Tuesday, June 11, 2019

The Past Time Involving the Pastime: Tee Ball


by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com
Luckily, baseball was a summertime activity, so I can write about it for the summer theme. I’m not sure exactly when I started playing baseball. It involved a tee, so I must have been at least 24 years old. Maybe younger.

I do remember being out there batting, waiting for the pitcher to fake a pitch. That’s how we did it. It was supposed to simulate what would be happening when we later got into real baseball. The outfielders weren’t really all that far in the outfield, because none of us were going to hit it that hard. I was one of the better hitters on my tee ball team, because I practiced…

If baseball was once America’s pastime, then it must be part of Summertime Funtime, or you must acquit.

Let me tell you a story about practicing tee ball. My parents bought a tee for me to practice with. I remember understanding, which is what probably made me good, that I wasn’t trying to clobber the ball. I was just trying to swing level, as instructed. This didn’t stop me from causing my brother to be taken to the hospital.

As I got better at swinging level, I was obligated as a rambunctious child to start trying to clobber the ball. I must have been around 6, because my brother was old enough to walk. He walked behind me. I was swinging so hard, no longer practicing the level swing, that I did the rookie move of swinging past 180 degrees. My brother was standing somewhere at around 190 degrees, and I popped him in the head with the bat. I tried killing my brother a few times when we were young. I promise it was never intentional.

He was ok, no concussion. I don’t think the bat had very much force by the time it connected with his head. The important part was that he was shorter than me, which meant that I needed more practice swinging level. I’m kidding. I wasn’t thinking about practicing anymore.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who hasn’t tried to kill his brother during their adult lives. He’s starting to wonder if there’s a reason his brother lives so far away though.

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