Memories of my athletic days as a youngster.
When I was a young kid there were plenty of opportunities to get in trouble, I found it, and it found me! These were the days when your parents both worked long hours and you learned to fend for yourself.
I started hanging around with the wrong crowd and was sure to lead a life in prison if something didn't change real soon! Drugs were very popular with kids as young as 11 or 12 years old.
One time I got in so much trouble when my father came home from a trucking job, he was gone for a month and he learned about all the bad things I did all at once. Boy was he mad at me, I deserved a whipping with the belt.
This was the day that my career as a criminal came to an end!
I was forced to play sports, or never see the light of day. From then on I played Football (American style), baseball and basketball all year round. After the first year of this, I was now more interested in sports than hanging around and getting in trouble.
Football
I was a skinny kid and the levels were decided by how much you weighed. I was always starving myself so I could stay in a league with kids smaller than me. This worked until I was 13, after that there was no holding back my muscle weight.
I played fullback all the way, also I would play defensive lineman.
I was a quarterback's worst nightmare, I'm not proud of this anymore but a few were carried off the field!
Baseball
I played the catcher, nothing could get by me and I would block that home plate no matter how big the runner was. I was a good hitter with a batting average in the high 400's sometimes. My nickname was Boom Boom when I stepped up to the plate, I was a switch hitter.
Basketball
This was not my best sport, I was never very good at making the shots. One thing that did work for me was getting the rebounds, they were mine, and the other team always knew it! I really learned the most about teamwork playing basketball, we all had our weak points but came together as a team!
As you can see playing sports saved my life, I would like to thank my father for never letting me go down that path! God rest your soul Father, I miss you!
And a big shoutout to our brother 