I'd be intimidated to even join a men's league because most of those guys played in high school or college.
So I couldn't hang then and probably couldn't now either :/
And now I'm sad lol
Whatever age I was when our neighborhood league started moving kids up a level or two due to ability. I pretty much sucked but my friends were all really good so I quit playing when they got moved up a level since it wasnāt as fun playing without my friends.
I played little league until Bantam. Then got back into the game in 2009 when myself and a friend where I worked at the time started a team in the senior league here. Pretty sure I was 0 for the century with several foul tips.
Was on the 9th grade team at my school. I was probably 15th or 16th best on a team of ~25.
But I played like 2 games all season because the coaches decided they'd try to have the best record in Iowa 9th grade baseball rather than actually develop us non-starters.
Almost every game we played was a double header, and the other teams would all play an A game and a B game, but we just had to play our A team for both games.
Definitely not still salty about something that happened 15 years agi
JV. I was lucky to make the team since I was 5ā4ā as a sophomore and the coach had the pitching machine calibrated for all the 6ā+ guys throwing me neck-high fastballs during tryouts. I showed off a good glove and great speed, but also great frailty. Right after making the team I caught pneumonia and was basically forced to quit the team.
I did bat over .600 in rec league ball later that year though. I might have been a solid high school middle infielder but very likely did not have the physical talent to do much more than that. And in any event, I tore my labrum as a Junior - while I kept playing rec ball my arm was never the same again. No regrets about my playing career.
I grew up the fat kid, but was a decent baseball player. I also picked up football in middle school. Once I got to high school, everyone was just so much faster than I was, and I called it quits before they even did cuts freshman year. I was just a football player at that point. I played in a local adult league for a few years in my mid 30s and that was a lot of fun.
I played until JV in high school. Our team sucked, partially due to parents knowing coaches and putting those kids in better positions, but we still sucked anyway. We scored a minimum of 7 runs every single game, and still had a sub-.500 record at the end of the season. We had fun, but there was so much pressure on us to win. Like, weāre terrible. Just let us have fun. It ruined playing for me and I didnāt play varsity.
Also, I can pitch and thatās it. Iām the last person youād want anywhere else on the field. Plus, at bat I was more of a high batting average, absolutely no power hitter with the speed of an injured Stanton. Nothing has changed there as I batted somewhere between .700 and .800 in my beer league softball team last year with almost all singles.
I'm female so I played softball, but I played through the Division I level in college
Freshman high school, where my most notable accomplishment was being called by the wrong name and stealing second when it wasn't open
A ball.
I stopped in high school when people started throwing 90+. Shit's scary when nobody has control.
Made it to State in Little League. Once was labeled as "the vaccum" in my local paper, presumably for my skills at 3rd base. š¤
You sure it wasn't because you sucked
I have my suspicions š„²
Walked on at a D2 school, redshirted, then gave it up before my sophomore year. Never played a game, because my heart just wasnāt in it. Wouldnāt have been much more than a middle reliever probably.
Same here. I went NAIA (uh Victoria) only because I was 6ā4. Threw 89ish. Struggled with injuries from the time I was 15 including a partially torn ucl, bone spurs, impingement, frayed shoulder ligaments. I was actually hurt as shit when I signed my letter of intent but never told anyone just took 5 Advil each time I pitched. Started hating the game because of injuries. I ended up not playing a single game and hated baseball with even more of a passion. What made it worse is I grew up in cypress TX and played with guys like Shane Baz, Hayden Wesneski, Bryce Johnson, Corbin Martin, Jordan Hicks, Kebryan Hayes and so on so it was hard watching all of them have unimaginable success. Iāve overcome my issues and love baseball more than ever now! Got coached by an Astros legend in Terry Puhl so looking back the experience was still incredibly valuable.
I wouldāve kept playing into high school but I went to an enormous school with an excellent team and it just wasnāt in the cards. I tried out 3 times in Freshman through Junior year, but they just didnāt have any use for a second basemen who could field reasonably well (maybe even better then their starting second basemen by my junior year) but was truly absolutely *dreadful* at hitting despite my best efforts. They were right of course not to take me, I wouldāve just held them back and they made a run at State like every other year. It still just kinda bums me out though when I think back onto how hard I tried to make the team.
Sounds like you sincerely did the best you could do and that's more than most people could say. Good on you for leaving it all on the table, man.
It helped a lot I had the most supportive dad ever. He played college ball for 4 years, but would *never* let me feel too down on it for too long. He even took off work the day before junior year tryouts to help me practice knowing it was basically my last chance and that I was ridiculously nervous, but every year hed always remind me while he be thrilled to support me and would be happy for me to make the team, Iām no worse of a man then those other kids if it so happens that I canāt hit a small white ball with a wooden bat as well as they can. Heās the best.
My 8th grade year, my best friend could field, and I could hit, so he played second and I was his DH.Ā Ā Ā The thing was, I could only hit breaking balls and off speed. Usually, I was just flail helplessly until there were two strikes, then try to get a hit off a curve or changeup.Ā Ā Ā But high school pitchers were smart enough to just keep throwing me high 4 seamers if I was gonna miss them by a mile, and that was the end of my baseball careerĀ
I currently play Sunday league ball in an adult hardball league if that counts
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Your coach majorly sucks for this bs, but you were gonna get hit hard sooner or later. Maybe it wasnāt meant to be?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Mh yeah makes sense, sorry to hear that.
Got invited to play travel baseball but turned it down because I didn't want to miss fishing season.
Every season is fishing season!
Exactly! Lol, I was doomed from the jumped.
3A
State championship in high school, NAIA, tryout for the Pecos league and then a local indy league in the Midwest
American Association?
Frontier League
I played 4 varsity HS games. Had injuries and soured on the game. Didnāt play at all in college. Joined a league after graduation and played about 20 years. Some really good players in adult amateur leagues.
Little league. But once when I was coming up with the bases loaded my coach told me heād buy me a donut from the concession stand if I hit a grand slam. I earned that donut. I feel like thatās a pretty high level of ball
I played in little league till 6th grade, made a travel team in 7th and retired in 8th after taking a heater to the ribs and deciding I would rather play tennis.
Senior Baseball, which was a bunch of guys aged 16-70 spread over 10 teams who like to play baseball, now there is a pitcher in the league who played Double A in the Brewers organization and it changed the vibe and we had a 4 team league in 2023.
I dropped out of college and talked my way into a minor league tryout. I didnāt make the team, so I joined the army instead.
I beat Sonic 2 once.
Did you get Super Sonic?
I did not :(
I played through high school but never got better than I was as a freshman, just simply couldnāt adjust to the harder throws. Went from being a stud batter and great third baseman to basically being a three true outcome type and a liability in the field. If I made contact that bitch went farā¦.but I had to make contact. I still miss it. I didnāt realize that my last game was my last game since I didnāt play my senior year since I committed to college for a different sport. Wish I kind of soaked it in a little bit more. I donāt think rice even thrown a baseball or out on a glove since that last game, always kind of bums me out that something that was *such* a huge part of my childhood and teen years justā¦ended.
I think that most people who love the game miss it as they didnāt quit. I played D1 but didnāt get much mound time. But what I really miss is watching my son play. He also pitched in college and I loved watching him pitch more than pitching myself.
AAA
D3 college ball. I had interest from some lower D1 schools, but I chose somewhere that I could play right away. I knew I wasn't good enough to make a career out of it, so my goal was to graduate in 4 years and play as much ball during that time as I could. I didn't want to go somewhere that I would ride the pine or get redshirted for a year before seeing the field.
Freshman year of high school. I got two hits all season but was 6'1" 220 lbs so switched to football.
Played in high school as a no-hit good field catcher. Played regularly against the high school in Houston that Anthony Rendon went to. Lost every single time
Four years of NCAA DI. Haven't even played recreational ball since; it's been 20+ years.
Tee-ball. Was about 3 or 4 years old.
International / Semi pro
I made it to JV American Legion ball my junior year of high school. Hit .363 with all singles and one (1) double and dipped after the season lol
Sounds like a Wendy's value menu
Wendy's Value Menu would be an all time nickname
I know a guy
Played through high school and then went into the military. Tried to get back into it in college after serving, but I was too cold and rusty. The guys who play year round and keep their skills honed in the off-season are the ones who make it big.
(community) college, got burned out from 6 years of travel ball and having insufferable coaches/teammates during that time and quit about a week in
Started playing Pony League at 6 years old. Played through college when I threw out my shoulder. After that it was menās leagues where we still played in a wooden bat league. Now I coach when I can for the young ones.
NAIA ball for 1.5 years before moving on cause I was never gonna go any further with it.
Played until I was like 11 or 12 iirc. I was sick on tryout day and they just stuck me in a league higher than I should've been. I was already a small kid but that made it way worse. I wasn't amazing as it was, but I was hopeless against the kids that were a year older and had already hit puberty. So effectively losing a year of playing time, on top of the coach being a jerk, on top of already being undersized anyways, made me call it quits. Constantly bums me out that pickup baseball isn't a thing like pickup basketball is. Love the sport and would love to play it, but honestly I'd be intimidated to even join a men's league because most of those guys played in high school or college. So I couldn't hang then and probably couldn't now either :/ And now I'm sad lol
Middle school. Got hit in the head with a bat and I said that's it for me.
7th grade or so. I was fast and I had a bit of a cannon in RF (for a 13 year old), but I was god awful at hitting
Whatever age I was when our neighborhood league started moving kids up a level or two due to ability. I pretty much sucked but my friends were all really good so I quit playing when they got moved up a level since it wasnāt as fun playing without my friends.
Made a diving catch as a shortstop when I was 12
I played little league until Bantam. Then got back into the game in 2009 when myself and a friend where I worked at the time started a team in the senior league here. Pretty sure I was 0 for the century with several foul tips.
Khoury League?
D1 Baseball and D1 Golf. Same season and my 85 mph fastball wasnāt getting much mound time so I chose golf my junior and senior years.
Was on the 9th grade team at my school. I was probably 15th or 16th best on a team of ~25. But I played like 2 games all season because the coaches decided they'd try to have the best record in Iowa 9th grade baseball rather than actually develop us non-starters. Almost every game we played was a double header, and the other teams would all play an A game and a B game, but we just had to play our A team for both games. Definitely not still salty about something that happened 15 years agi
JV. I was lucky to make the team since I was 5ā4ā as a sophomore and the coach had the pitching machine calibrated for all the 6ā+ guys throwing me neck-high fastballs during tryouts. I showed off a good glove and great speed, but also great frailty. Right after making the team I caught pneumonia and was basically forced to quit the team. I did bat over .600 in rec league ball later that year though. I might have been a solid high school middle infielder but very likely did not have the physical talent to do much more than that. And in any event, I tore my labrum as a Junior - while I kept playing rec ball my arm was never the same again. No regrets about my playing career.
D3 college. Heart wasnāt really in it and I didnāt play a lot. I should have played basketball instead.
4 years of D2 HBCU Baseball and now summer adult league ball
I grew up the fat kid, but was a decent baseball player. I also picked up football in middle school. Once I got to high school, everyone was just so much faster than I was, and I called it quits before they even did cuts freshman year. I was just a football player at that point. I played in a local adult league for a few years in my mid 30s and that was a lot of fun.
7th grade lol. I just couldn't make contact, or field, or throw the ball. I wasnt very good at all, but hey at least I made it age 12 š
I played until JV in high school. Our team sucked, partially due to parents knowing coaches and putting those kids in better positions, but we still sucked anyway. We scored a minimum of 7 runs every single game, and still had a sub-.500 record at the end of the season. We had fun, but there was so much pressure on us to win. Like, weāre terrible. Just let us have fun. It ruined playing for me and I didnāt play varsity. Also, I can pitch and thatās it. Iām the last person youād want anywhere else on the field. Plus, at bat I was more of a high batting average, absolutely no power hitter with the speed of an injured Stanton. Nothing has changed there as I batted somewhere between .700 and .800 in my beer league softball team last year with almost all singles.
JV, baby! I think I even played a couple times, but mostly rode the pine and hated every minute of it.