Thought I'd share this with you . . .

When I was out on the West Coast, I played in a semi-formal "fastball" league (like softball, fast pitch, slightly smaller ball -- don't mean to be patronizing). Semi-formal in that you could bring people into your team if you were short a player. Well, my girl-friend had a cousin visiting. The cousin was Albanian and a terrific soccer player. And a hell of an athlete. One afternoon we played catch (sort of), and I realized he had an arm like I'd never seen! He was stocky, about 5'6", 160; and could throw a "fastball" through a wall. And almost the length of a football field.

He came along one day when we were playing a league game, and naturally, we were short a player. Danny (the Albanian) wanted to play, so we stuck him in right field. I figured since I played second base I could yell to him what to do with the ball in the event one went his way. Most of our games were controlled by the pitchers, so not that much got out to the outfield on the fly.

One inning, we were in the field and the oppos had a man on first. I can't remember how many were out. Anyway, a batter hit one out to centre field that our CF couldn't handle, the ball rolled by him and Danny, running like the blazes, got to the ball first. I'd run out a little past cut-off distance and yelled: "HOME! THROW IT HOME!" Danny picked the ball up in dead centre field, at the base of a tree, took three steps and fired a perfect strike dead onto home plate. I was backing up and maybe 15-20 feet past second (toward centre field), and realized he probably had a chance to nail the runner on the bounce. I mean, the throw was PERFECT!

So I ducked, turned around and as it went over my head I headed toward the mound.

The ball hit the back of the rubber on the fly. There is, of course, no mound. The ball bounced straight up in the air about thirty or forty feet. Since I was on the way in, I caught it. The run scored and the batter had taken third.

I have never in my life seen such an accurate/long throw. The next day Danny and I went back to the field to measure his throw. Figuring he'd been two/three metres in front of the tree, the ball had travelled ~320 feet in the air. No exaggeration.

I got him to play catch with a baseball, and pitching on a flat surface at 60'6", he could hit within two inches of my infielder's glove four out of five. Pity he went back to Albania.

mario in toronto
..
"well, it seemed a good idea at the time, but she was a Yankee fan."

Carl & Paula in SC wrote:

>
> Their guy hits a gapper to left center, not even my
> unbelievable outfield prowess can run the ball down and it rolls all the way to
> the fence. I finally run it down, whirl (just like Yaz) and heave the ball
> toward the plate in an attempt to preserve the scoreless tie. (All kidding
> aside, I have always had a great arm, even set the high school record for
> softball toss distance back when we did the President's Physical Fitness Team
> stuff - 88 yards on the fly) So this guy is running all out for the plate and
> must have turned to see where the throw is like an idiot. The ball hits him on
> the side of the face, on the fly and he goes down hard. Someone, our pitcher I
> think, was paying attention, retrieved the ball and tags the guy out. He was
> still writhing on the ground, holding his bleeding mouth, and looking for the
> tooth that got knocked out or something. So (briefly) I am "the hero".