Diamond Notes: Was it good for you?

Baseball-Hi5

By: Austin Alexander – August 24, 2006

 

Baseball-Hi5If you’ve played this beautiful game for anytime at all, chances are you have struck out looking, laid down a sacrifice bunt and hit a homerun. Better yet, it’s likely you have also lost a ball in the sun, played “pepper” and been picked off base. When you spend a great deal of your childhood, college days and maybe even your adult life in baseball, you experience quite a few of its ups and downs. We have made a list of 130 things that happen to nearly every player who has ever had his named scratched into a line-up card, see how many have happened to you.

Print the list off and have some fun with this. Whether you are nearing the end of your high school career or your time on the field is barely a distant memory, see how many you can lay claim to. The checklist may reflect just how full of a baseball experience you had.

Our grading scale as to your baseball experience will be as follows:

101-130           Hall of Famer

81-100             Major League All-Star

61-80               Major League Veteran

41-60               Cup of coffee in the “Bigs”

21-40               Minor Leaguer

1-20                 Little Leaguer

Rub up a game ball

Pop up to the catcher

Play “flip”

Play “pepper”

Bunt for a hit

Hit off a tee

Shag fly balls

Catch a pop up or fly ball

Chase a wind-blown pop up

Lose a ball in the sun

Run “poles”

Spit sunflower seeds

Bum a dip off a teammate

Spread Diamond Dry

Chalk/paint a foul line

Pull a tarp

Get trapped under a tarp

Called out on a bang-bang play

Called safe on a bang-bang play

Get spiked

Sit in the bullpen

Sit on a bucket

Throw a helmet

Punch a dugout wall

Play a double header

Use the line, “it ain’t over til it’s over’

Strike out swinging

Strike out looking

Make a relief appearance

Record a save

Hit for the cycle

Take an incoming throw off your chest

High five a teammate

Fist bump a teammate

Be blessed out by an angry coach

Take a round of infield/outfield

Win on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth

Lose on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth

Make a great play in the field and then lead off the next inning

Hit a batting practice pitcher who thinks he is behind the L-screen

Wear a rally cap

Get picked off base

Play “catch” with your father

Do a “pop-up”slide

Be intentionally walked

Execute a perfect relay from the outfield to the plate for an out

Bowl over a catcher

Play in 100+ degrees heat

Play in sub-32 degree temps

Make a costly error

Make the last out of a game

Drop an expletive running down the first base line

Hit an inside the park homerun

Hit a homerun off a foul pole and/or scoreboard

Witness a triple play

Hit into a double play

Turn a double play

Break a bat

Reach on an infield hit

Celebrate a championship by “piling on” in the infield

Watch an opponent celebrate a championship by “piling on” in the infield

Wear eye black

Wear stirrups (not soccer socks) and sanitaries

Wear wristbands

Wear sliding pants

Forget your game belt

Get a sacrifice bunt down

Steal a base

Steal home

Successfully execute a hit and run

Receive the suicide squeeze sign…then execute the play

Miss a signal

Miss same signal more than once

Sit through a rain delay

Get completely hammered by an umpire on a call

Be ejected from a game

Move a runner from second to third with no outs

Score on a sacrifice fly

Win in extra innings

Lose in extra innings

Collide with a teammate going after a ball

Pinch-hit and/or be pinch hit for

Pinch-run and/or be pinch ran for

Strike out a batter with runners in scoring position

Participate in a bench-clearing brawl

Take a turn on the bucket during batting practice

Use pine tar

Smell your batting gloves

Give up a homerun

Hit a batter intentionally

Get hung up in a rundown

Be the one responsible for botching a rundown

Stretch a single into a double

Hit a triple

Avoid a tag at first base on an arrant throw

Foul a ball off your foot

Make a shoe-string catch

Get hit by a batted ball as a base runner

Get hit by a foul ball sitting in the dugout

Bust a lace in your glove

Try to compute an earned run average

Successfully compute an ERA

Successfully compute your batting average

Rob or be robbed of a homerun

Blow a huge lead

Collide with a wall or fence going for a ball

Stand in the box for a 90+ MPH fastball

Rake the mound and/or home plate

Take out a middle infielder on a double play attempt

Get hit by a pitch

Get a donut stuck on your bat

Trip on the top step of the dugout

Hit your head on a dugout beam

Take a 3-0 pitch

Be given the “green light” on a 3-0 pitch

Stay up too late the night before a game

Pick up a bucket of balls

Forget the number of outs and start off the field

Forget the number of strikes

Think it’s ball four only to have the umpire call a strike and turn you around

Switch-hit in a game

Throw out a runner at the plate

Step over a foul line

Drink Gatorade

Eyeball a girl in the bleachers from the dugout and/or field

Keep a scorebook

Chase a foul ball

Swing a fungo

Get tangled in the batting cage net

Reach base on strike three that gets away from a catcher

Pitch to a radar gun

Go 4-for-4

Get off the van or bus and play after a long drive

Forget your cup

Get hit in the cup

Witness a Major League game

Visit Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame

Now don’t cheat! If you are still playing and you cannot check off a feat, stay in the game long enough and it will likely happen to you…those of you who have been around the game for a while can best appreciate this list as you have probably had a Hall of Fame experience in your own baseball career!