What is your best "lack of focus" story?

[sluggers]

At times, this forum is a little bit like Lake Wobegone, where "all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the softball players are above average." Surely, a DD or player on a team lost focus at least once.

My personal story: My DD#1 was playing left field at 8U rec. She started picking dandelions (literally) out in left field, and then started running around screaming because she was chased by a bee.

For a non-softball story: My DD#3 was starting her first game on the varsity basketball team. It was a big night for her, me and mom. She had the sweat pants that button down the side, so they are tear off sweats. After the players are announced, she starts heading back to the bench, gives her sweats a yank, and then fall flat on her rear. You can't buy those kind of memories.

 

[Greenmonsters]

My favorite is when my triplets were 5 or so and playing their first year of T-ball (rec, not travel, so it was pretty laid back). DD#1 of 2 was playing RF and wanders into the bench area and gently tugs on the intensely focused 6'4" coach's wife beater t-shirt to get his attention and pleasantly announces "I need to take a break now" and wanders of to, you guessed it, pick dandelions. Oh, did I forget to mention she's lefthanded?

GM

 

[Lozza]

I had one little girl on the weekend who was doing dance moves in center field.

I started playing T-ball at 3 years old. My coach told me that after I hit the ball I had to run as hard as I can and NOT STOP at first. No-one realized what a bad idea her terminology was until they had to chase me to the next diamond

 

[mrslug01]

We had a kid at 10U that spent almost all of her time in CF twirling in circles. She caught too. They only way to keep her focused was to use her behind the plate where she was involved with the game. Unfortunately she would lose focus there too and throw the ball anywhere.

 

[RichK]

When my now 18U DD was in coach-pitch peewee, her biggest "lack of focus" teammate decided to sit down at shortstop during a game. Before we noticed, a ball had been hit (a small miracle in itself) right at her. The result wasn't pretty, sorry to say.....

 

[Coach JV]

dd was playing RF in 10U rec doing handstands in the field, ground ball rolled right past her

 

[abbygale]

My daughters friend from down the street once went into the opponents dugout between innings and didn't realize it until there was 2 outs. 4th grade. Needless to say, she is still that way.

 

[WTYA_FP_DAD]

I think the best lack of focus story I have comes not just from my DD, but from her 8U rec coach. Our 8U rec league is coach pitch in order to speed the games up some. The coach's DD was batting #4, my DD #5. She pitches to her DD, who rockets a liner right back through the box. The coach ends up flat on her back avoiding the line drive. Next batter is my DD. As a quick background, my DD was not a great hitter, but would consistently drive low pitches (she was even known to golf a couple off the first bounce). Back to the game in question, my DD comes up and knowing her tendency to whack the low ones, our coach proceeds to throw every pitch low. She was afraid of another liner past her ear, instead, DD rifles on back on a low line drive, right to the coach's shin. Coach is on the ground, all the girls were laughing. I had to pitch the rest of the game because the coach couldn't stand. Just goes to show that even coaches need to maintain their focus and know their players.

 

[stephanie]

not softball, but funny..
My college roommate and I had gone out LATE one night. As slobs do, she got undressed for bed by pulling her pants down, and stepping out of them. There they would lay...
The next morning, we overslept, and so rushing to get to class (we had a test), she jumped right back in her pants from the night before. Halfway throught he test, I heard her laughing, and turned around to see her pointing to her feet....her underwear from the previous night had made its way down the pant leg and was escaping from the bottom of her pants for everyone to see...
Classic college memory!!

 

[CoachC]

My daughter was 14 and working hard on making her curve an effective pitch. During one pitching session, she threw a pitch that both broke hard and hit its target spot. In celebration, she started dancing in a circle.

I was unaware of the dance and had already thrown the ball back.

The timing was perfect. She came back around and my returned ball beaned right in the forehead (actually her forehead is so large I call it a fivehead).

We still debate who actually lost focus.