Playing Sports “Back in the Day”–It’s All About the Prep
While growing up in Arlington during the 1950’s and 60’s, I recall much of my youth being consumed by my love for sports. Certainly, I can attribute this love to my dad who was a sports fanatic having been named VA All-State in football, basketball, and baseball in the late 1930’s while attending George Washington High School (GW) in Alexandria. Not only was I a fan of these three sports, but I was a participant in both football and baseball. Playing sports “back in the day” wasn’t about gameday, no, it was all about the prep!
Early on, the sport of choice was baseball with me not participating in football until I was in 9th grade at Stratford Junior High School. I began playing baseball at the ripe old age of nine for the Civitan Club 9–10-year-old team and later moving on up to 10-12-year-old team. I continued to play in the summers graduating from little league to junior majors and onto senior majors finally playing legion ball for American Legion Post #139 after both my junior year and senior year at Washington-Lee High School (W-L). Yes, I played JV baseball while attending W-L my 10th grade year and made the varsity team for both my 11th and 12th grade years.
Throughout my time playing baseball, I played both first base and right field preferring always to play in the outfield. When assigned to first base, I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my “scooping” abilities as I was always amazed when I successfully happened to scoop up a ball and for some reason, I didn’t like holding baserunners on first fearful that if the pitcher threw over I would somehow miss the throw allowing the baserunner to reach second base or beyond. I always felt much more comfortable in the outfield and had some success in playing that position since I had a rather strong throwing arm being able to make that long throw to third base when necessary.
I was a bit awkward, uncomfortable, and clumsy when I began playing football at Stratford although I was a big kid. Come to think of it, the Baby Boomer has always been a big kid. We had an excellent team lead by our Coach Mitchell who followed us to W-L with several players from Stratford having a great deal of success while playing for W-L. Because of my size and clumsiness, when I got to W-L and was a member of JV team I became the right offensive tackle. I’m gonna let you know right now that I was no fan of the offensive line and still can’t imagine why anyone would want to be a lineman. Fortunately, I found my “legs” by the time I got to play on the varsity team my junior and senior years and moving to my position of choice that being defensive end.
Playing sports helped me in so many ways, especially, in my career. Sports introduced me to the concept of “team” and how to be a good team member and team player, but more importantly, it taught me how to be disciplined by becoming self-disciplined. Hey, I certainly enjoyed playing in the games and I knew how important it was to practice and prepare. Preparation was fine, but I despised practice since I’m not allowed to use the word “hate”! It really wasn’t until I began my supermarket career when it finally “sank in” and I realized how important it was to practice and gain experience through frequency and repetition. In other words, it’s all about the prep!
Now prep wasn’t just about preparation and practice–it was just as much about prepping for the season at hand whether it was football or baseball. Upon reflection, I really did put it to my folks–meaning I cost them plenty of “big bucks” in prepping for the seasons–every season!! A case in point was when my father wanted me to become an Eagle Scout deciding it was a good idea to become a Boy Scout when I came of age which was at 11 years old and having completed the 5th grade. Well, the truth of the matter is I didn’t last past Tenderfoot! I was done after my first overnight camping trip when I was assigned to dig and be in charge of the latrine! Being a big boy didn’t always have its advantages. I also didn’t really take to sleeping in a tent on the bare hard ground in a tight-fitting sleeping bag in what had to be a temperature of at least 250 degrees! Dad was not at all happy with my quitting the Boy Scouts, especially, after forking out the cash for all the uniforms and all the equipment (far too much to even begin mentioning) needed to be a Boy Scout. It certainly took more than a little while for him to get past this early disappointment with so many more coming at later dates which I’ve previously discussed to some extent.
Prior to each baseball and football season, my dad and I would head to both Sampson’s Sporting Goods located across from Hecht’s and McQuinn’s Sporting Goods in Clarendon in order to prepare for the upcoming season–remembering it’s all in the prep!
For baseball, uniforms were provided by the team including the team hat which was sized and picked-up at McQuinn’s. Uniforms were used year after year and, occasionally, if you were lucky, you might hit the lottery and be on the team when they bought new uniforms. At W-L, JV uniforms were never new as you got varsity “hand me downs”. Varsity uniforms were more current and you would keep the same uniform if you were fortunate enough to make the team both your junior and senior years. No, you couldn’t necessarily choose the number you may have wanted as you chose your uniform based off of the size and fit and you only got one uniform which was worn at both home and away games. The rest of the equipment was up to you to supply and consisted of your glove, cleats, white stockings, blue stirrup socks, blue baseball sleeves, and jock straps. Each of these items only lasted for one season except usually for your glove. As you got older and your growth slowed, you would invest heavily in a glove which you would initially enter into a painstaking effort to properly break it in and keep it throughout your playing days.
The Baby Boomer’s glove was his “baby” and it was very well taken care of and always protected. Breaking-in a new glove was a daily chore keeping it soft and supple with the use of saddle soap and creating a pocket by rubbing in Glovolium, beating it in with your fist, then placing a ball in the pocket and wrapping the glove with rubberbands. My gloves of choice were the Rawlings first base glove as it could be broken-in faster and had better ball feel and the Wilson A2000 for the outfield as it was large and extremely sturdy with stiffer leather which created a great pocket over time.
Football uniforms and gear were provided by the school, but it was off to the sporting goods stores for shoes, socks, jock strap, and mouthpiece along with any additional hand or arm pads. Our game uniforms consisted of gray pants and a white jersey for home games and a blue jersey for away games. Practice uniforms were a “mishmash” of old game uniforms from years past. Numbers were assigned by position with higher numbers normally for lineman with those jerseys being the larger sizes.
Other than having the proper equipment prepping for the football season began in earnest two weeks prior to the beginning of our dreaded “two-a-day” practices. The Virginia High School League (VHSL) governed when official football practice could begin amongst so many other things, but we could gather as a group without coaches a couple of weeks before official football practice a couple times a week to loosen up, exercise, run a few drills, and finish up with those awful wind sprints all being led by the team captains.
Certainly, during the offseason it was permissible to utilize the weight room and the new sensation multiple weight and exercise machine called the Exer-Genie. Of course, weight training was voluntary (NOT) and the Baby Boomer did voluntarily (NOT) participate despising every intolerable moment–always remembering it’s all in the prep!
Two weeks of “two-a-days” felt like what I imagined would be a year in solitary confinement. Folks, let me remind you it was August, it was hot and it was humid, the practice field was nothing but a “dust bowl”, and we were in full pads and not allowed to take our helmets off. The Baby Boomer seemingly never had enough time to recover between the morning practice and the afternoon practice and both always ended with what had to be a hundred wind sprints. It went without saying the coaches were ruthless and by the middle of the first week both heels were covered with blisters. I didn’t like practice, in fact, I h_ _ _ _d it and tried to remember that it’s all in the prep!
Once school started the day after Labor Day, we went to one after school practice which was, at least, tolerable. We’d play a couple of scrimmage games against other schools who weren’t on our schedule in order to get a feel for where we were at that time. Once the season began Monday was an indoor day for film, scouting reports, and our game plan, Tuesday and Wednesday were full pad days where we’d run plays from our opponent on both offense and defense, Thursday was a lighter day in full pads reinforcing our game plan, and Friday evening it was game time. It’s all in the prep!
Prep for baseball was certainly far less intensive than that for football. There was, however, the stress factor associated with making the team as there were only so many spots and cuts took place. Part of my prep for baseball was I always had to lose weight. Yep, the Baby Boomer fattened up for football, but had to slim down for baseball and that was extremely challenging as I’m a big boy. In order to get ready for tryouts my prep included occasionally working out with both the track and crew teams which meant there was a lot of running–I didn’t like running–not one bit! As baseball season was just around the corner, I would usually “fast” for a couple of days and find myself clothed in a heavy plastic sweat suit sitting in front of an open stove in order to sweat out those last few pounds. Anyone out there sayin’ “stupid”! But still having to remember–it’s all in the prep!
Our normal baseball schedule was our facing a non-conference opponent on Tuesday and then a team from the conference on either Friday or Saturday or even both days some weeks. We did receive some scouting reports, but our schedule was very similar year after year and we knew many of the players having competed with or against them since little league. Our prep was a comfortable routine on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and consisted of stretching, warming up by playing catch with a partner, both infield and outfield practice, followed by batting practice. Every so often we’d split up for a three inning intra-squad game. That was about it in a nutshell–remembering it’s all in the prep!
Preparation is critical in the success of any endeavor. One thing the Baby Boomer remembers from his Boy Scout days is their motto: “Be Prepared”. I despised practice as a “youngin”, but finally grasped the importance of it as I pursued my career and found “practice makes perfect” creating the discipline to become self-disciplined and gaining the necessary experience through frequency and repetition. Hey, the bottom line is it’s all in the prep!