Tell us about your playing days.....

[ATU HOG]

Played up to 1st semester in college at a NAIA school.  Could have went D2 or Juco but wanted to stay closer to home, obviously didn't play but a bit.  Solid glove, average bat.  Bat usually got warm when weather got warmer.  Always loved playing defense though and was good at it. Played 2nd, SS, and Third.

Coach high school ball now in Arkansas.  Got a former that plays for the hogs currently and a couple other boys playing college baseball  Love my job (if you can call it that). I get to be on a ball field for a living.

[Hogs-n-Roses]

A few years ago I realized that a couple of guys who post regularly were kids who lived on my street when I coached youth league baseball in Sherwood back in the '90s.  The funny thing is, they were disagreeing on something and had no idea they knew each other or had been basically neighbors 20 years earlier. 

We have lots in common.Little league,pony league then legion ball. Same LR,NLR league. I still consider those guys from the surrounding towns some of my best friends. my dad may have been your pony league coach. I led the LR,NLR league in batting as a rookie in legion. Did well all years and was all star multiple times. I also considered McReynolds the best I played against also but consider Arvis Harper(sp),Lee Pruit n hes crew at Rose city were honorable mention. Had several decent college offers n went to a pro workout at a multiclub tryout in mizzouri..

[lumphog]

I had one hit as 12 year old, my last year to play baseball, but I could hit a golf ball about 230 yards, which was pretty good for a 12 year old with persimmon woods.

Persimmon Woods.......what are you a caveman ?

[TexasDad]

When was your friend at OU?

Early 80's

[BigBrandonAllenFan]

...,Lee Pruit n hes crew at Rose city were honorable mention...

Lee was two years ahead of me.  His little brothers, Russell, Bobby, and Eric were teammates of mine in pony league on Curtis Harris at Rose City.  None of Lee's brothers had his bat power, but they were all good ball players.

Russ and I were the same age and also went to school together.  Russ was a good guy and a good friend.  Russell died just this last March.  He had lived in Conway for the last 35 years and worked in HVAC.  I would run across him from time to time in Conway.  Good memories.  Rest in peace, brother.

[SPAL]

So many incredible stories here.

Somebody mentioned the friendships and bonds you create with your team mates. I can certainly attest to that. While it certainly wasn't on the level of pro Baseball, I got to play in a state baseball tournament. We were in a hotel for a week. Spent most of our time bussing between hotel and ball fields to meals to batting practice.

I still think about some of the memories of those times. Some if the best times of my life were spent on a bus or on a baseball diamond.

I remember traveling for a game my sophomore year. I had never tried Skoal or dip of any kind but some older guys had some Wintergreen Skoal. Well, I figured I would try it. What is the worst that could happen.

It just so happened we we're playing a team up in the mountains. We had to drive up highways that curved a million times and had up and down hills all the way.

I got so sick from that dip. I held back the vomit until I got off the bus. I remember stepping off that bus, feeling like I was gonna die. I didn't and I came up to bat with the bases loaded in a tie game.

I remember looking at a new bat that I hadn't seen before and I picked that bat. I cleared the bases with a double and made the papers that night.

I still get sick when i smell Wintergreen.

[12247]

AW, BASEBALL::: Its the early 60s and baseball is played just about everywhere in Arkansas.  Most smaller schools don't offer the sport but every cow pasture would make a great field.  It was a sport everyone could play with minimal equipment necessary.  We finally got proper insurance to play baseball at school when I was in 9th grade.  I made the Senior team that first year playing outfield and pitcher and batted 4th as the cleanup hitter on that team.  We had Summer men's teams and Pony league and I played on 3 different teams one Summer.  2 or 3 times I pitched 9 innings on Saturday and 9 more on Sunday for the men's teams and played 1st base on my Pony League team for 2 middle of the week games.  I was not allowed to pitch in the age group 13 to 15 in Pony League even though I was 15.  The league deemed that I was advanced above the League because by that time, I had pitched 2 seasons on the High School Team, going undefeated those two seasons.

I left High School having never lost as a pitcher in High School.  I batted .647 my Senior year and finished High School with the record for career doubles, triples, homeruns and stolen bases.  I fielded the pitchers position without an error for 2 straight seasons.  Remember, we started baseball at school my Freshman year so all those wonderful records were very early in the process.  Likely every record I held was broken within the next few years.  Ended up playing one year of college ball for Don Dempsey at Arkansas Tech and then married and gave up the sport.

Bottom line was that I was a left handed pitcher, power hitter and decent fielder as a big fish in an small pond.  I stood out in the surrounding area but wasn't known 50 miles away.  In those days, every team could go to Regionals called District in those days.  I won the only 2 District games we won during my time in High School.  Once pitched a 2 hitter against a college team for an independent team I had hooked up with.  The college pitcher tossed a 2 hitter also and I collect both those hits. WE LOST.  I felt the pain of being a Freshman Player on a college team.  Mouth shut, ears open and do as told without question. 

Like most young men of the era, baseball was what you did when not working on the family farm or at your after school job, etc..  Most of us had nearly no coaching, no trainer, no hitting coach, no pitching coach.  I learned how to hit a baseball by accident.  Being a boy without toys aplenty, my Grandpa had cut the handle off an old broom and I spent a couple of Summers as a 8 to 10 year old swatting bumblebees as they flew in position above Grandmas flower beds.  If that bee came to a holding position near me, I owned him.  I rarely missed.  When I got to play baseball, that ball looked as large as a beach ball coming across the plate.  Warren Sphan wrote a small booklet on left handed pitching and I read it like a Bible and followed every word.  I learned how to throw overhand, three quarter and sidearm.  I learned how to make every pitch look the same leaving your hand.  If Warren said it, I believed it.  My High School coach never changed anything I did hitting, fielding or pitching.  No offense to my old coach, I loved him, but he wasn't a baseball coach. 

I loved the game of baseball and was good at it, as opposed to basketball and football.  I couldn't find the basket in basketball with a metal detector, was too little, too slow in football, had no real talent for golf, horseshoes, marbles, ping pong or tennis.  But I tried to play them all.  Competition, I loved it.

[bphi11ips]

Played teeny league, little league, pony league (same as Babe Ruth), American Legion.  We didn't have high school ball back then so Legion ball was our big thing.  Our small town wasn't enough to draw a competitive Legion team, so we drew from Carlisle, Hazen, Des Arc and England too.  That was kinda neat because guys you had played other sports against from those towns were your summer teammates and you got to make a lot of lasting friendships.  We were in the same district as all the NLR Legion programs like BJ McAdams, Dejanis, Sylvan Hills, etc.  A good season for us was usually .500.  But my second season we got hot for some reason, just before tournament time, and we made it all the way to the district championship game.  Had we won that game, we would have made the state tournament (but we didn't).  My last year, we were in district and several guys had college testing commitments and we had to forfeit because we didn't have enough to play.  I drove like a bat out of he11 to get to the field in Jacksonville on time because I would have been the 9th man there, but as I got to the parking lot I saw everybody else loading up to go home.  I felt horrible. 

I walked on at UCA my sophomore year but picked a lousy year to do that.  Defending AIC champs, had only lost a handful of seniors and only had one spot open for a walk on.  40 guys tried out for that one spot.  I made the first and second cuts, but that was it and my career was officially over, other than years of softball after that.  Oh, and the one guy that made it as a walk on ended up starting and making All AIC that year.

I was a second baseman.  If I had to grade myself, I'd say hitting D, arm D, fielding A-, baserunning and bunting A.  I had to scrap because I wasn't that great.  But I loved the game, still love the game, and coached my son for about 10 years in the Sylvan Hills optimist leagues. 

Hands down, the best player I ever played against was Kevin McReynolds.  I played two years of legion ball against him and he was just so much better than everybody else.  Just a natural.  He hit 3 home runs at our little band box field one year - one to left, one to center and one to right.  When he came up a fourth time, we intentionally walked him even though there was nobody on base. 

And, hands down, my greatest memory from baseball wasn't my own.  It was when my son's high school team won the state championship in 2007 at Baum.  Tiny little private school from Sherwood, the first title in any sport.  And he had a great championship game with 3 hits (one a triple that started the winning rally), two runs scored and three RBI's.  He caught the last out of the game so the dogpile was on him, and the next morning there was a huge photo in the Democrat-Gazette's sports page that clearly shows him at the bottom of the pile, looking up and grinning like a possum.  I blubbered like a baby after the game.

Have enjoyed reading this thread.  Baseball is such a great game.  It's good to see it coming back, even though the game itself at the youth level has changed dramatically.  That change, though, is why we see so much talent in college now and so many young Americans in MLB.  You and I must be about the same age.  High school ball was not where you found the best players in the late '70's. Legion ball was serious, and that's where I faced Kevin McReynolds one afternoon at Curran Conway in Little Rock.

I grew up in a sort of lower class section of west Little Rock called Kingwood between The Heights and Pleasant Valley where the rich kids lived.  We may not have had much, but we did have baseball.  Our mothers kicked us out every morning and we played all day.  Ghost man on first.  By the time I got to Little League I could chase down any fly ball and slide face first into second on asphalt. 

Junior Deputy was one of two places to play in those days in Little Rock proper. The other was Lamar Porter.  I'll quibble with you a bit about Pony League vs. Babe Ruth.  They weren't the same national organization - like Little League vs. Cal Ripken today.  Anyway, JD had Babe Ruth.  Lamar Porter had Pony League.

Two families dominated JD Little League in the mid-70's.  Houston Nutt, Sr. and Dick Jenkins each had four sons. Both coached, and their boys could flat out play.  Bruce Jenkins was the best of them all.  He batted .637 to win the league batting title when he was 12.  Bruce was righthanded but batted lefthanded.  He was SWC Freshman of the Year before he drowned one night in Reservoir Lake in Little Rock. Great guy from a great family.

I played on the JD All-Star team two years. Bruce Jenkins dad coached when I was 11.  Bruce's younger brother, Tim, also 11 at the time, hit a walk-off homer to beat Pine Bluff and send us to a winner-take-all final against PB for a trip to Florida.  We lost the next day.  PB always had the best teams in the state back then. 

The next year I hit .540 and won the batting title with 11 home runs.

Babe Ruth was 13-15.  I played for Arkansas Trailer and went 8-0 on the mound my first year.  Pitching was my world.  It was the one place I felt in control.  Years later, a friend of mine from team named J.C. Baker told me I should go to law school.  He had just graduated from law school, and I was waiting tables at Coy's Steakhouse.  I asked J.C. why he thought I should be a lawyer, and he said, "because you're the most competitive SOB I've ever met".  I thought that never helped me much.  I had figured out by then that people in general don't like competitive people, but I took J.C.'s advice and went to law school.  Nobody likes lawyers anyway.

Like another poster above, my baseball career, and athletics career in general, took a turn when my dad dove into a bottle when I was about 14, leaving my mom and me to raise three younger kids.  Eventually work after school would replace football, basketball and baseball, but because I could play and work during the summer, baseball lasted the longest.

Before my last year of Babe Ruth, I told my coach I had to quit because I didn't have a ride to practice.  A few days later Jerry McKinnis called and said I could play on his team and he'd pick me up.  At the end of the year Coach called me and said I needed to come to the awards ceremony.  Again, I didn't have a ride.  Coach picked me up one more time.  I had won the batting title again, this time batting .500.

The next year I had a car and played for Coach McKinnis' s American Legion team at Curran Conway.  I think it wax Block Realty but couldn't swear to it.  My first game on the mound was against Sylvan Hills and an 18-year-old manchild named Kevin McReynolds.  I was about 6'3" and 180 myself and could throw the ball accurately close to 90, but I had no change-up and a lollipop curve.  I hit a two-run home run myself and struck McReynolds out his first two at bats.  We were up 2-1 in the top of the 7th with 2 outs and a runner on first when McReynolds came up for the third time.  I had struck him out the first two times climbing the ladder.  This time I grooved a 2-1 pitch right over the heart of the plate, and it wound up in a yard across the street behind the left field fence.  Furthest ball I've ever seen hit in person.  We lost 3-2.

The cool thing was that a guy named Darold Knowles was at the game scouting McReynolds.  Darold was a relief pitcher for the Oakland A's in those great World Series from the early 70's against The Big Red Machine.  Johnny Bench was my idol.  By then Darold was working for the Cardinals.  He talked to me after the game and kept up with me the next couple of years.  I worked too much to go to St. Petersburg for $600 per month in season to throw my arm out teaching guys to hit a fastball. American Legion was as close to real baseball as I ever got.  But in the late 70's that was pretty close.

[12247]

More Baseball memories.  Once was playing on the men's team at 15 years old and hit a single.  Plan was for me to steal second.  Pitcher knew so he was holding me close.  First baseman blocked the entire bag with his number 14 foot and they nearly got me on pickoff.  I complained about the foot blocking the entire edge of the bag.  It happened a 2nd time and I complained again.  It happened a 3rd time and I put a shoulder into his leg and knocked the first baseman down.  Dude is at least 25 years old, 6'3" tall and outweighs me by 50 all muscle pounds and he comes up fighting.  By the 3rd swing he's got 3 of our older players on his butt and he's back on the ground.  Finally, cooler heads prevail and no one is seriously hurt, especially me.  The game resumed and he didn't block the bag on me anymore.  I am glad he didn't land a punch on me.  I might not have survived. 

During my Sophomore year in High School at District, I am pitching for us and some real famous Dude is pitching for the opposing team.  There are scouts for several major league teams onsite and he is the talk of the entire stadium.  We bat first and Mr. Great Pitcher dispatches with our first 3 hitters in order.  I dispatch with their first 3 hitters in order and I am the first batter of the second inning for us.  I will never know what their pitcher was thinking but on the first pitch, he grooved the plate with a good fastball and I made a full turn on it, Home Run.  The Kid just blew up.  We scored 2 more on him that inning and 3 the next inning.  All the while, I am throwing shutout ball.  This Kid is there to show his skill for the Scouts and we are a bunch of nobodies kicking his butt.  His coach moves him to 1st base for 2 innings and then brings him back to pitch again.  We hammer him again, finally winning 8-0.  I never learned what the Scouts decided about him.

To describe some of the playing conditions of the 60s', we once played on a field with a big tree in Center field.  if you hit into the tree, it was considered a ground rule double.  Most of the backstops behind the Catcher was only a few feet away.  I once ran from the pitchers mound around behind the backstop fence and caught a fowl ball the batter had hit high in the air and over the backstop.  The Ump had to rule if I was even allowed to go back there for the ball and it was finally decided it was so the out counted.  Many of the fields didn't have an outfield fence so you had to just run it out for a homerun.  Hardly anyone had lights so most all games were daylight events. 

The Summer I was 16, I played for a men's team.  Over a 2 month period, I pitched six games, all going 9 innings and never gave up an earned run over those 54 innings of baseball and never won a game.  We averaged 12 errors per game and these Guys just laughed it off.  That is the only team I ever quit on.  I hated losing and pitched my rear off and they just had more beer and thought it was funny.  We are about to actually win a game being up 6 to 4, bottom of the ninth inning, 2 out, 2 on.  Their hitter hits a high looping fly ball to right, right at our fielder.  He drops the ball and just sits down there near the ball laughing while the opposing team is circling the bases.  We lose again 7-6 and that wraps it up for me.

Happier memories are that we went into District my Senior year undefeated.  My folks who rarely came to any sporting event, actually got involved in baseball as my brother and myself loved the game and they finally bought in.

[BigBrandonAllenFan]

AW, BASEBALL:::

I learned how to hit a baseball by accident.  Being a boy without toys aplenty, my Grandpa had cut the handle off an old broom and I spent a couple of Summers as a 8 to 10 year old swatting bumblebees as they flew in position above Grandmas flower beds.  If that bee came to a holding position near me, I owned him.  I rarely missed.  When I got to play baseball, that ball looked as large as a beach ball coming across the plate. 

122, I am lol.  Developing a swing by swatting bees with a broom handle.  Now that is Arkansas youth baseball skill training in it's finest form.

Great story..

[BigBrandonAllenFan]

I remember traveling for a game my sophomore year. I had never tried Skoal or dip of any kind but some older guys had some Wintergreen Skoal. Well, I figured I would try it. What is the worst that could happen.

I got so sick from that dip. I held back the vomit until I got off the bus. I remember stepping off that bus, feeling like I was gonna die. I didn't and I came up to bat with the bases loaded in a tie game.

LOL. 

I can relate.  The first time I put tobacco in my mouth it was Redman, one night after a baseball game.  In about 30 seconds they said my face turned green, and then I puked.  Like you, Sir Pig, in that moment I was pretty dam* sure mouth tobacco wasn't going to be my thing.  Not even a little bit.

[jst01]

So many incredible stories here.

Somebody mentioned the friendships and bonds you create with your team mates. I can certainly attest to that. While it certainly wasn't on the level of pro Baseball, I got to play in a state baseball tournament. We were in a hotel for a week. Spent most of our time bussing between hotel and ball fields to meals to batting practice.

I still think about some of the memories of those times. Some if the best times of my life were spent on a bus or on a baseball diamond.

I remember traveling for a game my sophomore year. I had never tried Skoal or dip of any kind but some older guys had some Wintergreen Skoal. Well, I figured I would try it. What is the worst that could happen.

It just so happened we we're playing a team up in the mountains. We had to drive up highways that curved a million times and had up and down hills all the way.

I got so sick from that dip. I held back the vomit until I got off the bus. I remember stepping off that bus, feeling like I was gonna die. I didn't and I came up to bat with the bases loaded in a tie game.

I remember looking at a new bat that I hadn't seen before and I picked that bat. I cleared the bases with a double and made the papers that night.

I still get sick when i smell Wintergreen.

HAHA!! Sounds exactly like me... Soph. in HS and coming home on the bus from a DH late at night the Sr's offered me a dip...how can you even turn that down?? So I took a big one and sat back. 20 mins later I had opened my window and was focused so hard on trying not to throw up. Grabbed my bag and sprinted to hide behind my truck and barf when we parked. Lots of things learned on those bus trips.

Remember our legion coach catching about 5 of us in the hotel room in Batesville one night smoking cigs and drinking beer at 1am... not good. We got to do foul pole runs to exhaustion the next morning at 7am with a game at 11am.

One of coolest memories is turning a triple play while playing 1st base in a HS game against Conway. Had a liner hit at me while I was holding the runner on and man on second. Happened quick and we were back in the dugout. My grandpa said he'd been watching and playing baseball for over 55 years and hadn't seen a triple play in person until then... that was cool.

[JoeyCapital]

Cool thread!

I played from 4 all the way through HS and Legion ball. Played for Jacksonville and Gwatney in the late 90's.

Always a middle infielder and leadoff hitter.

Best memory was my 16 yr old year of A Legion ball. We had a good squad and we got hot in time for district. We lost to freaking Conway early and had to come through the losers bracket. Beat everybody and got back to freaking Conway in the Champ game. Lost to them but our district was sending two teams to State so we got in.

Freaking Conway beat us early in State, so we had to come back through the losers bracket again. Beat everybody and got back to freaking Conway. Had to beat them twice. We run ruled them in game 1, then threw our stud in game 2. Had them down 2-0 going into the 7th (last inning). 3 outs from a state championship and a ring!

Their first batter hit a line drive up the middle that I can still hear to this day. Our stud was toast, so we brought in the guy that had thrown the first game, who couldn't find the plate. Merry go round went on and on, with us using like 4 pitchers that inning. When the dust cleared it was 9-2. We couldn't come back in the bottom 7th, so freaking Conway beat us again.

Turns out they had 4 or 5 17 yr olds playing on their A team that also started on their AAA team. We didn't use any guys like that. I thought I would never get over that loss. Absolutely killed me to lose it after being that close.

Going through the Losers bracket in district and state, we had a bunch of guys play through little injuries and a bunch of guys come up clutch. It was just a magical run.

Years later I can smile thinking about it, but god it hurt back then. I still don't like freaking conway:)

[jst01]

Cool thread!

I played from 4 all the way through HS and Legion ball. Played for Jacksonville and Gwatney in the late 90's.

Always a middle infielder and leadoff hitter.

Best memory was my 16 yr old year of A Legion ball. We had a good squad and we got hot in time for district. We lost to freaking Conway early and had to come through the losers bracket. Beat everybody and got back to freaking Conway in the Champ game. Lost to them but our district was sending two teams to State so we got in.

Freaking Conway beat us early in State, so we had to come back through the losers bracket again. Beat everybody and got back to freaking Conway. Had to beat them twice. We run ruled them in game 1, then threw our stud in game 2. Had them down 2-0 going into the 7th (last inning). 3 outs from a state championship and a ring!

Their first batter hit a line drive up the middle that I can still hear to this day. Our stud was toast, so we brought in the guy that had thrown the first game, who couldn't find the plate. Merry go round went on and on, with us using like 4 pitchers that inning. When the dust cleared it was 9-2. We couldn't come back in the bottom 7th, so freaking Conway beat us again.

Turns out they had 4 or 5 17 yr olds playing on their A team that also started on their AAA team. We didn't use any guys like that. I thought I would never get over that loss. Absolutely killed me to lose it after being that close.

Going through the Losers bracket in district and state, we had a bunch of guys play through little injuries and a bunch of guys come up clutch. It was just a magical run.

Years later I can smile thinking about it, but god it hurt back then. I still don't like freaking conway:)

Probably played you many times. I played at Cabot from 98-00'.

[tennesseehogwild]

Getting to drive our own cars to all the out of town Legion games back around '80-'82 was so cool. We'd always get beer after the games on the way back home. Our second baseman didn't drink and had a big yellow Delta 88. We would pile about 6 of us in there. Some great memories that bring a smile to my face still to this day. Great thread here.

[JoeyCapital]

Probably played you many times. I played at Cabot from 98-00'.

Probably so!

I play golf with Johnny White sometimes, and I joke with him that you guys helped my HS batting average about 20 points every year because ya'll spent so much time on football your pitchers were on the mound calling out a snap count instead of pitching early in the year.

[bphi11ips]

HAHA!! Sounds exactly like me... Soph. in HS and coming home on the bus from a DH late at night the Sr's offered me a dip...how can you even turn that down?? So I took a big one and sat back. 20 mins later I had opened my window and was focused so hard on trying not to throw up. Grabbed my bag and sprinted to hide behind my truck and barf when we parked. Lots of things learned on those bus trips.

Remember our legion coach catching about 5 of us in the hotel room in Batesville one night smoking cigs and drinking beer at 1am... not good. We got to do foul pole runs to exhaustion the next morning at 7am with a game at 11am.

One of coolest memories is turning a triple play while playing 1st base in a HS game against Conway. Had a liner hit at me while I was holding the runner on and man on second. Happened quick and we were back in the dugout. My grandpa said he'd been watching and playing baseball for over 55 years and hadn't seen a triple play in person until then... that was cool.

Red Man and Wrigley's Spearmint Gum was big on my Legion team.  Awful stuff!

I turned an unassisted triple play in Babe Ruth playing shortstop on a double steal.  I broke to second base and the batter lined it right at me.  Stepped on the bag and chased the runner from first a bit for the tag.  Momentum was carrying me that way anyway and the runner had to stop and turn around.  Like you said, it happened fast and I didn't have time to think about it.  The crowd went crazy and a few coaches and parents said they'd never seen a triple play.  Right place at the right time.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Probably so!

I play golf with Johnny White sometimes, and I joke with him that you guys helped my HS batting average about 20 points every year because ya'll spent so much time on football your pitchers were on the mound calling out a snap count instead of pitching early in the year.

Johnny White was a three sport star at Lonoke in the late '60s, and that doesn't include golf.  Probably one of the best baseball players to come through Lonoke.  I was one of the batboys when his crew won the state title in '69.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Getting to drive our own cars to all the out of town Legion games back around '80-'82 was so cool. We'd always get beer after the games on the way back home. Our second baseman didn't drink and had a big yellow Delta 88. We would pile about 6 of us in there. Some great memories that bring a smile to my face still to this day. Great thread here.

Now THAT brings back memories.  Getting to play the LR and NLR teams meant going somewhere after the game, usually to get into some sort of trouble.  I had a Ford Courier truck - smallest truck on the road at the time - and we would routinely pile 4-5 guys in it to go places.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Our mothers kicked us out every morning and we played all day.  Ghost man on first.

Junior Deputy was one of two places to play in those days in Little Rock proper. The other was Lamar Porter.  I'll quibble with you a bit about Pony League vs. Babe Ruth.  They weren't the same national organization - like Little League vs. Cal Ripken today.  Anyway, JD had Babe Ruth.  Lamar Porter had Pony League.

Years later, a friend of mine from team named J.C. Baker told me I should go to law school.  He had just graduated from law school, and I was waiting tables at Coy's Steakhouse.  I asked J.C. why he thought I should be a lawyer, and he said, "because you're the most competitive SOB I've ever met".  I thought that never helped me much.  I had figured out by then that people in general don't like competitive people, but I took J.C.'s advice and went to law school.  Nobody likes lawyers anyway.

American Legion was as close to real baseball as I ever got.  But in the late 70's that was pretty close.

Gotta respond to some of this.  First off, bp, I always had you pegged as an old timer about 20 years older than me.   

I laughed when I read "ghost man on first."  Heck, some days we played with ghost men on all three bases.  It was a phrase you heard all day long and I bet I haven't heard it in 40 years.  Thanks.

Regarding the Babe Ruth v. Pony League thing, I think I wasn't clear what I said in my post.  Yes, they were two different organizations and a ballpark generally had affiliation with one or the other.  In Lonoke it was Pony League, so that was my league from 13-15 years old.  Heck, now they have USSSA, Little League, Dixie League, AAU, Babe Ruth/Cal Ripkin, and I'm sure others as well.  I learned that from all the years coaching my son's teams and going to tournaments all over the state.  One weekend we'd be playing AAU ball; the next weekend it was USSSA, and so on. 

If you're talking about J.C. Baker the attorney in Little Rock, he's a friend of mine.  Didn't know him back then, but professionally we've crossed paths many times. 

Finally, yes, back then Legion ball was so far ahead of high school ball it wasn't even close.  It's completely flipped now, but in the '70s Legion was king. 

[tennesseehogwild]

Now THAT brings back memories.  Getting to play the LR and NLR teams meant going somewhere after the game, usually to get into some sort of trouble.  I had a Ford Courier truck - smallest truck on the road at the time - and we would routinely pile 4-5 guys in it to go places.

I played for El Dorado. We hardly ever played the LR-NLR teams. We did routinely travel to Pine Bluff, Texarkana, AR & TX, and Shreveport! Fun times. LOL I threw a two-hitter and K'd 15 at Texarkana, TX as a 17 YO and lost 2-1. 1sr batter of game walked and 3-hitter homered on me. So pissed on the way home I drank way too much and was heaving on the side of US 82 several times....lol

[hog_stu]

Great thread.

I grew up in the country where folks where pretty passionate about baseball.
I was the youngest of three boys. Dad was president  of LL for many years so I spend a lot of time at the park. Our LL teams won league like 13 years in a row. We had a great LL coach.
The school averaged about 25 students per grade. These were the same kids that made up the LL team.
Moved to the "City" after 9th grade. They didn't have HS baseball. Guess they didn't want it to interfere with spring football (track).

Played LL through Sr. Babe Ruth. No Legion ball in the area. Lots of softball afterwards.
I played all positions except catcher and 1st base but mostly middle infield.
Usually I just played whatever position that day's picture normally played.
Above average ground ball skills, average everywhere else except horrendous on high pop-ups. I would run circles for pop-ups that landed where I was originally standing.

Fell in love with the knuckle ball early. I would throw it from 3rd to 1st during warm up as early as LL. Most didn't want to warm up with because of me throwing it all the time. I didn't get to pitch until my last year of ball. I was warming up with our catcher, and he was complaining as the coach walked by. So coach decided to let me pitch a couple of games. Got to pitch the game to clinch league and hit a home run the same game. Lots of fun memories.

My oldest brother played when it was just one classification in high school ball and the middle brother's Sr. year it switched to two classifications. So we would play anybody we could Little Rock and south. Pine Bluff, White Hall, Sylvan Hills, Texarkana, Junction City,  etc.  Middle brother's Sr. year was my 9th grade year, so I was on the team but on the pine. We won region that year, but the seniors got stupid and went on a Sr. trip. The runner-up in our region wound up runner-up at state as we bowed out quickly. All those guys regret it to this day.

Funny story. Sylvan Hills comes to play at our place, McReynolds hits 3HRs against us. As he's coming up to the plate for final HR, a blonde bombshell drives up in a corvette. So most all of us are standing there with our mouths open, since we hadn't seen anything like it. McReynolds hits the HR, trots the bases, heads back towards the dugout, throws his helmet in, trots on out to the vette and leaves with the girl. He didn't even finish the game. We did give McReynolds his only HS pitching lose, so I guess there's that. So what small high school was this?

[bphi11ips]

Gotta respond to some of this.  First off, bp, I always had you pegged as an old timer about 20 years older than me.   

I laughed when I read "ghost man on first."  Heck, some days we played with ghost men on all three bases.  It was a phrase you heard all day long and I bet I haven't heard it in 40 years.  Thanks.

Regarding the Babe Ruth v. Pony League thing, I think I wasn't clear what I said in my post.  Yes, they were two different organizations and a ballpark generally had affiliation with one or the other.  In Lonoke it was Pony League, so that was my league from 13-15 years old.  Heck, now they have USSSA, Little League, Dixie League, AAU, Babe Ruth/Cal Ripkin, and I'm sure others as well.  I learned that from all the years coaching my son's teams and going to tournaments all over the state.  One weekend we'd be playing AAU ball; the next weekend it was USSSA, and so on. 

If you're talking about J.C. Baker the attorney in Little Rock, he's a friend of mine.  Didn't know him back then, but professionally we've crossed paths many times. 

Finally, yes, back then Legion ball was so far ahead of high school ball it wasn't even close.  It's completely flipped now, but in the '70s Legion was king. 

Lol.  I just sound like an old timer because I remember details of football games back to about 1968 and get crotchety when posters start rewriting history.

That's the same J.C.  Really good guy and first baseman.  Next time you talk to him tell him he cost me a job as the Taylor Made sales rep for Arkansas.  Took his advice and went to law school instead. 

[jst01]

Probably so!

I play golf with Johnny White sometimes, and I joke with him that you guys helped my HS batting average about 20 points every year because ya'll spent so much time on football your pitchers were on the mound calling out a snap count instead of pitching early in the year.

Man you are not kidding!! haha. My 10th grade year the football offensive line coach was the baseball head coach... yea you read that right. His key observations and teachings were "pick out a good one.." or "keep your butt down!"   Cabot Baseball wasn't a priority at all.  11th grade year the assistant took over and they were baseball guys and things steadily got better.  I knew Mr. White pretty well too... was good friends with his youngest daughter.

[woodrow hog call]

The different league names got me trying to remember ours, in the mid to late sixties we started as Pee-wee (pitching to each other, no T ball, no coach pitch). Then you went to ponies, then midgets and I think that's when we could lead off and steal when we wanted, then you went to Babe Ruth and I don't think there was a JR SR thing but I could be wrong.

Babe Ruth is when our league fizzled out and some kids went to other big towns to play Legion ball. I really wanted to play for the guy that coached my older brothers in BR, (I was the bat boy) but when I got old enough he had quit coaching and there weren't enough guys my age that wanted to play.

[Hooter]

Where did you play and when.  I played in Helena and graduated in 1976.  Played for Harding 1976-1978 and then got married and hung my cleats up.

[S&W]

Played 2B, 3B and P in small town Oklahoma until I was 16 and had to get a job. All I could throw was fast balls but it worked for me. Was at a camp in Stillwater back in the late 80s, got to meet Robin Ventura and a few more players. After some smack talk Ventura gave me the honors of throwing him BP, man that dude could mash. Coached my nephews team for 4 years and had the time of my life.

[SPAL]

Long time reader, first post.  Love my Hogs, btw.

let see....

2nd and short mostly in High School (Stockton, CA) my junior and senior years after leaving Beebe (AR) in 1980 to live with my dad.  All defense and very little bat but could bunt.....weird.

In College (Modesto Jr College) I pitched a little, had great control and nasty breaking pitch (OK fastball) but ruined my shoulder. 
I tired Semi pro ball in the San Jose (CA) area and that was fun but coaching was more my thing.  I was a player/coach in the National Baseball Congress for 10 years and we traveled all the state, Nevada, Arizona and a tournament in Anchorage which was.....interesting.   

I would of loved to play for the HOGS, just wasn't in the cards I guess.  GO HOGS!!!!!

The National Baseball Congress was the same league Joe DiMaggio played for in the 1930s (SF Seals), btw.

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing

[Hogs-n-Roses]

Johnny White was a three sport star at Lonoke in the late '60s, and that doesn't include golf.  Probably one of the best baseball players to come through Lonoke.  I was one of the batboys when his crew won the state title in '69.

My dad used to hit ground balls to Johnny for hours when he was preparing for pro ball. Johnny was apart of a state basketball championship too. Quite a list of standout baseball players. (3b)Johnny White,(P)Jimmy Johnson,(C)stan Todd,(P)Steve Burks(patriots tight end from BeeBee I think)

[hawginbigd1]

I remember Deese Hardware. They were one of the first team sponsors in the Rose City area. Coleman Dairy was a big time team sponsor in Rose City back then. Shipley Donuts, Derryberry Auto Parts, and Norman Clifton Auto Salvage were other great sponsors in that era.

Back in my little league and Pony days Rose City played in our league sort of, I think they forfeited more games to us than we ever played. It was always a question of whether we would have a game, the team was Coleman Dairy sponsored then. I played at Landmark and East End.

[lakecityhog]

All I can tell you for certain is this--- The older I get the better I was!

[Jackrabbit Hog]

My dad used to hit ground balls to Johnny for hours when he was preparing for pro ball. Johnny was apart of a state basketball championship too. Quite a list of standout baseball players. (3b)Johnny White,(P)Jimmy Johnson,(C)stan Todd,(P)Steve Burks(patriots tight end from BeeBee I think)

Burks was from Cabot.  Tom Ed Gooden from Carlisle was on that Legion team too.  I knew all those guys.  They were my sports heros growing up and I stay in touch with a few of them.  In 1969, Lonoke won state championships in basketball and baseball (Legion), and finished the football season ranked #1 in Class A.  No playoffs back then.  It was the same core group of guys in every sport.  Johnny was one of the best.

[TexasDad]

Long time reader, first post.  Love my Hogs, btw.

let see....

2nd and short mostly in High School (Stockton, CA) my junior and senior years after leaving Beebe (AR) in 1980 to live with my dad.  All defense and very little bat but could bunt.....weird.

In College (Modesto Jr College) I pitched a little, had great control and nasty breaking pitch (OK fastball) but ruined my shoulder. 
I tired Semi pro ball in the San Jose (CA) area and that was fun but coaching was more my thing.  I was a player/coach in the National Baseball Congress for 10 years and we traveled all the state, Nevada, Arizona and a tournament in Anchorage which was.....interesting.   

I would of loved to play for the HOGS, just wasn't in the cards I guess.  GO HOGS!!!!!

The National Baseball Congress was the same league Joe DiMaggio played for in the 1930s (SF Seals), btw.

Was this the same league that Fontanetti's sporting goods would have a team of D1 college talent with a core of ex-pro players every summer?

[Snoutman]

My dad used to hit ground balls to Johnny for hours when he was preparing for pro ball. Johnny was apart of a state basketball championship too. Quite a list of standout baseball players. (3b)Johnny White,(P)Jimmy Johnson,(C)stan Todd,(P)Steve Burks(patriots tight end from BeeBee I think)

Yes Steve Burks was from Cabot. I played against Steve and Jimmy Johnson (Lonoke), big red headed rascal could bring it. I still have a knot on the inside of my right arm where I got hit by one of his heaters.

[LJHOG]

It was summertime.  It was hot.

[bvillepig]

Burks was from Cabot.  Tom Ed Gooden from Carlisle was on that Legion team too.  I knew all those guys.  They were my sports heros growing up and I stay in touch with a few of them.  In 1969, Lonoke won state championships in basketball and baseball (Legion), and finished the football season ranked #1 in Class A.  No playoffs back then.  It was the same core group of guys in every sport.  Johnny was one of the best.

LOL I struck out 24 in 10 innings  in the finals of the district in 1969. We won in the bottom of the 10th. We made it to the final 4 of state and met Lonoke in that game.
I still have nightmares (just kidding) of Stan Todd.  We were winning 5-3 in the bottom of the last inning. I think I walked one and another one got on on an error. No excuses but I had gone 10 innings on Friday night, 7 on Sunday in Legion Ball. & on Monday in the first game of the state 7.

I got 2 strikes on Todd quick and he started fouling off pitches, seemed like 8 or 9 in a row .  I went back to my fast ball and he parked one.  Only home run I gave up in High school that I remember. I didn't t even know his name but do now.

We got em back in Legion ball though clobbered em bad.  I hit a home run off Johnson in the state tourney that was fun to watch. Lol 

I have another story on Burks that is fun.

[ThisTeetsTaken]

Lee was two years ahead of me.  His little brothers, Russell, Bobby, and Eric were teammates of mine in pony league on Curtis Harris at Rose City.  None of Lee's brothers had his bat power, but they were all good ball players.

Russ and I were the same age and also went to school together.  Russ was a good guy and a good friend.  Russell died just this last March.  He had lived in Conway for the last 35 years and worked in HVAC.  I would run across him from time to time in Conway.  Good memories.  Rest in peace, brother.

I knew Russ.  We worked for the same company for a few years.  Didn't know he died though.  What was he about 50?  How did he die?

[Hogs-n-Roses]

Burks was from Cabot.  Tom Ed Gooden from Carlisle was on that Legion team too.  I knew all those guys.  They were my sports heros growing up and I stay in touch with a few of them.  In 1969, Lonoke won state championships in basketball and baseball (Legion), and finished the football season ranked #1 in Class A.  No playoffs back then.  It was the same core group of guys in every sport.  Johnny was one of the best.

There were a couple of other salty players on that squad. Joe Bob McCollough(sp), Roger Clements,not sure if Larry Cash was those years or not.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

There were a couple of other salty players on that squad. Joe Bob McCollough(sp), Roger Clements,not sure if Larry Cash was those years or not.

Joe Bob McCuller.  Very good friend of mine and a good athlete in his day.  Roger's best sport was basketball.  I think Larry was a year ahead of all those other guys.  I played with Larry's younger brother, Melvin.

[TexasDad]

A few years ago I realized that a couple of guys who post regularly were kids who lived on my street when I coached youth league baseball in Sherwood back in the '90s.  The funny thing is, they were disagreeing on something and had no idea they knew each other or had been basically neighbors 20 years earlier.

Such a small world...

I actually played in that league for a short period... The Hollister Angels. It had a different name initially (maybe the A's - that was a while ago). The player coach was a former coworker of mine, currently he coaches and manages the Auburn California Wildcats - collegiate   Summer wood bat team (same league Spanberger played in last summer) back story is pretty funny.

So I played little league for two years - when I dented the coaches Volvo... (earlier in this thread). What I didn't say is I was lucky to make the team. Divorced parents I'd never played any sport until bicycled myself to the little league tryout without a parent. I was likely in street clothes, I don't remember. What I do remember going to the different tryout stations on the field and having very little clue, culminating with camping under a fly ball in the outfield (tossed by a pitching machine). I must have lined it up, because it broke through the webbing of the 30 year old gove and hit me square on the forehead. By the time I scraped myself off the grass, there was a lump protruding from my forehead that looked like an extra large grade "A" egg... I was never a good player, I hit a couple of dingers but I was a big kid and the fences for Little League Majors were 182' back then.

I did always like throwing things - as a kid I had no equal throwing rocks or skipping stones. As a high school junior I threw discus and shot - My PB's were 182' and 52' respectively. Life happened and didn't compete in track my senior year and that was it for competitive sports.

Fast forward I'm 26 an working with the above mentioned coach - he sees me throw a softball at a company function and decides he can groom me into a pitcher for his semi-pro team. So I played for a couple years in that league. I threw very hard and very inaccurately (I just tried to throw it down the middle and it went where it went). I also had hands of stone and not a lick of baseball sense - but it sure was a blast!

The summer ball coach (also my catcher) still tells the story of my first outing to his players. During warmups I hit the backstop more than the glove. The college kid leading off, asks the catcher if I typically settle in during the game. The catcher tells him that I'd never pitched before, he had no clue where the ball would be going and he sure as hell wouldn't be standing in the box. The college kid struck out on three straight pitches nowhere near the strike zone and jogged back to the dugout.

My favorite memory was when the my catcher (coach) was so pissed that I skipped another pitch home that hit him in some unprotected spot. He got a new ball from the blue, charged the mound and threw it as hard as he could at my feet.

Heaven only knows how many guys I plucked - if you're one of them, it wasn't intentional... LOL

Really great memories...

[Boog41]

Modesto, did your NBC team ever make it to Witchita?

I just drove through Modesto the last few days. Made me think of one of my best buds in college. He played for the A's minor league team there one summer. 83 maybe?? I believe it was there where Jim Perry (Gaylords twin) gave him a pair of new spikes that were just my size and not my friends.

[BillyHog53]

I have a friend at FAC in Fayetteville that tells people that I was all state in football, basketball, baseball and track but he is such an exaggerator, I never was on the track team

[Southpaw Hawg]

Played at Henderson State for 4 yrs.  was a left handed pitcher and was inducted into their Sports Hall of Honor last year. 

[Hawgphish]

Played at Henderson State for 4 yrs.  was a left handed pitcher and was inducted into their Sports Hall of Honor last year.

From one old Reddie to another...Congratulations on the Honor, well deserved. 
Still to this day, when I hear the song Center Field by John Fogerty, I think about taking pre-game infield!

[NielsBoar]

Played on some great teams growing up.  High school in Ashdown and American Legion in Texarkana.  Had some pretty good teams in the late 80's, early 90's.  Don Bearden was a class act, favorite coach I ever had.

Pretty good teams? You played in the American Legion Regionals in 89 (for Sea-dog) and the World Series in 1990. Yeah, I'd say they were pretty good. That 90 team was a game away from the American Legion National Championship, if memory serves.

[Southpaw Hawg]

From one old Reddie to another...Congratulations on the Honor, well deserved. 
Still to this day, when I hear the song Center Field by John Fogerty, I think about taking pre-game infield!

[Southpaw Hawg]

Big Fish!  Good to hear from ya!

[BigoBoys]

Best friend had a football scholarship to Arkansas, we tried to do a two for.  Debriyn told me he had no scholarships available, said if you make the team as a Freshman I'll pay for the next three years.  Scott Bull was my host and said "I've been here for a long time and have seen one Freshman walk-on make the team, so I went to Missouri Southern as a walk-on($200 a semester). 

I was a second basemen but could play third or shortstop, .300 plus hitter, good fielder, good speed, little power.  Got to fall practice and there were 5 guys at 2nd so I went to shortstop where there was only one guy, a fifth year senior.  Fall practice went well coach encouraged me to come back in spring. 

No one helped with with my schedule so I scheduled 19 hours in the spring semester before I saw the 50 game baseball schedule.  Figured I wouldn't play and was concerned about my school schedule so I didn't come back in the spring.  Senior shortstop broke his ankle first game. 

[Hogs-n-Roses]

Joe Bob McCuller.  Very good friend of mine and a good athlete in his day.  Roger's best sport was basketball.  I think Larry was a year ahead of all those other guys.  I played with Larry's younger brother, Melvin.

After some 40 years Melvin brought my legion glove to me a year or so ago.I had no Idea where it was and they found it in some old equipment bags.

[futurehogdad]

Played at Henderson State for 4 yrs.  was a left handed pitcher and was inducted into their Sports Hall of Honor last year. 

You should have started the second game of the playoffs instead of Victor Crews.