By: Austin Alexander – August 24, 2006
If 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!