Best athlete you played with or against

I was at a baseball camp when I was 13 years old that was also attended by Shaun Marcum, the current Blue Jays pitcher.

I kid you not, one of the counselers, a Division-I assistant, got up in front of the room and told us 13-year olds to get over your major league dreams because no one in this room will play Major League Baseball. The odds are just too long.

Needless to say, I love to see Marcum pitching in the show.

 

that's why he's an assistant.

 

In junior high, I was in sixth grade when I played on some baseball team with Mill Coleman, who went on to play wide receiver at Michigan State and return kicks briefly in the NFL. Dude was a bad-ass back then.

Before that I played on a soccer team and in fifth-grade band with Mike Smedley, who finished top-5 (but off the team) in the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials in triathlon. Again, his talent was apparent from a young age. He ran something like a 4:50 mile as a fifth-grader on a crappy cinder track.

Played in a jazz band from my summer camp with Ron Oswanski, who later recorded with Maynard Ferguson, among others. While on a tour in Europe he acquired an accordion and played Duke Ellington tunes on the squeeze box. Good times.

 

I've played HORSE with Greg Oden's grandkids. Does that count?

 

One of my former high school wrestling teammates is now a world champion powerlifter who can bench press at least 500 pounds without a bench shirt.

 

Hey, I went to that camp when I was 13! I was terrible at basketball, almost got the boot for a hard foul, but totally redeemed myself and won the award for telling the best joke.

Guess that's why I'm on this side of desks on press row.

 

Got to face John Franco in an exhibition game when I was in high school. It was March of 1995 as the strike continued and he always lent a hand to his alma mater. He struck me out with his changeup, but did manage to foul off a pitch. I also had a couple at-bats against Jason Marquis, both strikeouts.

 

No, for every 100 times he delivers that speech, he's right 99 times.

 

i was playing more on the fact he couldn't realize talent when it was in a camp ... forget it.

 

A guy I work with loves to tell the story about the time Joe Mauer dunked on him and posterized him with one those crotch-to-the-face one-handed throw downs.

 

Was Marcum the kid who was nearly perfect on the field as a kid? I remember a story of a young pitcher who was like a modern-day Steve Nebraska, and I think it's him.

 

I was 3-for-6 with a double, a hit-by-pitch -- breaking up two no-hitters -- off a kid in a big-league system. He was a fifth-round draft pick out of high school.