I entered a tractor pull once and finished fifth out of 8. I might enter another one when I get new rings for my tractor, cuz it smokes so bad it makes the spectators cough.
I played right guard in Jr. High football and got creamed so bad in my first game (yes, I know what it is to be a greasespot) I IMMEDIATELY signed up for band and played in the band through college.
I "lettered" every year, but basicly, all you had to do to get your letter was show up for everything and win something worthy of a medal in "solo and ensemble" contests.
How about intramural (college) sports? I played on my fraternity's softball, football, soccer, and volleyball teams. I don't find a good equivalent in your poll (maybe JV?).
I played right guard in Jr. High football and got creamed so bad in my first game (yes, I know what it is to be a greasespot) I IMMEDIATELY signed up for band and played in the band through college.
I "lettered" every year, but basicly, all you had to do to get your letter was show up for everything and win something worthy of a medal in "solo and ensemble" contests.
Does that count?
quote:
Originally posted by WordWolf:
To give everyone the benefit of the doubt,
please consider "I rode the bench" to be equivalent
as any other position on that team for the purpose
of this poll.
If you "lettered" in college, then you were on the college Varsity team.
If not, based on how much damage you soaked up, I leave it to you to
determine if it was more like Little League or more like high school football.
How about intramural (college) sports? I played on my fraternity's softball, football, soccer, and volleyball teams. I don't find a good equivalent in your poll (maybe JV?).
George
If you played all the time in college (not just one season), then you
"played regularly as an amateur, non-national player, for fun."
(If you played each year in DIFFERENT sports, you still PLAYED each year.)
If you DIDN'T play all the time, then it would be similar to Junior Varsity and
fit there.
(Yes, that means busting your hump in JV for 4 years and never making it to the
Varsity team counts as the "played regularly" option. You worked as hard as the
The only *sport* (which I equate to mean *contest*) I ever got involved with, were fiddle contests.
We had a playing field --- the main stage.
We had the fans ---- the audience.
We had the *locker rooms* -- back stage and practice areas.
We had the *trash talk* -- "Ya really gonna try it like that on-stage!!??-->
We had the hype -- *so and so, champeen fiddler will be competing*
We had the upsets -- "G****** I shoulda won!"
We had the referees --- 3 judges sitting out front, scrutinizing yer every note and bow stroke.
We had the uniforms -- (western gear seemed popular, but I never wore the uniform.
We had the rules of the game --- 5 tunes, and these styles only.
We had folks publicized, ostricized, kicked out, ruled over, run over, with tailgating before the event, alcohol fueled fights after the event, and even a conciliatory comment or two from one participant to another when all was said and done.
Sounds like a *sport* (contest) to me!! :D-->
I made it to the masters divsion only thrice. So I guess every other time I *competed* qualifies as *minor league*!
How about intramural (college) sports? I played on my fraternity's softball, football, soccer, and volleyball teams. I don't find a good equivalent in your poll (maybe JV?).
George
If you played all the time in college (not just one season), then you
"played regularly as an amateur, non-national player, for fun."
(If you played each year in DIFFERENT sports, you still PLAYED each year.)
If you DIDN'T play all the time, then it would be similar to Junior Varsity and
fit there.
(Yes, that means busting your hump in JV for 4 years and never making it to the
Varsity team counts as the "played regularly" option. You worked as hard as the
I competed at the national level for cross-country running and I placed very well. The majority of my accomplishments revolved around long distance running. Now I run just to stay in shape.
Uh...dmiller....do you know the Apple family?...does the name Brandon Apple ring a bell? He's kinda legendary around these parts.
He's been competing and winning since he was a little kid and now if he should place second, windows shatter, resin flies, bows break, chairs get thrown...he acts very bad when he gets barred, too.
This was when I knew him back in the mid to late 90's. I've heard he might have grown up since then. His big brother Brad is one of the nicest and most personable guys you'll ever meet...and the best mandolin player to ever pluck 4 strings.
Speakin' of fiddle contesters, have you ever heard of Tim Crouch?
For those who wonder what the poll said and can't read it now, I'm cross-posting something I posted back when we could read the results.
.
Someone suggested (insisted, really) that vpw was not only an athlete, but that he was an exceptional one, part of the tiny handful of people capable of great feats of athleticism. The exact words used previously about this was that he had "an OVERabundance of brains and brawn", and that he was "OVERgifted". and that "when he walked, the earth shook."
I'm not going to address the other points at this time. For fun, I thought I'd recap his athletic accomplishments and what they mean and what they don't mean.
vpw was on his high school varsity basketball team. The end.
THAT was the end of his athletic "career."
Oh, but wasn't he a professional ballplayer, and on his college's team, and so on?
NO.
He later (when he was used to getting away with all sorts of inflated claims) claimed he invented the hook shot (attributed to Lithuanian Pranas Talzunas or Harlem Globetrotter Goose Tatum, among possible others). However, his previous claims are easy to track.
He said outright he was on his high school basketball team. He showed photos of that. He later said he "PLAYED BASKETBALL ALL THROUGH COLLEGE." He showed no team photos from college. Did he actually say he was on the team? No, he was deliberately vague-he prevaricated. He phrased it so people could mistakenly think he said he played on his college's varsity team. However, all he said actually was that he played all through college. If he played a game of pick-up once a semester, he "played basketball all through college." ANYBODY could do that if they could move freely around the court, dribble, pass and shoot, even if they could do none of them WELL.
vpw was fond of inflating his credentials and claiming everything he had even a questionable right to claim. If he was on the varsity team, he would have said so and shown photos. He didn't even try to claim membership in the JV team.
Furthermore, he "was involved with" the Sheboygan Redskins team. Again, people thought that meant he played on the team. Someone even read that claim in "TW:LiL", cited their source, and claimed he played on the team. But their source for that was the sentence where he said he was "involved with" the Sheboygan Redskins. What WAS his association? Did he take them out for ice cream after the games? Was he the waterboy? Did he sweep up after the game? We only know he wasn't actually on the team as a player because someone once went through the roster of the entire history of the team, and his name does not appear ANYWHERE. So, we can either speculate that he was on the team but somehow absent from every record, or we can avoid being unforgivably stupid and accept that he was never on the team and never claimed he was.
So, in short, vpw's career as an athlete goes all the way up to high school graduation and ends there, never joining a team or competing at any level.
How does that stack up against the general population?
I took a poll and started a thread here some years ago, asking about everyone else's levels of involvement. About 40% of GSC posters actually exceeded vpw's athletic achievements, either because they were on the college varsity team, or because they competed NATIONALLY at a sport (i.e, was eligible to be considered for the Olympic team),, and so on. All actual athletes, Including me. *holds up his varsity letter*
The percentage of posters who were athletes at least to his level (meaning, high school varsity or higher) jumped into the 60s. That means more than 1/2 the posters who responded were athletes at least to the level of vpw, with most of those exceeding his accomplishments.
Those are the actual, record-able participations we're discussing, things a matter of record. In those, vpw was shown to be strictly AVERAGE in athletic accomplishments.
What about BEYOND college and tournaments and national competitions?
As to that, vpw would be the first to LEAP forward and trumpet his participation and involvement. Yet, we have a tremendous silence on that front. We have him HINTING about a team in college and outside college, but never having the nerve to just outright lie and claim he was on either team. He also never had any anecdotes of athletic accomplishments otherwise. We don't have him claiming he used to preach to the trees then chop down record numbers of them. We never have him claiming to have performed some leaps, swimming, or even hiking accomplishments of any note. (I imagine that somewhere, sometime, he talked about walking while hunting, but I'm talking about LONG walks like a marathon or any size.)
What does that leave?
vpw's accomplishments-and thus, all measurable yardsticks of his athletic ability- end at high school varsity, and after that vanish into some vague double-talk that never directly claims he was on the college team or any other team. It's all smoke and hot air. Even his own father said he never worked hard on the farm. By any measurable standard, wierwille was average and lukewarm AT BEST, and underperformed almost 1/2 the GSC posters in athletics.
Naturally, it's still possible to insist on discarding both the facts and the logic, but that's on the head of the person determined to do exactly that.
He later said he "PLAYED BASKETBALL ALL THROUGH COLLEGE."
23 hours ago, WordWolf said:
he "was involved with" the Sheboygan Redskins team.
"He received a Master of a theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He later went on to get a doctorate degree."
(But NOT from Princeton Theological Seminary, rather, from a mail-order degree mill.)
These are linguistic sleight of hand tricks designed to deceive, distract, obfuscate. A mind dulled by "repetitive rubbing" believes the trick. An obedient mind is not alert to this sleight of hand.
23 hours ago, WordWolf said:
prevaricated
Yum
Edited by Nathan_Jr Johnny Jumpup beat Snowball Pete's dog. But since he didn't beleeeve it was cruel, it wasn't. Besides, Pete didn't see Johnny do it, so it never really happened.
I don't like running. However, I've run <>8 half marathons, most as fundraisers for a local Christian charity. I trained a lot for the first one and that was actually my worst time.
Don't run now. Mild arthritis in right knee makes running after 8 miles quite painful. I suppose I could drop to 10k (about 5 miles) runs. But I still don't like running.
I don't like running. However, I've run <>8 half marathons, most as fundraisers for a local Christian charity. I trained a lot for the first one and that was actually my worst time.
Don't run now. Mild arthritis in right knee makes running after 8 miles quite painful. I suppose I could drop to 10k (about 5 miles) runs. But I still don't like running.
We used to run a mile every morning in FellowLaborers. ("To the tree and back") People said you get used to it and maybe even learn to enjoy it. I never did.
Some people have posted how vpw never did runs when he had everyone else running.... Just another sign of someone whose "superior" athletic prowess was all talk and no show.
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WordWolf
To give everyone the benefit of the doubt,
please consider "I rode the bench" to be equivalent
as any other position on that team for the purpose
of this poll.
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sharon
Does amateur rodeo count?
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WordWolf
Probably.
Is it considered a sport?
I know ESPN covers it, and some of the stuff is covered
in the Olympics' equestrian events.
I've phrased it as generally as possible to allow for all
sorts of sports I'm unfamiliar with.
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WordWolf
Hm.
Too few responses to generalize,
but the early results are that 29% of respondents exceeded
vpw's sports history unquestionably,
and another 29% matched it or better.
(We still have no proof he earned a Varsity letter.)
So much for the myth of the "athlete"...
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Ron G.
I entered a tractor pull once and finished fifth out of 8. I might enter another one when I get new rings for my tractor, cuz it smokes so bad it makes the spectators cough.
I played right guard in Jr. High football and got creamed so bad in my first game (yes, I know what it is to be a greasespot) I IMMEDIATELY signed up for band and played in the band through college.
I "lettered" every year, but basicly, all you had to do to get your letter was show up for everything and win something worthy of a medal in "solo and ensemble" contests.
Does that count?
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GeorgeStGeorge
How about intramural (college) sports? I played on my fraternity's softball, football, soccer, and volleyball teams. I don't find a good equivalent in your poll (maybe JV?).
George
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WordWolf
If you "lettered" in college, then you were on the college Varsity team.
If not, based on how much damage you soaked up, I leave it to you to
determine if it was more like Little League or more like high school football.
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WordWolf
If you played all the time in college (not just one season), then you
"played regularly as an amateur, non-national player, for fun."
(If you played each year in DIFFERENT sports, you still PLAYED each year.)
If you DIDN'T play all the time, then it would be similar to Junior Varsity and
fit there.
(Yes, that means busting your hump in JV for 4 years and never making it to the
Varsity team counts as the "played regularly" option. You worked as hard as the
Varsity team.)
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Zshot
At age 44 3/4...
I compete in racquetball tournaments (I placed 4th in the bracket that I played in, in the state singles compitition).
In Oct I am going to try to make it to compete in a tournament in Phoenix.
In the NOV-DEC I will be hepling out with a charity racquetball tournament down here in Southern Arizona
I am also a contract player with ProKennex Racquetball.
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dmiller
The only *sport* (which I equate to mean *contest*) I ever got involved with, were fiddle contests.
We had a playing field --- the main stage.
We had the fans ---- the audience.
We had the *locker rooms* -- back stage and practice areas.
We had the *trash talk* -- "Ya really gonna try it like that on-stage!!??
-->
We had the hype -- *so and so, champeen fiddler will be competing*
We had the upsets -- "G****** I shoulda won!"
We had the referees --- 3 judges sitting out front, scrutinizing yer every note and bow stroke.
We had the uniforms -- (western gear seemed popular, but I never wore the uniform.
We had the rules of the game --- 5 tunes, and these styles only.
We had folks publicized, ostricized, kicked out, ruled over, run over, with tailgating before the event, alcohol fueled fights after the event, and even a conciliatory comment or two from one participant to another when all was said and done.
Sounds like a *sport* (contest) to me!!
:D-->
I made it to the masters divsion only thrice. So I guess every other time I *competed* qualifies as *minor league*!
David
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dmiller
oh -- and a minor ps. here --- every last one of us practiced those 5 tunes to perfecton.
ie ---- extra-curricular practice, when not on the playing field.
:)-->
Yup -- Fiddle Picking is a *sport*.
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GeorgeStGeorge
Fine. I voted "played regularly."
George
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Cowgirl
I competed at the national level for cross-country running and I placed very well. The majority of my accomplishments revolved around long distance running. Now I run just to stay in shape.
Cowgirl
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Jim
Does "I took pictures of the team for the yearbook" count?
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WordWolf
Yes, it counts as #5.
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Ron G.
Uh...dmiller....do you know the Apple family?...does the name Brandon Apple ring a bell? He's kinda legendary around these parts.
He's been competing and winning since he was a little kid and now if he should place second, windows shatter, resin flies, bows break, chairs get thrown...he acts very bad when he gets barred, too.
This was when I knew him back in the mid to late 90's. I've heard he might have grown up since then. His big brother Brad is one of the nicest and most personable guys you'll ever meet...and the best mandolin player to ever pluck 4 strings.
Speakin' of fiddle contesters, have you ever heard of Tim Crouch?
Just wondering.
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Cowgirl
Hi Ron !!
You mentioned "Brad" a mandolin player (that's music to my ears!) is this guy a professional? I take it his full name is Brad Apple.
Cowgirl
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Ham
Well, for me, you should've had one more option.
"When I was a lad, I had the athletic prowess and coordination of a carp.."
No idea where my kids got their athletic abilities from.. definitely not me.
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WordWolf
For those who wonder what the poll said and can't read it now, I'm cross-posting something I posted back when we could read the results.
.
Someone suggested (insisted, really) that vpw was not only an athlete, but that he was an exceptional one, part of the tiny handful of people capable of great feats of athleticism. The exact words used previously about this was that he had "an OVERabundance of brains and brawn", and that he was "OVERgifted". and that "when he walked, the earth shook."
I'm not going to address the other points at this time. For fun, I thought I'd recap his athletic accomplishments and what they mean and what they don't mean.
vpw was on his high school varsity basketball team. The end.
THAT was the end of his athletic "career."
Oh, but wasn't he a professional ballplayer, and on his college's team, and so on?
NO.
He later (when he was used to getting away with all sorts of inflated claims) claimed he invented the hook shot (attributed to Lithuanian Pranas Talzunas or Harlem Globetrotter Goose Tatum, among possible others). However, his previous claims are easy to track.
He said outright he was on his high school basketball team. He showed photos of that. He later said he "PLAYED BASKETBALL ALL THROUGH COLLEGE." He showed no team photos from college. Did he actually say he was on the team? No, he was deliberately vague-he prevaricated. He phrased it so people could mistakenly think he said he played on his college's varsity team. However, all he said actually was that he played all through college. If he played a game of pick-up once a semester, he "played basketball all through college." ANYBODY could do that if they could move freely around the court, dribble, pass and shoot, even if they could do none of them WELL.
vpw was fond of inflating his credentials and claiming everything he had even a questionable right to claim. If he was on the varsity team, he would have said so and shown photos. He didn't even try to claim membership in the JV team.
Furthermore, he "was involved with" the Sheboygan Redskins team. Again, people thought that meant he played on the team. Someone even read that claim in "TW:LiL", cited their source, and claimed he played on the team. But their source for that was the sentence where he said he was "involved with" the Sheboygan Redskins. What WAS his association? Did he take them out for ice cream after the games? Was he the waterboy? Did he sweep up after the game? We only know he wasn't actually on the team as a player because someone once went through the roster of the entire history of the team, and his name does not appear ANYWHERE. So, we can either speculate that he was on the team but somehow absent from every record, or we can avoid being unforgivably stupid and accept that he was never on the team and never claimed he was.
So, in short, vpw's career as an athlete goes all the way up to high school graduation and ends there, never joining a team or competing at any level.
===========================================================
How does that stack up against the general population?
I took a poll and started a thread here some years ago, asking about everyone else's levels of involvement. About 40% of GSC posters actually exceeded vpw's athletic achievements, either because they were on the college varsity team, or because they competed NATIONALLY at a sport (i.e, was eligible to be considered for the Olympic team),, and so on. All actual athletes, Including me. *holds up his varsity letter*
The percentage of posters who were athletes at least to his level (meaning, high school varsity or higher) jumped into the 60s. That means more than 1/2 the posters who responded were athletes at least to the level of vpw, with most of those exceeding his accomplishments.
=========================================================
Those are the actual, record-able participations we're discussing, things a matter of record. In those, vpw was shown to be strictly AVERAGE in athletic accomplishments.
What about BEYOND college and tournaments and national competitions?
As to that, vpw would be the first to LEAP forward and trumpet his participation and involvement. Yet, we have a tremendous silence on that front. We have him HINTING about a team in college and outside college, but never having the nerve to just outright lie and claim he was on either team. He also never had any anecdotes of athletic accomplishments otherwise. We don't have him claiming he used to preach to the trees then chop down record numbers of them. We never have him claiming to have performed some leaps, swimming, or even hiking accomplishments of any note. (I imagine that somewhere, sometime, he talked about walking while hunting, but I'm talking about LONG walks like a marathon or any size.)
What does that leave?
vpw's accomplishments-and thus, all measurable yardsticks of his athletic ability- end at high school varsity, and after that vanish into some vague double-talk that never directly claims he was on the college team or any other team. It's all smoke and hot air. Even his own father said he never worked hard on the farm. By any measurable standard, wierwille was average and lukewarm AT BEST, and underperformed almost 1/2 the GSC posters in athletics.
Naturally, it's still possible to insist on discarding both the facts and the logic, but that's on the head of the person determined to do exactly that.
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waysider
Ditto to that, Mr. Ham.
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Nathan_Jr
"He received a Master of a theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. He later went on to get a doctorate degree."
(But NOT from Princeton Theological Seminary, rather, from a mail-order degree mill.)
These are linguistic sleight of hand tricks designed to deceive, distract, obfuscate. A mind dulled by "repetitive rubbing" believes the trick. An obedient mind is not alert to this sleight of hand.
Yum
Edited by Nathan_JrJohnny Jumpup beat Snowball Pete's dog. But since he didn't beleeeve it was cruel, it wasn't. Besides, Pete didn't see Johnny do it, so it never really happened.
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Twinky
I'm not at all sporty.
I don't like running. However, I've run <>8 half marathons, most as fundraisers for a local Christian charity. I trained a lot for the first one and that was actually my worst time.
Don't run now. Mild arthritis in right knee makes running after 8 miles quite painful. I suppose I could drop to 10k (about 5 miles) runs. But I still don't like running.
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waysider
We used to run a mile every morning in FellowLaborers. ("To the tree and back") People said you get used to it and maybe even learn to enjoy it. I never did.
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WordWolf
Some people have posted how vpw never did runs when he had everyone else running.... Just another sign of someone whose "superior" athletic prowess was all talk and no show.
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