I thought I would cover my experiences playing softball and baseball during the early parts of my life. (I haven’t played in over 30 year).
Even though I am right-handed, for some reason I learned to bat left-handed. This gave me a slight hitting advantage during games. A majority of ball players bat right-handed and hit the ball into left or center field. The defense puts their “least capable” player in the right field position (where I usually hit the ball).
I also developed a bad habit of “pulling the ball” (swinging early) so quite often I would hit the ball hard down the first-base line. Because I could run fast, I would make it safe to first base because the first baseman couldn’t get control of the ball in time. When the defensive team saw me coming up to bat, they would adjust their position toward the left side in what was called ‘The Konopacki Shift”.
I played organized team baseball at Luck School for one year in junior high. I didn’t like it. Compared to a softball, a baseball is too small and too hard. It hurts when it hits me! I have to admit – it was quite often what got me on base. I would hug the plate and not back off. When the pitcher threw the ball inside, it hit me and that would put me on base. I did hit the ball legitimately quite often, though. I knew how to hit a pitch and could keep my eye on the ball.
In my entire time playing baseball and softball, I never thought about strategy. A smart player would have considered who was on base, how many outs there were, and where the ball would best be placed. I just thought about hitting the ball hard so that no one would catch it and I would safely get on base.
Most often defensively I played left or center field in both baseball and softball games. That was a good place for me because of my speed I could cover ground quickly. Once the ball was hit in my direction I was committed to catching it. I had a preparation stance and fast reaction.
There was one game where I realized I was getting old and had lost a step. It was a 4-H softball game at the Luck High School ball field. A kid a few years younger than me hit a ball over my head in left field. Normally I would be in front of it, but this time I was not prepared and was caught sleeping. Honestly, from that point on, I realized I had physically and mentally ‘lost a step’. Essentially the end of my ball career.
My mother was the leader of the Little Butternut 4-H Club. As her son, I was part of all 4-H activity event setup and cleanup. That included any softball practice and game. My mom was a life-long sports fan and a tomboy, but I did not appreciate that fact at the time. The bats and balls used by our 4-H club softball team were stored in a hallway of our house. When we went to a game with other 4-H softball teams, I would grab the gunny sack full of bats and balls and toss it in the backseat of the car.
It was my mom, not my dad, who tossed the ball around with me as a kid. She taught me to be a softball pitcher, which I was for a few years with the Little Butternut 4-H Club softball team. This was not slow-pitch, but you had to throw underhand. I did a modified windmill pitch that had enough velocity that occasionally it would curve before it hit the plate. (Note: Nothing like the windmill pitch of ‘Bug’ Larson who threw a true windmill pitch!)
In 1979, my senior year in high school, I could whack a softball out of the park. During Luck High School reccess, we played a game called ‘Pop Up’. A dozen kids would stand on the football field with ball gloves ready to fight for the catch of a hit ball – the batter would be on the adjacent hill and hit pop ups toward the field. When someone caught 3 popups, then would become the batter.
In the late 1970s, I was also a part o the West Denmark Lutheran Church Softball Team. We played other Lutheran Church organizations. There were many people on our team named Paul, so they gave us nicknames:
- “Small Paul” – Paul Pedersen – The youngest of the pauls, but grew to be a tall guy!
- “Tall Paul” – Paul Petersen – Tallness was in is genes and was tallest at the time
- “Fast Paul” – Paul Konopacki (me) … because I could run the bases fast
- “Pastor Paul” – Paul Andersen – Pastor of the West Denmark Lutheran Church
- “Crazy Paul” – Paul Hansen … because when he was running bases he would dive head-first into a base!
When I moved from Detroit, Michigan to the St. Louis, Missouri area in 1987, I joined a slow-pitch softball tea with my employer, Citicorp Mortgage, Inc. I played in the outfield.
At this point in my life, it was about being part of a social activity and never about whether we won or lost the game.