Baseball memories: Taking one for the team

With the Mariners sitting near first place in the AL West, we are asking 710 ESPN Seattle and KIRO Radio hosts about their favorite baseball memories. Leave your own unforgettable moment in the comments.

KIRO Radio’s John Curley struck out often in little league as a kid. But Curley’s favorite part of baseball was getting on base and using his speed. So he developed his own tactic.

“I learned how to lean in and turn my back so the ball would hit me with a big, hard thump – just below my back up near my shoulder,” Curley recalls. “So after almost every single game, I’d have huge bruises all around my upper back. But once I got on, I could steal and stuff like that.”

Curley cried early on when utilizing this tactic but after a while, he says, the swelling and bruising desensitized his nerves. The coaches, of course, would yell, “he’s intentionally doing that.” But Curley says he outsmarted the umps.

“I learned to really fake it,” he says. “It was my thing, just to get up there and get hit in the back. It was great. Right now, I could stand in a batter’s box and take a ball at 90 mph in the back.”

Wait. That’s really his favorite baseball memory?

“Yeah, getting hit in the back,” he responds. “Getting up and knowing that the other kids would be getting a hit and I would literally get hit.

“I would let anyone throw a ball at my leg, back, head; just got to get on base,” he said. “Because the psychological pain of striking out – walking back to the dugout when all of your friends won’t make eye-contact with you – was far worse than the physical pain of getting hit in the back.”

Other baseball memories: ‘C’mon, son. Rock and fire’ | Why grandpa’s are the best | It all started with an 11-year-old named ‘Boogie’ | A backyard diamond made of pillows | A great reason to yell during a Mariners’ game | Career in baseball started with dad’s lefty glove | Griffey and a legendary home run call | Father saves spirit of baseball after son learns of McGwire’s tainted past | Priceless mitt from an unforgettable coach

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