When I joined a baseball club, the boys of my own age, and a little older, played in the first nine, those younger than myself played in the second, and those still younger in the third, and I played with them.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was the youngest of about nine boys in the neighborhood, and we played ball all the time, and I looked up to them, and they let me play around with them, and we just had a good time.
The fact is, when I was 15 and a sophomore at high school, I played on the varsity baseball team for the college.
At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.
I played American Legion ball starting when I was 14. But I didn't catch until I was 17. I was 75-3 as a high school pitcher, but it was like everybody knew that I was supposed to be a catcher. When the scouts would come around, and I was pitching, they'd make me take infield practice so the scouts could watch me throw.
I played softball for a few years growing up. Both my brothers played baseball.
I started golfing at a young age, and growing up with two older brothers, it made me mature a lot younger.
I went to football training when I was five because I think my father thought he had two boys.
I was in 30-plus clubs when I was 14 years old.
I've always played with kids that were five, six, seven years older than me.
I had two older brothers, so I was always competing with them. The guys I grew up with on the golf course, when I was 13, they were 15 or 16, and I was always trying to beat them.