Almanac. Why I’m Not A Professional Athlete

Many people fantasize careers.

• Some see themselves as great singers or actors.
• Others picture themselves in positions of influence in boardrooms or governmental agencies.
• There are those who see service their country through the military, police, or fire departments as their fantasy career.
• For a significant number of individuals, becoming the next single name soccer star, flamboyant football player, baseball phenomenon, or golf legend is the goal.

I was a member of the final list.

Throughout elementary school, I was either the biggest or second biggest child in my class. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was not only tall . . . Suffice it to say that I wore “husky” Penny’s blue jeans. I was neither quick nor fast.

My dad was the Umpire in Chief of my Little League. I was 11-years-old during the 1961 Little League season. Most of my at-bats ended in groundouts or strikeouts. I was an average fielder.

After the season, my dad minced no words.

“You’re too slow. You need to run more.”

I began running around the fence that enclosed our 0.4-acre yard several times every day. The running, combined with a growth spurt, took me into my final Little League season as a leaner, faster, stronger player.

I had a good year. I made the All-Star team. I was chosen to pitch the first game of our All-Star season.

I'm the third from the right in the back row.

We had a one-game All-Star season. The opposing pitcher was over six-feet tall. 
I threw hard. He threw heat.

Flash forward to 1964.

I’m in Pony League now. The Pony League script was a re-write of my final two-years in Little League.

As a 13-year-old, I was the second biggest kid on the team. I struck out 31 times. I was an average fielder.

My dad said this to me after that season.

“If you’re going to play baseball next year, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t hit .400.”

As a 14-year-old, I hit .440, smashed five home runs, pitched a no-hitter and a perfect game. I made the All-Star team. 
Because the All-Star format in Pony League wasn’t “play until you lose your first game,” the all-star team finished second in our opening round and lost in the Regionals.

As described in an earlier blog—A History of Injury https://goo.gl/VzwtCT, I’ve suffered a number of major muscle and bone damage in my soon to be 68 years. 

Although I didn’t know it then, my 14th year was the apex of my athletic career.

My high school athletic career is best described in medical terms.

Freshmen

Severe blistering on my heels—scars were visible for years afterward. Football.

Broken shoulder. Football.

Dislocated thumb. Basketball.

Sophomore

Torn quadriceps muscle followed by an attempt to repair it surgically. Football.

Sophomore pre-season photo. Notice that I was so tough
that I knocked one corner off the photo. ;-)

Junior

Torn groin muscle. Baseball.

Staged photo. There was a lot of that back when most cameras couldn't capture movement without blurring the photo. Another way I know this is staged is that my left foot never landed with the toes pointing toward home plate like this shows. The lack of pitching form is the primary cause of my torn rotator cuff.

Senior

“Stinger” in my neck. Football.

Damaged lumbar disk. All of the above.

College started where high school ended.

Freshman-UCSD

Ruptured L5-sacral disk—Fusion of L5 to the sacrum. Football.

Soph/Junior-SDSU
Partial tear of my right rotator cuff. Baseball.
My shoulder took about five minutes to loosen up by swinging a weighted bat before each practice. That should have been a clue.

I left the Aztec baseball team before league-play started because of my biology lab schedule. That was the end of my collegiate athletic career.

Things didn’t improve after I got married.

Playing “recreational league baseball/softball” or coaching

Complete tear of my right shoulder rotator cuff. Baseball.

Torn hamstring-three total—one before my 30th birthday. Softball.

Broken left ankle-twice. Coaching. Softball.

FACTS

• I was a serious competitor when I played high school and college sports.
• My muscles have a tendency to tear under stress.
• My ligaments are less stretchy than many other people’s ligaments.

Combining the three statements above is a recipe for physical disaster.

The bottom line reason most non-professional athletes are not professional athletes is the lack of talent, motivation, or both.

I was motivated in my athletic career and probably had enough talent to earn a tryout in baseball or football . . .

. . . if only . . .

I’m not a professional athlete partly because I was “physically damaged goods” before there was a chance to give it a shot.

Reality.

I described myself as a “serious competitor” in high school--see the sophomore football photo above--and college. 
What’s more accurate is that I was emotionally undisciplined. 
Not all the time. 
Enough of the time to do stupid things.

My solution to being in a jamb while playing was to do something harder. I know I tore my groin muscle and my rotator cuff because of that mentality. I know the pitch that I threw when each one ripped. I was trying to throw a fastball through the catcher's mitt both times.

Playing football in college was a blessing.

After rupturing my disk, the college insurance paid for all but a couple hundred dollars of the cost for two hospitalizations, surgery, and the follow-up urinary tract infection. 
During the spinal fusion surgery, my surgeon found that the vertebra was malformed. 
“One day you’d have stepped off a curb or something like that and the disk would have ruptured,” 
is how he put it.

Would I have been a successful professional athlete?

I doubt it.

It doesn’t matter. I love teaching.

I cannot imagine a better career plot line in my life story.

Next Almanac: Some reprised post because of the holiday season.

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