HBP

For baseball enthusiasts that has meaning.

It stands for "Hit By Pitch." Something that hitters take pride in and pitchers are ashamed of.

Currently I am reading "The Brothers K." A book mainly about family, religion, life, and baseball. Recently I was reading a section where the main character was talking about his dad (a pitching phenom) and one of the first times he remembered seeing his dad plunk someone. He went on to describe how painful it can be for the hitter, etc.

This sparked my thoughts and made me think of one of the most ridiculous, but yet unbelievably respectful and unforgettable thing my brother Jeff has ever, and will ever, do. To premise this story I will say that HBP's were something that Jeff was always a team leader in and always took extreme pride in.

My senior year of high school of baseball Jeff was an assistant coach. After about the first week of games he noticed something about all of our hitters. We were jumping out of the way of possible HBP's. One random practice he gathered the entire team at home plate and sent one of our hardest throwing pitchers to the mound and our catcher to the plate. He told the pitcher to throw at him. Not a person there knew what he was doing and wondered if he was possibly insane (which I'm pretty sure he is). He went on to describe to us that there is an easy way to get hit, etc, etc. The pitcher, reluctantly, threw a pitch right at him. Jeff turned his shoulder, arched his back, and took it right in between the shoulder blades. The entire team grimaced and couldn't believe what they were seeing. After the crowd settled he had the pitcher do it again, and once more after that.

After that day, no one on the team ducked or jumped out of the way of an inside pitch again. And I can guarantee that everyone on that team remembers that moment just as vividly as I do. Understandably so.

Cheers to you, Jeff.