1109pm Monday. Barely
BG,
Shit, I had no idea my alter ego, Robbie Rist had a website. (You'd think I would've done my research). That's great. Drudging up old memories.
You're question is the easiest one so far.
All through school I played baseball starting with Little League and moving up to high school. I was the oddity of a left handed catcher. Made that throw to third base pretty tough. But I learned the snap throw pretty quickly by study how the professional catchers made the snap throw to first trying to pick off a runner. Eventually they just moved to me firstbase once the regular started moved on.
After highschool I started playing softball and just recently quit after playing some form of the game since I was 6 years old. Imagine that. An out of shape, long-haired, chain-smoking, alcoholic who could actually handle a bat rather well considering his stature. Sound like anyone I might also look like with the same qualities?
"I ain't an athlete, lady. I'm a ball player."
John Kruk. I used that line so many times in the last couple of years, it was getting silly.
True story. I'd walk back to the bench after the defensive half inning and light up a quick smoke if I wasn't due up anytime soon. Of course, as soon as I'd do that, we go down 1-2-3 real quick. Well who the hell wants to waste a good cowboy killer? I'd take it out to the field for warmups. But I'm a professional, I always threw it away before the first batter :)
Speaking of John Kruk, he is by far one of my favorite Philly athletes. Always seemed like a down to earth guy. He used to hang out in some of the local bars around here with Dystra and Daulton. The stories coming back after those nights are still part of local tradition.
So to you, who's your favorite Detroit athlete?