In my early teens, I used to be a very active and injury free young man with a promising career in baseball. I also had a not-so-bad reputation as a rep-level soccer goalie prior to that.
Amazing how things can change :(
Sure, I had injuries in my soccer days. Such as being kicked in the bottom of my foot whilst in the process of kicking the ball. Possibly the largest swollen ankle a human has ever seen before. From what I saw, it appeared that the tip of my foot touched my shin. That may be how I remember it, not reality.
But soccer was good to me. Many years of fun were had.
9 years, not one goal scored when I did play forward or defence.
I'm not ashamed at all. I was meant for goal prevention, that's all.
Then baseball...
Those were the really good years.
I went an entire season without getting out against this one team.
No matter how they pitched me or played defence against me, I could somehow get on base. After that year I moved up a level.
I was by far the best of my team at all aspects. The best 3rd baseman that team had ever seen and the biggest slugger as well. Just try and keep my hits in the park.
I have two stories that I love when it comes to baseball.
First one....
It was the cliche of the bottom of the 9th (we only played 7 though), the bases were loaded with two outs and if I didn't hit a home run, we lost the game and were out of the playoffs. Thankfully I was inspired by an opposition player on their bench who screamed "This guy can't hit". Well hit I did, a 'grand slam'
As I strolled ever so slowly down the 3rd base line, I made sure to mention to the opposition player "Thought I couldn't hit"
Second one...
The Bolton pitchers that year were taught how to throw a curve ball
This curve was a very exaggerated pitch. It would start at the height of your head and drop into the strike zone. It was pathetic to see my teammates duck out of the way every time that pitch was thrown. Basically every batter, aside from maybe one other, would be out in 3 pitches cuz they just couldn't understand the pitch.
So now its my time up to bat. Baseball is a game of skill but mental games and intimidation play a very large factor.
I played the mental game to perfection.
The first pitch comes and of course its that slow curve ball.
So I play up to it and drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Wouldn't you know.... I hear "STRIKE"
At this point in my head I say "I got him now"
Since I looked so pathetic at the first pitch, second pitch coming... slow curve ball. This time though, I don't fall to the ground. Rather I stay in there and wait for the pitch to drop into the strike zone.
Once it did... that ball didn't have a chance. It was hit out of the park and landed on a driveway across the road from the ball park.
I never again faced one of those curve balls or that pitcher.
Every time I came to bat the pitcher would change.
Now THAT is the most respect anyone has ever paid me.
Believe me, I rubbed it into the faces of all my teammates.
**Back to the original topic**
This is where the story for our hero (jcloth) changes.
A mid-season game I hit a routine ground ball to the shortstop.
Problem though, I am off-stride. If I keep running I will run right passed the base. So I have to make a quick decision, "two small steps or one big one". My choice is to take one big step. After that mistake, if the Matrix was released my thought would have been "why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill". I managed to hit the tip of my shoe on the base and snapped my knee backwards tearing my ACL. I lay on the ground right after with no pain, only saying to myself "that couldn't have been good". Two surgeries later, my knee was okay, until two weeks ago when I heard a 'POP' from my knee again and I have felt pain ever since. Looks like surgery #3 is on its way.
Continuing the downfall....
Gym class. We're playing football outside and the pass comes right to me. Non-contact football, and I get tackled from behind from a long time friend. I manage to sprain every finger as they all jammed into the ground and managed to knock my hips out of alignment. I have dealt with the hip pain ever since. 100's of dollars to the chiropractor and it still takes the lightest nudge to make my lower back hurt again.
More recent problems.
My thumb gets jammed playing hockey a few years ago.
All I did was glance my left thumb off of another players arm.
100's of dollars later... still have pain.
Then in early 2001 throwing a baseball, I hurt my shoulder.
A pain I still feel to this date. Apparently I tore a ligament in my right shoulder.
**Things start to get somewhat better for me**
I meet someone while in Australia.
We spend a lot of time together. She even visits me here.
I'll admit, I was in love. She had a daughter too, but I loved that daughter as if she was my own. Everything is great. In March I was going to move there with her to live with and possibly create a life together with my future step-daughter.
In January though, I lose my job thanks to "restructuring"
So now I'm unemployed, but that's okay. I have job interviews lined up in Melbourne so I'm good. My finances are all set too.
**Things turn to complete shit for me here**
Then one night on an attempt to eat 50 Tacos from Taco Bell, I receive an unexpected phone call and am told not to go to Australia anymore because she is in love with someone else. To which I find later, she is now living with this person. Big kick in the nuts there when you were willing to give up everything for that person. I politely told Maverick, Grimm, Mycophile and Make that I had to leave because I had a few issues on my mind.
So now I've lost my job and my woman.
Many months of "why me" were to follow.
From a person who never cries, I couldn't play one of my hockey games because I just couldn't stop crying. After the game I just had to go to my car and cry cuz I was so hurt.
Then recently, we (old high school crew) decide that we are gonna go to Cuba. For me, I needed to go just to get away from the reality of life. It was the best thing that I ever did and the best time I ever had. I have never been more relaxed in my life.
I even met an Italian girl that I really liked and lived fairly close to me. People who know me well, know that me being attracted to an Italian female is very unheard of. Italian women make me sick in so many ways, but this one didn't. She fell into a lot of the Italian stereotypes that I hated but none of that mattered cuz she just had something about her that made me not care about the stereotyping that I've done through my life. BUT.... to continue the emotional abuse that is being fed to me, she has a boyfriend and I don't have a chance to get to know her better.
.....that brings us up to today.
Not that my job was a high paying or entertaining job, I had a job I really enjoyed and friends there that I plan to keep forever. As well, I had a life planned with someone whom I actually loved. Not that "love you but not in love with you"
I had that "I'm totally in love with you" feeling.
Now I have none of it.
Added to that now, I have a torn ligament in my left shoulder as well. That makes problems with both shoulders, back, knee and thumb. Physically, I don't think I could be worse.
As far as work goes, nobody seems to want to call me back after I send in a resume. Relationship wise, there doesn't appear to be anything on the horizon for me. Not that I need a girlfriend, but I would enjoy the comfort level having a woman in your life provides. The single life is great cuz I can do whatever the hell I want without worrying about anyone else, but much like everything else... it gets old too.
Luckily Cuba took away all the stress I had before, otherwise instead of just talking about Fight Club as a joke, I may have turned into Tyler myself.
....but the story of our hero is not over.
He will be back and you will be sure to hear about it when he does
Amazing how things can change :(
Sure, I had injuries in my soccer days. Such as being kicked in the bottom of my foot whilst in the process of kicking the ball. Possibly the largest swollen ankle a human has ever seen before. From what I saw, it appeared that the tip of my foot touched my shin. That may be how I remember it, not reality.
But soccer was good to me. Many years of fun were had.
9 years, not one goal scored when I did play forward or defence.
I'm not ashamed at all. I was meant for goal prevention, that's all.
Then baseball...
Those were the really good years.
I went an entire season without getting out against this one team.
No matter how they pitched me or played defence against me, I could somehow get on base. After that year I moved up a level.
I was by far the best of my team at all aspects. The best 3rd baseman that team had ever seen and the biggest slugger as well. Just try and keep my hits in the park.
I have two stories that I love when it comes to baseball.
First one....
It was the cliche of the bottom of the 9th (we only played 7 though), the bases were loaded with two outs and if I didn't hit a home run, we lost the game and were out of the playoffs. Thankfully I was inspired by an opposition player on their bench who screamed "This guy can't hit". Well hit I did, a 'grand slam'
As I strolled ever so slowly down the 3rd base line, I made sure to mention to the opposition player "Thought I couldn't hit"
Second one...
The Bolton pitchers that year were taught how to throw a curve ball
This curve was a very exaggerated pitch. It would start at the height of your head and drop into the strike zone. It was pathetic to see my teammates duck out of the way every time that pitch was thrown. Basically every batter, aside from maybe one other, would be out in 3 pitches cuz they just couldn't understand the pitch.
So now its my time up to bat. Baseball is a game of skill but mental games and intimidation play a very large factor.
I played the mental game to perfection.
The first pitch comes and of course its that slow curve ball.
So I play up to it and drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Wouldn't you know.... I hear "STRIKE"
At this point in my head I say "I got him now"
Since I looked so pathetic at the first pitch, second pitch coming... slow curve ball. This time though, I don't fall to the ground. Rather I stay in there and wait for the pitch to drop into the strike zone.
Once it did... that ball didn't have a chance. It was hit out of the park and landed on a driveway across the road from the ball park.
I never again faced one of those curve balls or that pitcher.
Every time I came to bat the pitcher would change.
Now THAT is the most respect anyone has ever paid me.
Believe me, I rubbed it into the faces of all my teammates.
**Back to the original topic**
This is where the story for our hero (jcloth) changes.
A mid-season game I hit a routine ground ball to the shortstop.
Problem though, I am off-stride. If I keep running I will run right passed the base. So I have to make a quick decision, "two small steps or one big one". My choice is to take one big step. After that mistake, if the Matrix was released my thought would have been "why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill". I managed to hit the tip of my shoe on the base and snapped my knee backwards tearing my ACL. I lay on the ground right after with no pain, only saying to myself "that couldn't have been good". Two surgeries later, my knee was okay, until two weeks ago when I heard a 'POP' from my knee again and I have felt pain ever since. Looks like surgery #3 is on its way.
Continuing the downfall....
Gym class. We're playing football outside and the pass comes right to me. Non-contact football, and I get tackled from behind from a long time friend. I manage to sprain every finger as they all jammed into the ground and managed to knock my hips out of alignment. I have dealt with the hip pain ever since. 100's of dollars to the chiropractor and it still takes the lightest nudge to make my lower back hurt again.
More recent problems.
My thumb gets jammed playing hockey a few years ago.
All I did was glance my left thumb off of another players arm.
100's of dollars later... still have pain.
Then in early 2001 throwing a baseball, I hurt my shoulder.
A pain I still feel to this date. Apparently I tore a ligament in my right shoulder.
**Things start to get somewhat better for me**
I meet someone while in Australia.
We spend a lot of time together. She even visits me here.
I'll admit, I was in love. She had a daughter too, but I loved that daughter as if she was my own. Everything is great. In March I was going to move there with her to live with and possibly create a life together with my future step-daughter.
In January though, I lose my job thanks to "restructuring"
So now I'm unemployed, but that's okay. I have job interviews lined up in Melbourne so I'm good. My finances are all set too.
**Things turn to complete shit for me here**
Then one night on an attempt to eat 50 Tacos from Taco Bell, I receive an unexpected phone call and am told not to go to Australia anymore because she is in love with someone else. To which I find later, she is now living with this person. Big kick in the nuts there when you were willing to give up everything for that person. I politely told Maverick, Grimm, Mycophile and Make that I had to leave because I had a few issues on my mind.
So now I've lost my job and my woman.
Many months of "why me" were to follow.
From a person who never cries, I couldn't play one of my hockey games because I just couldn't stop crying. After the game I just had to go to my car and cry cuz I was so hurt.
Then recently, we (old high school crew) decide that we are gonna go to Cuba. For me, I needed to go just to get away from the reality of life. It was the best thing that I ever did and the best time I ever had. I have never been more relaxed in my life.
I even met an Italian girl that I really liked and lived fairly close to me. People who know me well, know that me being attracted to an Italian female is very unheard of. Italian women make me sick in so many ways, but this one didn't. She fell into a lot of the Italian stereotypes that I hated but none of that mattered cuz she just had something about her that made me not care about the stereotyping that I've done through my life. BUT.... to continue the emotional abuse that is being fed to me, she has a boyfriend and I don't have a chance to get to know her better.
.....that brings us up to today.
Not that my job was a high paying or entertaining job, I had a job I really enjoyed and friends there that I plan to keep forever. As well, I had a life planned with someone whom I actually loved. Not that "love you but not in love with you"
I had that "I'm totally in love with you" feeling.
Now I have none of it.
Added to that now, I have a torn ligament in my left shoulder as well. That makes problems with both shoulders, back, knee and thumb. Physically, I don't think I could be worse.
As far as work goes, nobody seems to want to call me back after I send in a resume. Relationship wise, there doesn't appear to be anything on the horizon for me. Not that I need a girlfriend, but I would enjoy the comfort level having a woman in your life provides. The single life is great cuz I can do whatever the hell I want without worrying about anyone else, but much like everything else... it gets old too.
Luckily Cuba took away all the stress I had before, otherwise instead of just talking about Fight Club as a joke, I may have turned into Tyler myself.
....but the story of our hero is not over.
He will be back and you will be sure to hear about it when he does