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A Game In Progress
A Game In Progress
The game is getting down to the nitty gritty and the opposing team is ready to pull ahead if we don't get our stuff together. Oh well I know I had him, blind ump. The next batter is their number four batter and he is ready to...
Back By Popular Demand
Back By Popular Demand Come and See Those Interesting Baseball Stats For some people this is Baseball Fantasy For some people this is Baseball Memorabilia For me it is joy and amazement. I love perusing the baseball stats. Walter Johnson...
Baseball Gloves!
Baseball Gloves! If you play baseball or softball, you need a good, dependable baseball glove. The right baseball glove can make the difference in your game. Below are some suggestions for finding the right baseball glove: How To Buy A...
Baseball in Shanghai? Another American Sport Exported to China
As an athlete (or at least having been an athlete in the past) and a sports fan, one of the difficult things about finding myself on an extended stay in Shanghai, China (setting up sporting goods manufacturing and other business contacts) is the...
Dieting where you do not need to starve yourself
I am somebody who has had an ongoing battle with my weight for most of my life. I have to be very careful what I eat as I seem to gain weight very easily. I have tried many diets, however I wanted to find a way of losing weight without having to...
How to Care for Sports Memorabilia
IT'S NOT JUST A HOBBY, IT'S AN INVESTMENT!
Many collectors of sports memorabilia have their collections in
their homes or offices without really showing regard to the
preservation and the protection of the items.
I was watching an old...
Inspiring Baseball Quotations
I loved being around the baseball players when they had something to say that I thought would have a positive impression. Here are some of the quotes that I have enjoyed and have inspired me.
Bob Gibson
“ I owe the public one thing - a good...
My golf buddies belly laugh watching my stiff and choppy golf swing. How can I fix it?
We would all like to have a fluid, beautiful swing like Adam Scott, power off the tee like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, and the ability to repeat that swing round after round, day after day. But what is holding back most amateurs from that silky...
My Top Baseball Teams of All Time - Part two (Also in no particular order)
My Top Baseball Teams of All Time
Part two (Also in no particular order)
1955 Brooklyn Dodgers
They won the pennant by 13.5 games.
Scored 857 runs while allowing 650 runs
Finally beat the New York Yankees in
The World Series. They had five...
World Series In Russia - Huh? What?
As we watch the Astros choke or White Sox perform valiantly depending on your point of view, I am reminded of my baseball experience in Russia.
World Series
I always find it interesting that most of our professional sports call the championship...
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Burr Ball!
I was watching a Braves’ game the other night, and the announcers were droning on and on about how much skill it took to play baseball. They got into the speeds and types of pitches, conditioning and reflexes, split second decision making, all kinds of stuff like that. You can just about imagine the dialogue as we’ve all heard it at least a million times before.
Well, they can talk about pro baseball all they want to in terms of skill, but it runs a far distant second to a real man’s sport - its cousin and derivative, “burr ball.”
For those of you out there who don’t know what burr ball is, its a game we played in my backyard in suburban Juliette back when I was growing up. Ed Jr. was the originator, and no game I’ve ever played, before or since, has proved as challenging as burr ball.
For burr ball, you played a one-on-one match-up. There was a hitter and pitcher, and that was it. An axe handle served as the bat, and the hitter was stationed about twenty-five feet behind our house in the backyard, pointed at the house. The rules were simple - each side had three outs, the games were nine innings long, if you hit one over the roof it was a home run, if you hit one on the roof it was an out if the pitcher caught it before it touched the ground. If he dropped it when it rolled off the roof, you had a hit and a runner on base.
Hitting wasn’t what made burr ball challenging, though - it was the pitching, and what was pitched, that accomplished that. What was pitched was one of three items:
Dried up sweet gum burrs that were placed in a pail of water.
Dried up hickory nut shell quarters.
Full, green hickory nuts.
Think hitting those items wasn’t a challenge? That was only the half of it, cause the man that pitched them to me, Ed Jr., was the recognized Greg Maddux of burr ball.
Let me give you an idea - it would be my turn at bat, and I’d be holding that axe handle, standing about twenty feet from Ed Jr. He’d have a grimace on his face, and would stare at me for the longest period of time. In his right hand
he held what might be a burr, a hickory nut, or a hickory nut shell. You never knew which one he would use, although you did know that he at least had a burr in his hand cause of the water that would be dripping off his fist.
He would go into the windup, and let it fly. If it was a burr, it’d come streaking in fast with water flying off it. It was so tiny it was hard to see, and the bad thing was, even if you hit it, it was typically a weak grounder that didn’t even get up on the roof. If he threw the hickory nut, you’d never see it at all - you’d just swing and hope for contact, although that hardly ever happened. Ed Jr. would continually feed you burrs and hickory nuts until he knew you were his.
When that point came, when he knew you were looking burr or hickory, he’d sail up a dry hickory nut shell to the plate, the “flutterball.” It would float in like a butterfly and land right at your feet. It was so slow coming up that you’d swing five or six times before it ever reached the plate and you’d never hit it. Ed Jr. always liked to get strike three on me with the “flutterball.” He was so sure of it that he would even tell me when he was about to throw one, and even then I’d never hit it.
Ed Jr. never lost at burr ball, and I can never remember getting more than two hits off him in any single game. So just remember, when you hear Skip, Don, or any of those guys talking skill, just understand that they are pushing a very over-hyped sport. The number two athletically demanding sport, at best. You don’t believe me? Well, just handpick a few Braves’ players, invite ’em over to Juliette, give ‘em an axe handle, and then put ’em out there with Ed Jr. - the issue will be quickly put to rest then...
About the Author
Ed’s latest book, “Rough As A Cob,“ can be ordered by calling River City Publishing toll-free at: 877-408-7078. He’s also a popular after dinner speaker, and his column runs in a number of Southeastern publications. You can contact him via email at: ed3@ed-williams.com, or through his web site address at: www.ed-williams.com.
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