2 Sports Questions For You
Mates,
These two questions are for you and relate to events that you personally participated in, not just things that you attended or maybe watched on TV. This is a pretty biased blog in that most of the folks that post here are sports junkies and played some level of sports relative to the overall population. All of us (or nearly all) at some point participated in athletics. It might have only been in gym class up to 9th grade, but for many it was high school at least and for many it was beyond that.
The questions are closely related and are as follows:
1. What was your most disappointing or embarrassing sports moment?
2. What was your favorite, most memorable sports moment?
XM
But I was actually trying to catch it. Doh!
1. In soccer toward the end of a tie match, I kicked a lazy pass backwards to our goalie in high grass to clear it, and I left a sitter for the other team which they knocked in with ease. I immediately just walked off the field, got in my car, and drove home without saying a word to anyone.
Nobody ever brought it up or said anything about it later. They must have been as embarrased about it as me.
2. Won a medal in Cross Country Districts in high school. I had zero athletic ability in anything at the time, so I was stunned to actually win something in a legit athletic competition.
Not exactly Jackie Smith and Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, but there it is.
1) After my best friend in HS intercepted a pass, I committed a block to the back while he was returning it for a touchdown (that was called back). We're seldom in touch anymore, but when we talk, he'll try to work the word "clip" into the coversation.
2) That one time - one time - I finally beat my dad golfing.
1. Either scoring 4 goals in a soccer match (not bad for a CB) or blocking Rumeal Robinson's shot 3 times in a row ("don't bring that weak sauce to me").
2. scoring an "own goal" in the same soccer game (no, I didn't count it in the 4 I scored).
Macro answer:
1. Most disappointing or embarrassing: my high school 'track' career - slow, poor race tactics, mistakes, slow. Did I mention slow?
2. Favorite, most memorable: my son's track and cross country achievements in high school and college. Really proud of them.
Answering the question directly:
1. I dropped a baton in a distance medley at a high school indoor meet at EMU, and DQ'd three teams once we all went out of lane.
2. My youngest son made it to the NCAA Cross Country Championships as a senior, and his whole season was pretty darn good.
Worst - breaking my wrist in a slow pitch softball game.
Best - A bunch of really good moments, but not a single great moment that stands out better than all the rest.
Worst---getting into bahsketball coach's doghouse one week during junior year in high school without knowing how I did it, not playing in gym (Mustkegon Heights) that week that I grew up attending games with my father.
Best---tennis victory over a player who won state championship, and who had victories over 2 players that eventually would get into top 20 in the world.
My golf coach always left the 6th spot for the varsity squad open. There would be a match in practice for the 6th spot. It was a great technique, those matches were cut throat.
As a freshman I won the match and got to play in my first varsity tournament, probably my finest sports moment. It just so happened to be the biggest tournament of the year.
I went on to play the worst round of my life and shoot a 101, the moment was just too big for me. It's ok though, high school golf matches only count the top 5 scores, so I knew mine would be thrown out.....
Our captain didn't check his opponent's scoring, and he ended up signing an incorrect scorecard, he was disqualified. My score now had to be used. We went from finishing 3rd in the tournament to finishing next to last.
That bus ride home I wanted to jump in front of a fucking truck.
2nd best moment would be draining a 50 foot putt to win a matchplay event my senior year against a kid who was the best player in the county and would go on to play D1 college golf.
Worst : Got blown out first lacrosse game my senior year, I thought we had a good team.
Best: I blocked a punt with my face in football and my picture was in the paper.
Worst: middle school baseball, could have turned a DP to end the game and finish the regular season in 1st place. Thought there were 2 outs and only got the out at 1st. Next batter homers and we lose. (We beat them for the title in the tournament though).
Worst- During my senior year, my golf team failed to qualify for districts after winning our league for the first time in like 30 years. The group of guys I played with were awesome, and we really resurected the program. We choked that day, but they qualified for the state tournament the following year.
Best- I coach high school baseball in NW Ohio, and my team qualified for the state final-4 this year. It was unexpected, but such an amazing experience watching those boys learn to play for one another. The loss was heartbreaking, but it was an incredible run.
This was a fun read this morning. Good work McFarlin, it takes real effort to be that much of an ass.
Best moment: walking on to the team here. Didn't feel real. Had a couple great workouts and all of a sudden I was in the lockerroom with guys who are in the NFL now. Tops anything I ever did in a game in HS.
Worst moment: Senior year of HS playoffs I was going up against an OL who went on to play at Wisconsin, you'd probably recall the name. It went like: borderline, walk-on D1 player goes up against starting Wisconsin OL. It was a very embarassing end to an All-Conference HS career, by getting my ass kicked up and down the field for 80% of my final game.
kicked the ball off the cross bar in AYSO whe ni was 10, it was like 30 degrees out and it came back and hit directly in the face.
Best- Traveling arounf the midwest for soccer tournaments in the summer
Worst: my senior year I was heading to a game we had against a rival school, got pulled over doing 80 in a 65. it was my first ticket and I was in a pretty bad mood after that. Fast forward to the sixth inning: I'm at bat, score is 0-1, 2 outs, runner on second (one of our few hits that day- their pitcher was really good), and I absolutely whiff on three straight pitches... I walk back to the dugout and toss my helmet out of frustration. Coach walks over and tells me he doesn't care what happened earlier that was completely inappropriate behavior. He benched me for the rest of the game and had me wait in the dugout until after the post-game handshake.
Not saying it was a bad call, just completely embarrassing.
Best: robbed what would have been a walk off home run three games later
Most Disappointing: we lost that game in the 11th inning
Interesting... showing 2207 comments, even though there are only 128 comments so far. Haven't seen this bug before.
I am responding just to see what happens to the count.
someone posted like 1000 comments...you can see them on mobile
Is it a bug, or was there a massive deleting purge that happened?
Most embarassing: Going from the best hitter on the team in little league one year to zero hits, and being hit by pitch about 10 times the following year. I left the team and joined another it was so awful. Kids are cruel.
That winter, they discovered my vision had gone from 20/20 to about 20/250.
Next summer, I'm up to bat against my old team, sporting my new glasses. Much heckling commenced. I proceeded to rip 2 balls to the fence that day and shut them up for good. Certainly not my best moment, but redeeming.
My best moment was going for 20-something against Saline and having a reporter sit next to my dad the entire game (he didn't know it was my dad) and tell him that if I was 4 inches taller I'd be all-state.
Runner up: getting my picture in the local paper dunking junior year. It had no real effect, but it made me feel great.
My husband does the same thing: relives his glory days in grade school sports. I also get to hear about how he blew out his knee in freshman football regularly, and how it pretty much ruined his high school sports career.
My wife knows your pain, lol!
Luckily I didn't have an injury. I had an " i know better" attitude. That's my biggest regret ... really of my entire life. It's one I try as hard as I can to make sure my kids don't have. The grade school thing was an example of how I think back on seemingly small plays and still think/wish I had ran that step faster/slower, cut left/right, etc. Hell I even remember a couple specific plays from 1st grade soccer, both good and bad. (I'm 30 now)
Luckily, I was able to walk-on and play college football, albeit at a smaller school after my attempt at walking on for the basketball team didn't work out. Gave me a chance to feel like I was making up for the piss-poor attitude I had prior.
My wife, without a doubt, gets tired of hearing about my glory days ... though she was a sports star in HS too so she tells me about diving catches and walk off hits. We can then sit there together and remember lol.
Best: My colleagues and I signed up for basketball as part of work and learned quickly we were a C team (at best) in a B league. One game, when our best player was out sick, I ran a curl and hit a corner jumper, then got a layup in traffic, then finished an and-1, and found myself in the mythical zone -- had a great rest of the game, ended up in the high teens and got legitimate respect from the other team after the game (which we lost, badly). Never achieved that state of flow before or since.
Most embarrassing: We were at an outdoor park with a court, playing around, and I subbed out and sat down on concrete instead of in a grassy area. When I got up to go back in, I had left a finely-contoured ass print of sweat on the ground. And it was pointed out by one of the female colleagues in attendance. It was a good five minutes before anybody could recover.
holy cow I have never seen so many replies to a thread!
How are there over 2,200 responses to this thread?
They're testing their beta subscription site. If you're a VIP user, you can see all of the 2,200+ comments. If you're not, you can only see the 145 or so comments.
How do I get VIP access? Do I need to post some Kate Upton pics?
Apparently my filter blocking out extraneous responses in threads was a bit too selective if I'm shorted about 2,100 (I assume) golden responses here.
As to OP:
Most embarassing: Basically crapping myself after a particularly tough XC race in HS.
Most exhilerating: Winning the tough XC race in HS where I basically crapped myself.
I can't say which is best, but I have a few that stand out. Scoring the game winning goal, in overtime, in a best of three playoff series vs a rival in juniors. It made the prick who was a complete asshole to us all season cry and sent us to the championship.
I double eagled no. 18 at Moose Ridge. My drive missed the fairway to the right and rolled down a hill along the tree line. I couldn't see the pin, but I could see the left front of the green. I had to hit a high fade and bend it around the trees to get there. I hit it right where I wanted and it kicked right. I'm thinking that I have an eagle putt then my buddies up in the fairway start going crazy! It went in the hole.
I caught a monster pike on our lake. It was a chilly fall day and had just finished raining. I decided to go out by myself and troll for a little. When it hit I thought I had snagged a log. I gave it a pull and it moved. I set my drag and proceeded to baby this thing in over the next 15-20 minutes. I got it up near the boat and of course it didn't want to join me. I had to figure out how to net this monster that didn't want in my boat, by myself, with a net that was too small, all without it getting off my hook. I finally had him so tired that I could set down my pole, net his back half, and pull him up by the gills with my other hand. 42 inches and my scale only went up to 20lbs. It's belly was so big that when i picked him up it spread the whole length of my arm. I was torn on whether to mount him or let him go, but I was so in awe of his size and how old he must've been that I felt I needed to let him go. It was a tough decision and one that I am still torn on. A part of me regrets not having him hanging up in our cabin. This was ten years ago, so maybe he's still out there or maybe he's died of old age. I fear I will never know and that I'll never catch one like him again.
All of these experiences gave me a rush of adrenaline and feeling of pure joy that I've had a hard time finding in anything else in life. I love sports. As for embarrassing, none really stand out, but I've had more than enough embarrassing moments in my life.
I think it's cool that you let the old fish go.
The pike probably would say that surviving his encounter with you was his best sports moment.
thanks for the info. first suspected the return of Professor X...
Worst: just moved to a new town in 6th grade. Went to a varsity football game with some kids and we pick up a game of touch at half-time. We're playing on a green about twenty yards from the varsity football field, alongside of which, in about a three-foot ditch, a brook runs the boundary.
Our QB drops back to pass. There's no better time than this moment to impress my new friends. I picture myself catching the winning TD and make up my mind I'm going for glory.
My defender is well shorter than me, and from what I've seen, much slower. I'm confident I can burn him one on one, so I start into a sprint down the seam. I'm about three steps past my man and knowing I have him beat, I start looking over my shoulder, calling for the pass. My heart is racing. GLORY. It comes...
I don't look forward as I'm sprinting full speed to get under the ball. OVERTHROWN. My teammates are yelling "brook, brook!"
...
Best: nothing on a varsity field, unfortunately - but I've had my share of game-winning shots in pickup basketball games, boxball at recess, hitting that last minigolf hole-in-one for all the marbles. So I'll go with one that was at least meaningful.
As an adult, I played in my law firm's annual golf outing. It's a scramble, best ball. I was an associate at the time, and not very good at golf (I'm still a terrible golfer). But I put in some work at the range and built up some confidence. I just wanted to help give my foursome a chance, and not be a complete brick.
As we approached the 18th hole, I've been more brickish than helpful but I haven't committed any atrocities. I hit a couple good putts and I wasn't embarrassing myself on the green. My long and middle game was poor, but we had a gunner off the tee and my mentor and partner in the foursome was very strong with his irons. I've played to expectations, and I wasn't upset with myself.
We get into the tee-box on 18 and there's some chatter starting up our group is neck and neck with another for the best score. Winning team gets some nice swag - clubs, balls, sweaters, etc. Someone reminds us that the scramble rules are each team has to use a drive off the tee for each player, at least once. My drives have been shanking left and pulling right all day, and they're not exactly long balls, either. But with the pressure mounting on this par 4, I pull out my 3-wood. I take a few practice swings and start feeling confident. I line up my shot. Backswing, down-swing, CONTACT.
The ping of the ball resonates and I know I've hit the ball true. I follow through and look up to see the dot of my ball soaring straight as an arrow 170 yards down the fairway. My teammates are jubilant. We're well set up and about 225 to the pin as we load into the carts.
My mentor is ecstatic. He senses victory and can't wait for bragging rights over the other partners. As our foursome make their drops alongside my ball, some friendly trash talking starts. "Noonin"! Our ace shanks his layup wide.
My mentor drops his ball. Overconfident, he pulls out a hybrid and takes no practice swings. He hits on top of the ball. Our third mate hits for safety, an OK shot that hooks a bit and lands in the rough under a tree hazard about 100 yards from the pin.
I pull out my own hybrid 4, a TaylorMade Burner. I've never had any luck hitting this particular club off the grass and I'm reluctant to try now; but we're well-situated, so I figure why not. I take my practice swings and line up. PING!
I know I've made good contact again as my shoulders roll into my follow-through, and I see my ball soaring again straight toward the pin. For someone who rarely golfs, to hit two in a row like is a majestic feeling. The ball drops and takes a nice roll toward the green, about 75 yards away.
My team is confident we have the tourney won, and now my mentor is building me up: "You did it! This is YOUR hole. We're at this point because of you, finish it up." I pull out my gap wedge and line up my shot.
I phase out the chatter around me and imagine my grandfather, an avid golfer, standing next to me, giving me a pep-talk. "Take a couple practice swings. That was a great swing. OK, line up your shot."
My ball lands 2 feet from the pin. My team doesn't even bother with their shots; and I soon sink a pretty putt for par, along with the tournament victory, bragging rights, and from what I understand, a new client, who was in our foursome and extraordinarily happy to have won the tourney.
That one felt good.