The Dugout - General Topics, Chat, Random Photos and Memes.......No Politics

#1,027
#1,027
cobbwebb0710 said:
Well, I’ll share my story anyway.
When my oldest daughter was little, myself and another dad volunteered to coach tee ball.
We had a brother and sister, with the brother being much younger but the only way he would play was if he were on his sisters team. This kid could not hit off the tee at all! His sister then tells me that I have to pitch to him. I lobbed some into the little guy and he just stands there. Sister tells me to throw it harder and faster, I do and this little guy starts hammering the ball! He’s in the field snagging balls like Ozzie Smith! I spend the rest of the practice and the next, critiquing his batting stance, how to throw, field...
Finally after the 2nd practice, I was talking to another dad about how good this little guy is. The dad says to me, you know who’s boy that is, right?
That’s his boy and points to the stands, where I see the guy that just pitched for the Yankees and was the first guy to start 10-0 in like forever!!!
Needless to say, I quit trying to “coach” his boy and just started encouraging him!
I could only imagine him telling his son, on the way home from practice, “now he’s a good guy and I want you to act like you’re paying attention to your coach, BUT DO NOT LISTEN TO A THING HE TELLS YOU!!😂
I got to know the guy and he is one of the best men I’ve ever met! Super good guy and great family!
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When we lived in Kennesaw & Dallas, Georgia my son started a new season playing 7 year old Dizzy Dean. I traveled a lot and missed the first two weeks of practice. My wife told me that one of the Dads was an ex-MLB pitcher as was working with the pitchers. The first practice I attended I was talking to one of the Dads. Small talk got around to where we were from. I told him Elizabethton, TN, to which he replied really. He asked where I went to school and told him ETSU.

His name was Sandy Diaz. He told me that he played for the Elizabethton Twins. He was from the Dominican Republic. He said that he used to work with the baseball team at ETSU working with the pitchers.

I told him about a Twins game that I was at where a player hit the baseball through a basketball goal that was on the wall in straight away center. If a player hit the ball in the goal they got money from a car dealer. I think it was Grindstaff Chevrolet. He asked me if I was at the game when that happened. I said yes, I had just graduated from ETSU in July. He said, well you have seen me pitch. I threw the pitch that went through the net. He went on to say that he told the batter that won the money that he owed him half. The batter asked why that was so. He said I served up that pitch.

It's a small world. I watched a baseball game in Elizabethton, TN. Then 17 years later my son is playing on a baseball team, in Kennesaw, GA with a kid, whos father was pitching in the game that I attended.

This is from a newspaper article when it happened.

`There`s A Swing And A Drive . . . Swish! `

August 24, 1989

Tom Hardgrove of the Martinsville Phillies more than doubled his monthly salary Monday night when he sent a 414-foot drive through a basketball goal mounted on the center field fence at the Twins` O`Brien Field in Elizabethton, Tenn.

``That shot was just unreal,`` said Twins clubhouse man David McQueen, who said it was the first time anyone had managed the feat in the 15 years the hoop has been there. ``You wouldn`t have believed it if you saw it. We`ll probably go the rest of our lives and never see another like it. ``

Hardgrove, a first baseman making the standard $850 in the rookie Appalachian League, earned $1,000 for the drive.

His hit was a fifth-inning double with none on and none out in the first game of a double-header. The baseball sailed through the humid evening air toward the wall. About 12 feet up on the wall hangs the basketball goal with the net gathered at the base. Hardgrove`s ball kissed off the wall and plunged through the hoop.

McQueen said about 100 games are played at the field every year. The Twins have 35 home dates, and there are assorted high school, college and other amateur games there.

Despite Hardgrove`s heroics, Martinsville was swept in Monday`s double-header. Hardgrove got some consolation out of his lucrative evening`s labor. A local business awarded Hardgrove a check for $1,000 before Phil’s` game Tuesday.

``The money`s definitely going to come in handy, `` he said.
 
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#1,028
#1,028
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#1,041
#1,041
lilesrt said:
The success of this season will largely be overshadowed by the disappointment of not making it to Omaha. No reason why this squad will be watching it unfold on TV.
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It sucks that it ended the way it did — and as much as it sucks for fans, nobody feels it worse than those guys (especially the many key contributors who will never play again in a UT uniform). But ultimately this was an awesome season that should be fondly remembered by fans and players for what they did do. Only one team will hoist the trophy — and to be honest, outside of that campus, that team will likely live smaller in college baseball lore than the 2022 Vols.
 
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#1,045
#1,045
txbo said:
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I read somewhere that all the teams at this years CWS took team photos with the “Road To Omaha” statue except for The Razorbacks.

Apparently Arkansas is all business, no distractions with their eye on the prize.

Do you think Tennessee will take this type of approach next year or continue with their fun brand that we all enjoyed?
 
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#1,046
#1,046
mad4vols said:
I read somewhere that all the teams at this years CWS took team photos with the “Road To Omaha” statue except for The Razorbacks.

Apparently Arkansas is all business, no distractions with their eye on the prize.

Do you think Tennessee will take this type of approach next year or continue with their fun brand that we all enjoyed?
Click to expand...

That decision has Dave Van Horn written all over it
 
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#1,047
#1,047
VolFanGBO said:
what did he say
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Mickey made a comment about how a certain Coach (he was referring to Summitt) would have looked down on UT baseball, been ashamed of the antics, glad they were humbled, etc.

Wilkerson responded with a line by line destruction of his little tantrum.

I’ll try to find the screen shots.
 
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#1,048
#1,048
WallyBalls said:
Mickey made a comment about how a certain Coach (he was referring to Summitt) would have looked down on UT baseball, been ashamed of the antics, glad they were humbled, etc.

Wilkerson responded with a line by line destruction of his little tantrum.

I’ll try to find the screen shots.
Click to expand...
pat would have loved it…
 
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#1,050
#1,050
TheMookieMonster said:
We're going to have to listen to an entire off-season of people virtue signaling about our team aren't we?
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I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree, Mook. Schilling is giving baseball advice here - not moral preening. He's simply saying: Why give teams extra incentive to want to beat you? I think that's sage advice. And I can understand if someone doesn't want to take the advice. But I don't think he's clutching at pearls here like some who truly are virtue signaling and getting the vapors over the incivility of it all.
 
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