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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 7, 2007 - 12:16am PT
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I was wondering how many climbers have played baseball at some time? or still do?
The spontaneous concentration required in baseball (crux moments) seems similar to that required in climbing (crux moments).
My son just got the baseball itch so I've been doing a little pitching and batting. We both went to the cages the other day - I had a blast in the 50mph cage.
We also used to have those Ranger vs. Camp Four soft ball games. Bridwell at shortstop, Kauk at second. Largo always pointing to the meadows before he spanked it out there. Fred East catching...weird stuff.
,Tyrus at bat...
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Shack
Big Wall climber
Reno NV
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Russ is as good as you'll see without paying.........(his words not mine)
Hahahaha!
You still playing Russ?
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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We played up here. The ball was frozen solid, and it sure hurt when you got hit. Running the bases is quite slow in snowshoes, although being chased by a polar bear helped. No problem with slides - the problem was stopping. And it got kind of hard to distinguish between the home and away teams - everyone wore parkas, mitts and mukluks. But a good time was had by all - later we went curling.
This, and being concussed by soccer balls, may explain an aversion to team sports. Though I later discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that I was moderately decent at some athletic activities.
(Ok, I'm just joking. But I would have thought baseball was definitely a summer activity in Mammoth.)
Good luck to Tyrus, and may there be many happy games in his future!
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nita
climber
chica from chico
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Was knott Cochran in the minor leagues?
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2007 - 12:31am PT
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I remember me, Russ and Largo goin' down to Palm Springs for batting practice - Largo and Russ could slap that puppy over the fence on a frequent bassis. I never could - I'm was more of a line drive hitter (by default I think).
Chuck Chocrane and Fred East were both ex-pro. We had some wicked 'burnout' sessions in C4...damn. Largo and Fish were burnin' too.
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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What kind of climbing shoes is Tyrus wearing? We always wore cleats, I guess times they are a changing.
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Mimi
climber
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Yep, thems were the daze, Russ. Even got clocked in the orbit warming up with Kauk. Classic windowshade, on my back. I saw stars and Ron was one of em when I came to. He thought I was looking but I was glancing over at the game that was about to end before ours. At least I didn't get a shiner although my schnoz is still a little crooked.
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2007 - 12:38am PT
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Do they still have Ranger vs. Camp 4 softball games?
What ever happened to the big trophy each year?
Does Ken have those records?
Post 'em if you got 'em!
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WBraun
climber
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No more Ranger against the climber ball games John. They have teams now.
The games are mixed now. Rangers and climbers on the same team against other teams like Curry employees and NPS employees on the same teams.
Then there was the game Camp 4 climbers against Universal Studios when we had bench clearing brawl back in time.
Double header.
Universal Studios bought all the beer and food and we played double header. We won 1st game. Second game we are ahead by one run in the last inning and we are all fuked up on beer.
The batter hits a wicked liner to center field and I'm seeing 3 balls coming at me at once. True to form I scoop the triple bouncer while Pettigrew is screaming at me from shortstop to relay it to him to home.
The batter is rounding the bases for the wining run.
Not gonna happen. I huck the m'ofukin ball with all my might towards what looked like home plate. Pettigrew intercepted it and threw home
The tag was good! Glen Paul ran to home plate and screamed "You're out stupid M'ofuker".
The benches cleared and the rumble was on.
Yep them were the days ..........
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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BITD, there were a lot of expatriate English climbers living in Calgary. A lively scene, with the Calgary Mountain Club and all. They had an annual soccer game, and an annual hockey game. You can imagine the rest.
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Mimi
climber
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Thanks WB. I may not recover from that one.
The Chapman charging Bridwell on the mound story is another Hall of Famer.
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Nov 7, 2007 - 01:41am PT
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Chapman charged Bridwell?
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Mimi
climber
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I'm still laughing from this story on the Finger Lickin - TR thread Ed Hartouni started.
"Actually Werner...
Forgive me owisevalleyman, but your memory is foggy.
Chappy and I cleaned Great Moments in Baseball and got shut down on our first effort to climb it. We left a nut, a #6 stopper I think, at our high point and planned to get more fit and return. We made the mistake of showing our find to Bridwell one day shortly afterward on our way to Arch. A few days later Bridwell walked up to me in the morning as I was pickin my guitar and asked me how many new routes Chappy and I had done that season. It was six or seven, good ones too. Then he asked me what I was doin that day. Didn't know I told him, and he split.
That afternoon was the climber/ranger baseball game. I was out in the field and I see Chappy striding with great determination from the direction of camp, and directly toward Bridwell. I think the Bird was on the mound. Then in front of everybody Mark starts yellin at him about how he stole our route. I thought he was gonna start swingin.
Turns out Mark had returned to camp to find our #6 stopper at the picnic table with Bachar. Mark got all pissed off and Bachar told him he got it off a cool new route Bridwell had taken him to that day. Bridwell couldn't follow his lead.
For a few weeks before that for some reason Bullwinkle had been repeatedly tellin me "You gotta name one of your new climbs Great Moments in Baseball!"
"Why?" I would always ask. "Why not?" he would always say.
Bachar named it Pinky Paralysis. It's a great splitter finger crack, one of the Valley's best." The Warbler
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Some great moment's, for sure..
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troutboy
Trad climber
Newark, DE
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>I was wondering how many climbers have played baseball at some time? or still do?
I played from the time I was five through high school, college, and some adult rec type leagues after that. I was better at baseball than anything else in my life (way better than climbing ;-) ), but at 5'7" and 135 pounds (dripping wet)I was really way too undersized to go any further than Div III.
Baseball was all we did, all day in summer and after school until dark when the weather was decent, sometimes just 2 or 3 kids playing home run derby, strike-out, or a modified game where we had to switch hit. I loved baseball (and the Cincinnati Reds) more than anything as a kid and still liked it a lot as an adult.
Then, the greedy bastards had to go on strike not once, but twice. Have not been to a major league game since.
Enough of memory lane. But thanks for making me think back John.
Tim S
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eeyonkee
Trad climber
Golden, CO
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I played Little League, Pony League and Freshman High School. Switched over to swimming and water polo from football, basketball, and baseball beginning my Sophomore year. My childhod was all about sports.
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Started at 6 years old in Philly (PAL) and didn't stop till second year of college. American Legion was the most fun. Still a great game.
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ron gomez
Trad climber
fallbrook,ca
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My favorite game. Nice swing from tyrus, good arm extension, head down, oh and lock out the front leg will give better power on contact. Hey John next time I come up there, if Tyrus is still into it I can bring a schit load of baseballs I got laying in a bucket, probably >than 100 balls. What would be funnier than schit would be to have a game these days with all the 50+ year olds haggin around a field with arms as dead as dicks! Do you have the Funk blowing during the cage sessions, if yer boy needs live BP give me a ring a ling ding, I'll bring some heat under his chin. Give a call when you got the killer rotator cuff tendinitis from throwin', I'll come treat you!
Peace
ps taught him to adjust his cup yet? Not a respectable baseball player till ya got that one down.
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WanderlustMD
Trad climber
Lanham MD
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I played minor, little leauge but quit when I got to be around 13. Still play with the family on occasion, but obviously it's not remotely serious.
Bachar, that's a good point you made about points of concentration vs. crux sequences. Interesting...
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