Growing up: Sports ... yes or no?

[KrisParr]

In reading many posts on this forum over the past few years, I’ve noticed that we have a wide variety of interest in sports. Some members are enthusiastic fans and post in-depth observations of certain happenings that only a true aficionado would know. Then there are others who apparently don’t know sticks, bats and clubs from balls, nets and cleats. And that’s okay.

 

So growing up, were you into sports? Tried ‘em and failed? Went into a panic attack just by the mere mention of “PE” class? How did you survive those adolescent years when you were the last dude picked for dodge ball? Or were you right up there with the jocks and managed to keep your “lavender” side in check?

 

I’ll make my entry brief. I knew I was gay practically from the day I was born. And with two very straight older jock brothers and a dad who was a small-college coach, sports was a huge part of growing up. I was never a star athlete, but I could hold my own in Little League and YMCA football. I learned quickly in high school that the way to be a cool “guy” was to be a team player, and the route I took was team “manager”. You went to all the practices, to all the games, and you earned a “letter jacket” but you could still suck at free throws and nobody cared. After high school, I followed the same path and was on the sports team “management” staff all through college. Of course a huge benefit was locker-room time, but it did require a tremendous amount of restraint as you can imagine.

 

Fast forward 30 years later. I still love sports - weekends have me glued to games. But, unlike my jock brothers, I find plenty of time for theater, opera, music, art, etc. If I were offered tickets to watch the Chiefs or attend the Lyric Opera in Kansas City, I’d have a tough time choosing, pre-pandemic, of course.

 

So, gentlemen, are you a sports fan or not? Were sports part of growing up? Or somewhere in between? I’ve never been around balls of any kind that I didn’t enjoy playing with. Looking forward to your comments.

[Daverwr]

Jockless here! I don’t know a stick from a cleat! And, yes, I cringed at the mention of PE. One time I told the coach I had asthma so I didn’t have to play. (Forty-five years later, I have asthma!). I’d do anything to get out of the shame of playing sports. I can even say that the only non-‘A’ I received throughout my academic life was a ‘C’ in, you guessed it, PE. Now, you want me to leave the room, just start talking sports!

[+ MysticMenace]

Never been athletic. Growing up in public school in the Philippines, the only sports introduced, as I could remember, were track, basketball, and volleyball; however, we were exempt if we participated in the arts. So I obviously picked choir (when I used to be able to sing a la Mariah Carey). When my entire family moved to the US, there was a lot more sports offering but opted to join academic bowls as I thought they looked better in my high school resume. I did have a resolve in college that I will enjoy a sport, and I have found it in tennis. I took some classes, sucked at it initially, but got better with time. I enjoy both the athletic and strategic part of the game. I have since gone to some games, including the US Open. Hope to sit in other Grand Slams in Australia, France, and UK.

[+ sync]

I was/am a total loss. As a youth I couldn't pitch, bat, throw, catch, or run. In gym classes I did play football, but because I was the biggest and slowest I was always the center. As center I never learned anything consequential about the game of football because all I had to do was listen for the cue to hike the ball to the quarterback. Occasionally, if the team needed to gain a little yardage at any cost, I would charge the line to receive a center pass. I had two older brothers who were adept at sports. Their looks of pity and disappointment linger today.

[marylander1940]

Hell yeah!

 

Football... but I preferred tennis!

[realeasymoney]

Tennis

 

Does ping pong count?

[+ AntonGraza]

Oh the pain of playing “sports ball”. Was enrolled at an early age to play baseball for the summer leagues, played left out quite a bit. Also flag football. Cross country in the fall was tolerable as I got older. My parents “knew” but it was never discussed (going on 50+ years) and used the pray + activities upbringing to keep me from being myself.

The cool thing was in Middle school, my teacher put me next to John, a big kid who was King of the Burnouts, real tough guy and a good athlete. He told me to help John with his studies, but don’t let John know. He then told John to watch out for me and don’t let me get picked last in gym. We had a great 3 years, I made good friends with the “bad” crowd and John did well, nice guy. Saved my butt until High School. Our team name in gym for 3 yrs was the Doobie Bro’s- glorious ?

I can’t throw to save my life, no hand motor coordination at all.

Now I look at the sports page in the paper to get the headlines so I can “keep up” at work and during client visits. I do enjoy going to watch live baseball.

[+ MysticMenace]

Tennis

 

Does ping pong count?

 

I love ping-pong too. Is there a difference between that and table tennis?

[+ WilliamM]

My dad took me to a many major leage baseball games in Boston when I was very young, but I never wanted anything to eat or drink because it wanted to return. Silly, because he wound not have cared.

 

And I became a huge Stan Musial fan in the early 1950s We saw several St. Louis Cardinals Boston Braves double headers with Konrad Adenouer.

 

I was a relatively decent hitter in neighborpick up game, but not the the Little League.

 

@KrisParr, thank you for starting this thread

Edited October 27, 2020 by WilliamM

[KrisParr]

[

 

@KrisParr, thank you for starting this thread

 

You, sir, are quite welcome. I am finding this thread most interesting - we have such a great group of contributors. And athletic supporters, as well.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I was on swim team in high school and like @KrisParr I also managed a couple of the teams in other sports - freshman football and track for a couple of years. Then being in marching band and pep band, I of course attended football and basketball games.

 

In college, I participated in several intramural sports, always as someone to fill an empty spot, not as a leader of the team: flag football, softball, and volleyball. And after graduation I played softball with a team of guys from work. But it has been over 20 years since I did anything more than workouts at the gym.

[CatDaddy]

Football, Baseball, and Swimming growing up. Now, still swim - but at this juncture mostly an arm chair quarterback. Although, I attend many Bama and SMU (my alma maters) football and basketball games. Roll Tide and Pony Up!

Edited October 27, 2020 by CatDaddy

[+ Charlie]

As a kid, I played baseball with neighborhood kids, but never organized sports at school. I had a badminton set-up in our backyard, and loved to play whenever I could get someone to play with me. My father belonged to a bowling league, and so I often bowled for fun. My father was also a baseball fan, and I spent many Saturday afternoons at Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds with him in my childhood and adolescence, until the Giants and Dodgers deserted for the lure of California money; I vowed never to root for either team again, and I never have, even though I eventually became a Californian myself. I was required to take and pass swimming in college--why, I don't know, because the school was in landlocked farm country--and it took me four years to finally pass. My father took up golf after he retired, but I tried playing it once with him and it was not for me. I have always enjoyed watching college football games, but never had any desire to play.

 

I fell in love with tennis while living in London during Wimbledon, and I became a passionate spectator fan, but I never imagined playing it myself until I retired and moved to Palm Springs. A friend mentioned that the racquet club down the street was having an end-of-season membership sale and suggested that we join; I thought that at 62 I was too old to learn to play, but I was persuaded to join and take lessons. I quickly became hooked, and was taking lessons and clinics for months. It turned out that I was a natural at it--who would have thought?!--and soon I was playing matches almost daily, even joining a USTA team and playing in senior tournaments. Most of the men and women I play with now are younger than I am, and I will be despondent if I reach a point where I can't compete any longer, because it has become the center of my social life as well as almost my sole form of exercise.

[Luv2play]

I had the misfortune of having two older brothers who preceded me at a private school where sports and academics were equally emphasized, modelled on the English “public” schools like Eton and Rugby. Misfortune because my brothers were more gifted at organized sports than I was. I arrived in grade 7, the last year of junior school, with expectations that I would be like my older brothers. I quickly dispelled that notion by my absolute ineptitude in football, basketball, hockey and baseball. All of these sports were compulsory so there was no way of avoiding them. The poorer athletes like myself were relegated to the “house” teams, which only played within the school. The better athletes, like my brothers, played on the school teams which competed with other schools in the city.

 

The picture was not altogether dismal, however, because in primary school I had spent a lot of time skipping rope with the girls in my class (Shades of things to come). However, what I didn’t realize at that formative age was that skipping rope is something many professional athletes do, such as boxers. So I became very agile and flexible, and built up stamina in my limbs. This was to help me in gym and later in life when I took up many sports such as tennis, horseback riding, downhill and cross country skiing and waterskiing. I got to be pretty good at most of these sports, at least an intermediate level. Along the way I have stopped doing most of these sports but it was a gradual casting aside of the skis and rackets etc.

 

Today I swim at least once a week but usually more often and I spend a good 45 minutes doing laps. My two brothers are physical wrecks, having sustained many injuries through contact sports and putting on too much weight. I gave up going to a gym a decade ago but by then I had preserved my ideal weight throughout my life and now face old age fairly well equipped physically. I work equally hard on the mental part as well, another legacy of my school days.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Luv2play

[Luv2play]

Eton, not Elton

[KrisParr]

These are great posts! More, more!

[Luv2play]

I just realized I misspelt racquets, as I was thinking besides tennis, I have played squash and badminton (and racquets once) and my old friends are hanging up in the garden shed. I also loved sailing and once took my lover out on a two person catamaran in Hawaii and gave him a wild ride.

 

In the 80’s I learned how to windsurf and had my own board at my cottage, which I could do when no-one else was around. I took up scuba diving briefly on three trips to the Caribbean and will never forget the night dives. I tried target shooting with rifles and once with a pistol but didn’t have good enough eyesight. And finally, I wasn’t a bad curler, a winter sport popular here in Canada but not so much in the US. I learned that in high school and was good enough to get on the school team to play against other schools.

 

Thinking back, I guess I was jack of all trades and master of none, when it came to sports.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Luv2play

[Smurof]

Dad wanted me to play hockey when he was briefly a part of my very young life, but I did tumbling instead as the only boy in the class. Later in my youth, I played soccer and was excellent. Dad was out of the picture at this point, but mom was what are nowadays called "a Karen", so my playing time was limited since every other parent (and kid, for that matter) couldn't stand her irritating bullshit. That was frustrating, but it only got worse.

 

When High School rolled around, I had an iron leg and could boot a football VERY far. The team (playing Spring ball was no contact) was excited of the prospect of pinning opposing defenses deep any time we needed to punt. Mom REFUSED to sign a waiver to allow me to play, so her precious only child wouldn't get hurt. Was I the next Ray Guy? No (he was considered the best at the position), but it sucked playing French Horn during halftime on the field when the crowd is collectively at the snack bar instead of doing what I wanted to do. Punters have the best view of asses, but that's just a bonus!

[Islesguy]

I was a bowler throughout my childhood and adolescence. Nowadays, I'm a huge ice hockey fan, hence my username.

[thickornotatall]

Softball....swimming...skiing....cycling...My brother had the first skate shop in Venice Beach and we both taught skating...I like competitive sports..after a broken shoulder (cycling) and a broken knee (skiing) I stick to swimming.

[jeezifonly]

I did not get any of the Sports Genes - not speed, nor eye/hand coordination with balls (I’ve gotten better at that! ) not brute strength, nor shower room dominance. I have always had long legs, so balance was often a struggle with a higher center of gravity, and TBH any sort of competitive streak in me is short lived. (I can’t stand to watch reality competition shows, not even DragRace)

 

It’s almost impossible to imagine living a child-to-grownup life in America without devotion to some sport, isn’t it?

 

Not when you got all the Imagination Genes.

[+ Topseed]

Growth spurts from 6th-9th grades made sports a horrible experience. Hell, I didn't know where my feet were then. I was a music kid at a jock high school, and that cemented my desire to get the hell out of Dodge for college and very rarely return, which is what I did. In my professional life, I followed enough sports so that I could talk the talk in a corporate setting, but that was about it. I enjoy sitting through a pro baseball game once or twice each summer, and that's enough.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Topseed

[+ Hoover42]

After an embarrassing incident in 2nd grade involving a locker-room shower, it was downhill from there.

 

I skipped PE whenever possible or otherwise refused to participate, and consequently failed every PE class I was forced to sign up for. I even had to take night classes in high-school to make up the lost credits I needed to graduate.

 

Fortunately, I did manage to get plenty of exercise because of all the walking and bike riding I did.

[caramelsub]

I’ve always been an artist more so than an athlete. Never interested in football, I don’t even understand the game. But I did like soccer as a hobby, I was never good enough to make the school team though. Nowadays I enjoy going to the gym, and lifting weights, my body is pretty athletic, though I have no interest in playing sports anymore.

[+ poolboy48220]

I was never good at sports when I was a kid - always right field in Little League; I was a year younger than my classmates and technically too young for it, but I think they pressured my Dad into coaching so I could play. I lasted one afternoon on the ninth grade football team. I joined the swim team just as sophomore year ended and found my calling; I played tennis that spring while the pool was pre-empted by the girls in synchronized swimming. I played on company softball teams but mostly for the post-game bar time. I got into running/triathlons for a while in my late 20's/early 30's. I've never, ever gotten into sports fandom, watching a hockey or football game on TV holds absolutely no interest for me.