SP2 Highlights

I was watching SportsCenter's the other day.  Thought..do I have a Top 10 sports highlights from my life?  I thought of five - good and the bad:

1.  Stockton Shoguns basketball - 6th grade - The other team was shooting the back end of their free throws - up by 2.  They miss.  I grab the rebound in the low block.  I run down the court.  I see my Dad on the sidelines yelling the count, "5,4,3."  I run past to shoot a running jumper at the buzzer.  Hits the back rim and goes down.  Buckets.  Grant Mizuno jumped on top of me.  Everybody swarmed me.  We lose in OT.

2.  Pittsburgh Pirates Little League - 7th grade - I'm pitching against one of my friends on the Mariners.  He's one of the best hitters in the league.  He comes up for his first at bat and I strike him out with a high fastball.  He comes up for his second at bat and smiles at me.  First pitch - strike.  Second pitch - he smashes it about 600 feet over the fence. Laser show.

3.  Stockton Soccer - 4th grade - Corner kick.  I remember this vividly.  My friend runs up to me and says, "Steve.  He's going to kick it to me.  I'm going to fake the shot and pass it over to you.  Then you score." Looking back at this now I find this hilarious.  We were the worst team in the history of soccer.  We scored a total of two goals in an entire season.  Like the kid is actually going to get the corner kick in?  More likely he's going to trip and fall trying to kick it in...anyway, he kicks the perfect corner kick.  My friend passes me the ball.  Perfect pass.  I kick my leg out.  Money.  Hits the back of the net.  Wait...no...that's my shoe that went into the goal.  And the ball went out of bounds. My mom always told me to double knot my shoes.  When I got to the sideline she said, "I told you so."  Whatever, I still got my orange slices and capri sun.

4.  Lincoln High School Cross Country - Senior Year - I missed the first three months of the season with a stress fracture.  Section meet consisted of Sacramento and San Joaquin counties.  Only two teams make the state meet.  I have the best race of my life and place 13th overall.  We go to state.

5.  Elementary School Recess - 7th Grade - Two of my friends and I played basketball 3 times per day the whole school year - rain or shine.  We called ourselves "Team Korea."  We played almost every game against "Team Europe."  We lost every single game for an entire year.  Do you comprehend how bad that is?  It's worse than my soccer team.  We finished with approximately 0 wins and 540 losses.  (180 instructional days * (1 recess + 1 lunch + 1 pe)).