50 years ago today...

Tom Kochtanek

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 12
Wow, exactly 50 years ago today I started my last high school baseball game against our local rivals. It was a double header and coach put our best Lefty out there, a hard thrower who ended up being drafted by the Pirates. I was the distant second pitcher that season, with my future to be more focused on academics than sports. He had the fastball, I had a drop curve that had a big bend in it, but I was much much slower than our #1 guy. He got bombed in the first game of the double header, we lost 6-3. Between games Coach came up to me and told me to warm up, I was throwing the second game :).

Ended up I was sooo slow and the previous pitcher was much faster, so I threw everyone off with my "slow" fastball. And I kept throwing junk (slow curves, etc.) at them and they were way off balance. We ended up winning 2-1 and I even got a line drive single and scored one run :) :) :).

Fast forward 48 years (2 years ago) and my kids got me to throw out the First Pitch at a Mizzou college game:

First Pitch 2017.jpg

Just in case you wondered if it was a strike:

First Pitch2 2017.jpg

Cheers!
TomK
 

Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
Time flys when you're having fun Tom. You made a wise choice on concentrating on your education. I look at all the jocks from high school and don't see where they were so fantastic in the big game of Life. We all have different definitions if success I guess.
 

Blk61409

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 9
Tom, AWESOME!! Still has the form, hard to do with all the creaks and groans we get. One of my grandsons is also left handed pitcher, really screws up the batters:):)
Congratulations!!!
 
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