I said, “Coach, I had a real good freshman baseball season and for the first time in my life I was able to just play one sport, and I think I just want to play baseball.” He took his glasses and put them on the table, took his pen and put it down. He made eye contact, and he said, “What did you say?”
I said, “Uhhhhh, I’m just gonna play baseball?”—like it was a question.
He said, “Larkin this is THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN!” and pounded his desk. All the papers that were neatly [arranged] on his desk were flying all over the place. He came up over the desk—almost climbed over the desk—and he pointed at me and said, “No one comes to the University of Michigan and plays stinkin’ baseball!”
I’m like, “OK, Coach.” He told me, “You get out of this office, and you come back tomorrow when you have come to your senses.” So I go back and tell him [again] the next day, and I thought that was the end of it.
Well, maybe three or four times a month [when] we’re out there practicing baseball, this guy in a hoodie comes out and he heckles me from the third-base line. It was Bo.
“LARKIN! Come hit a man who can hit you back instead of that sissy baseball!”
Unbelievable. The few times I got to tell that story up at Michigan, people loved it, but Bo hated it.
Repoz
Posted: May 07, 2012 at 04:14 PM |
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1. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: May 07, 2012 at 04:56 PM (#4125640)What were the Tigers thinking hiring him?
Matt Holliday was a QB at OK St
Adam Dunn QB!?!
Carl Crawford QB (yes, option-type for the wise guys who were gonna comment on his arm)
Jeff Francouer DB
Mike Hampton DB
Joe Mauer QB
I picture torn hamstrings.
There's also the famous pair of Manning backups, Todd Helton and Seth Smith.
Penn, not Penn State.
Jeff Samardzija was a potential first-round NFL draft pick as a wide reciever out of Notre Dame
Clayton Richard was a backup QB at Michigan
Link.
Who originally broke into the NFL as a paleface ringer with the 1922 Oorang Indians. He didn't go to the Yellow Jackets until he got busted by the Identity Police.
Mauer was Gatorade HS player of the year in both football and baseball his senior year. That seems pretty ####### ridiculous.
Jake Locker was Washington state player of the year in both sports his senior season.
"Lloyd, I told you to let Brady play full-time. Kowtowing to the less talented quarterback didn't accomplish anything, and it might have cost you a second perfect season."
Mauer was Gatorade HS player of the year in both football and baseball his senior year. That seems pretty ####### ridiculous.
This is one of those things that makes you realize how insanely naturally gifted some athletes are. I have no doubt that Mauer worked incredibly hard at both sports growing up, but to be national player of the year in both sports, when there are so many guys working just as hard and focusing solely on one sport...well as you said, it's pretty f'ing ridiculous.
I would have, but by the time Moyer made his debut in 1922, the one year deal with old man Staley had expired and the Staleys had become the Bears, and were now based in (where else) Cubs Park. I should know, because I cadged Moyer's neck strap from him after the game. It was a grand afternoon.
Authorities believe idiocy was involved.
Doesn't this happen anyway? This thread has a whole list of players who chose baseball over football. How many players that truly had the chance to star in baseball ended up picking football in the last 20 years?
Authorities believe idiocy was involved.
Who else? Tom Monaghan....
...who made his fortune on inedible pizza, and then sold his company to Bain Capital; befriended Bowie Kuhn; dumped millions of dollars on every right wing cause this side of the Posse Comitatus; hired Bo Schembechler; and capped it off by firing Ernie Harwell.
And yet he's still not as bad as Dan Snyder. Ouch!
...who made his fortune on inedible pizza
I thought that Ilitch was the pizza guy?
You're both right!!!
Monaghan = Dominos
Illitch = Little Caesar
They both are. Ilitch is Little Caesars, Monaghan is Dominoes. Of the 2, Little Caesars is far, far worse.
They both are. Monaghan ran Domino's, Ilitch ran Little Caesar's.
Wasn't Tom Brady a potential top 3-5 round pick in baseball?
In general I think you're right. A lot of it has to do with being 18 and getting a top round signing bonus versus going to play college football for *free*.
I went to HS a few towns over around the time prep semi-star JR House played. He would play football in WV, and would move to Florida to play baseball in the spring. He set many national HS passing records (which were later broken, by I think Chris Leak). He chose baseball and was a fairly solid prospect for the Pirates until he needed rotator cuff surgery. He left baseball, played football for one year at WVU, then went back to baseball and I think eventually made the majors for a cup of coffee.
Tom Brady was drafted by the Expos before he went to Michigan.
Jack Del Rio has a similar story, was drafted by Toronto and went to UCLA.
Cedric Benson was drafted by the Dodgers
Eric Decker was drafted twice.
Corey Jenkins was a first-round pick of the Red Sox
Jake Locker was drafted by the Angels
Little Caesars.. now that's inedible pizza, under any circumstances. Dominoes is at least edible enough in a stoned or drunk pinch.
Pat White was drafted by the angels before he enrolled at WVU. Wikipedia tells me it was the 4th round the the signing bonus was 6 figures.
Um... one of those things is not like the others...
I would have never guessed, at the time, that Deion, Bo and Brian Jordan would be as good at baseball as they were.
IIRC, Locker was considered a first round talent that fell because many thought he would play college football.
The Royals drafted Steve Barktowski, John Elway, Dan Marino, Deion Sanders and of course Bo Jackson. The team across the parking lot from them took Todd Blackledge.
Ricky Williams played a few years of minor league baseball, but I don't think he would have been a star or anything.
I don't know if he's still considered "active", but 3B Josh Fields was a pretty good QB at Oklahoma State. OF Bubba Starling is still just a prospect, but he was considered a top QB recruit for Nebraska.
Mere words cannot describe just how much the Tigers sucked in that period. First they fire Harwell (yes, they brought him back, but the damage had been done), then forced Sparky out because he wouldn't manage replacement players. But they did hire people like Mike Moore, Adam Bernero, Damion Easley and Deivi Cruz, people who couldn't win baseball games on a bet. So the franchise sank like a brick, making being a Detroit fan practically an act of charity.
It's still tough being a Tigers fan, even these days. Quit losing to the ####### Mariners and Royals, dammit! Score some runs! Geez.
and choosing baseball has allowed players to not have to spend what little is left of the rest of their lives with mangled, scarred brains or hopelessly arthritic joints at age 30 (yes you are correct - MY kids ain't playin no football, no way, no how)
You didn't even mention Randy Smith, quite possibly the worst GM of the last 25 years.
Further spiraling off topic...
My wife and I have already begun discussing this with regards to our 2.5 year old son. My parents would not let me play football growing up (for the arthritic joints & bone damage reasons, not so much the head trauma), so I know what that is like and I would hate to do that to my son if he wanted to play. At the same time, I really don't want him to play and my wife bounces back and forth on the matter. We have loosely decided on no tackle football before the age of 12 or 13, but pee-wee flag football is ok. Of course that's 10 years down the road, it's hard to tell what else the medical research will find on head trauma in youth and professional football by then.
Nor will I ever. (Actually, if you look into a mirror and chant "Randy Smith" five times, your favourite baseball team will lose 100 games.)
Del Rio actually played at USC. He was the starting catcher for teams that had Randy Johnson and (then pitcher) Mark McGwire.
...who made his fortune on inedible pizza
You're both right!!!
Monaghan = Dominos
Illitch = Little Caesar
Yeah, and the only way they could get any worse would be if Dan Snyder bought out both of them.
Shameless plug ('cause we need funding agencies to start buying what we're selling) about our helmet research.
Now that we're three years into our study, we are even more convinced that many of the issues with repetitive injuries are fixable, at least for the 96% of kids who stop playing after high school. Reduce needless contact in practice, improve protective equipment, increase enforcement of spearing rules, and improve training of players (probably the hardest to achieve), and I think the vast majority of kids will be in good shape (i.e., have the accumulation of damage slowed to the point where it is almost entirely reparable by the body). Big, bad hits will still happen, but they aren't all that common....
Largest problem for the future is when you get "gung-ho/macho" types in charge of teams/leagues like the commissioner of our rec soccer league who put kids at risk by admonishing officials to "swallow your whistle" or to "let them play", independent of the level of contact taking place. (In this case, he doesn't seem to get that as the commissioner who hires the refs, he probably shouldn't be saying anything about rule enforcement when he's coaching...which he shouldn't be doing, anyway, but that's another story. I do wonder if his complaints to the refs -- and threats not to let them ref ever again when they don't call things his way -- might not make the league liable in case of an injury...there is a boilerplate disclaimer on the sign-up form, but I wonder if it is in any way voided by his behavior? Comments from the various lawyers would actually be appreciated.)
That one seems to be such a no-brainer, though getting coaches on board may be really difficult.
The 2 obvious measures to me, as just a fan of the game, are lighter practices and better form tackling. But I wonder how difficult and at what age level can you teach kids not to spear or go for the knock out blow, if they aren't practicing full contact? Can this be taught against a dummy with just shoulder pads? As someone who never played football, I wonder how practical changing both of those aspects at the same time are.
Dave Winfield was taken in the NFL draft even though he did not play in college.
I (personally) think this is the crux of the issue. There is certainly SOME experience required to teach proper tackling technique. The larger problem seems to be that we have so many dads who are there to coach their own son(s) rather than to coach the team, so they generally don't have much of a plan at practice and "fill time" by having the kids run into one another repeatedly (a la this one).
The problem with just using a dummy is that, well, it doesn't move, juke or otherwise try to avoid the tackler. Still, I suspect that kids could adapt fairly quickly. If a kid plays for several years, I have to believe he figures things out. Even with live tackling (which you really do need), the raw amount of time and number of hits per week can readily be adjusted. Our middle linebackers are taking ~1000 hits of 10+g per season, pretty much regardless of team, competition level and technique, and our offensive/defensive linemen have been as low as 600 hits (reached semi-state, played BOTH WAYS with outstanding technique) and as high as 1800+ (2nd round of playoffs, not-so-great technique). If you go to one day per week of contact (vs. the current two), these high-end guys drop by more than one-third (fewer hits in games than practices for most of these kids) and the low-end guys probably drop by 20%.
While the suits are currently directed at the NFL, we're not convinced that the NCAA isn't a more fertile target (not that we're encouraging that, but...). Smaller pockets, yes, but there are no (meaningful) restrictions on the amount of contact practice in college, whereas restrictions DO exist in the NFL and for HS in many states. Thus, the majority of damage may already be done by the time these players are leaving college.
Also would like to see a study that evaluates where steroids have an effect on the development of brain trauma...so many things changed in the '70s (e.g., size, speed, equipment, training, enhancements), and it would be good to know if the brain injuries require a "pick M of N" approach, or if it really is JUST the collisions.
Chris Sabo and Hal Morris played with Larkin at different times at Michigan. The school's list of drafted players is fairly impressive.
Also, not mentioned in TFA is that Larkin didn't know Schembechler was redshirting him until he arrived on campus. Good thing.
Wow, I didn't know they were all there at the same time.
I wonder what is the most loaded college team in terms of future MLBers? I know that '83 Texas team had Roger Clemens, Calvin Schilarldi and Spike Owen (also all future teammates!) As mentioned above Randy Johnson and Mark McGwire (and Jack del Rio!) were teammates at USC. Aaron Boone, Geoff Jenkins, and Jacque Jones were later teammates at USC. Barry Bonds was teammaets with Mike Devereaux and Oddibe McDowell at ASU. Floyd Bannister, Ken Landreaux and Bob Horner were teammates at ASU.
One suprising contender is the 1987 Seton Hall Pirates: Craig Biggio, John Valentin, Mo Vaughn, Kevin Morton. That's 1/7th of the total Pirates who ever played in MLB, and probably the three best.
And for related trivia, Scotty Glacken and Jack Marin were teammates of mine on the Duke freshman baseball team. Good field / no hit Scotty wound up on the Broncos in their AFL days, and southpaw slinger Jack was a minor star for the Baltimore Bullets who was best known for being traded for Elvin Hayes. They definitely chose the right sports to concentrate on.
EDIT: cokes to Royals Retro and SoSH
What's up with Michigan that would spawn not one, but two pizza chains?
If you leave your house, vandals might mistake it as abandoned and burn it.
No-Mas and Tek and Georgia Tech
Jay Payton was also on that team and the three of them were all first-round draft picks.
yes you are correct - MY kids ain't playin no football, no way, no how
Further spiraling off topic...
My wife and I have already begun discussing this with regards to our 2.5 year old son. My parents would not let me play football growing up (for the arthritic joints & bone damage reasons, not so much the head trauma), so I know what that is like and I would hate to do that to my son if he wanted to play. At the same time, I really don't want him to play and my wife bounces back and forth on the matter. We have loosely decided on no tackle football before the age of 12 or 13, but pee-wee flag football is ok. Of course that's 10 years down the road, it's hard to tell what else the medical research will find on head trauma in youth and professional football by then.
- long silence
it's like this
my youngest son is built like frank thomas and too damm many people are already talking about how he's gonna play football. he's SMART, he's musical, he reads books and there is NO way i am gonna allow endless numbers of a$$holes force/pressure him into getting his brains beat in. If he WANTED to play touch/tag, then that would be OK, but he doesn't wanna play that let alone the tackle kind and his mami got his back. and his brains.
the twins?
well, now that i have read all this stuff about damaging young brains - and i look at what happened to some guys i know, they are NOT playin no football - the tackle kind because i've seen the spearing and the damage done.....
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