[Travis]

One year of my all too brief baseball career as a youth, I played on a rep team as well as house league. Our rep team was made up of basically the 'all-stars' of the house league, and competed against the other rep teams from around here.

As a pitcher, it was the first year I started throwing a curve and change up (so I was probably around 13 at the time). During a rep game, I had an 0-2 count on the cleanup hitter, so decided to unveil the big hook pitch, and low and behold the sucker worked. First curve I had thrown in a game, and this thing starts at the batter's head, he bails like he's about to be shot, and while he's diving the other way, it hooks in like a dream, catcher never even had to move his glove. Umpire yells out "STRIKE 3! YOU'RE OUT!" Poor kid on the ground looks back, trying to figure out what the hell just happened before going back to the bench. Needless to say, my game went downhill from there as our catcher couldn't stop laughing, and it's damned hard to concentrate on a target when it's constantly bobbing up and down.

Now for the funny part. Two days later in house league, my team plays my rep catcher's team. Fourth inning, he comes up to bat. His first AB I threw him nothing but fastballs, but during the second AB I couldn't stop myself from trying another hook. Low and behold, this one starts off straight for his head too. His eyes go wide, he starts to jump out of the way, but you could see the moment of clarity when he realizes just what's going on, and moves back in. Yeah, then the curveball decided not to curve, and he took that sucker right in the ear. Again, my game went out the window after that because I could not stop laughing. Neither could he, and it was only funny because he wasn't hurt, and I've now taken up enough of your time.

Thank you and good night.