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My Life Avoiding Balls, Not the Manly Kind Attached: I’m Talking Sports Balls
Why do people insist on throwing these things at me?
Most kids grow up around balls — all kinds, from kickballs to baseballs, dodgeballs to basketballs, and everything in between.
We were trained as toddlers to enjoy playing with them. We learned how to roll, aim, and throw them. We had balls of all sizes and colors. There’s nothing more fun than wallowing around in a bottomless ball pit when you’re three years old — or swatting at a beach ball at a pool party.
As we got older, balls began defining our sports interests.
As a child, engaging in sports was enjoyable, except my mother feared sports injuries, and my father preferred fishing. After several unsuccessful attempts at different ball sports, I spent my early years learning to be a musician and a sports spectator rather than a participant.
My aversion to playing sports began around the third grade. My parents insisted I join a Little League team. They had been talked into it by neighbors who thought it would be great if the street gang were on the same team.
After all, we played a kid version of baseball most afternoons in the vacant lot on the corner. No gloves, a two-by-four for a bat, a…
