In addition to being a long-distance runner, I was also a baseball player. This is what I mostly did from age 4 (when my father handed me a baseball glove) to when I was 12 (end of Little League), although I also played in the "Pony League" and on a few "semi-pro" teams. The photo below shows my battle stance.
My brother was only 14 months younger than I--so a had a “constant companion” and endless batting practice. He would pitch, I would hit, then vice-versa. Whenever we had the opportunity, we would go “over to the park” to play ball (sometimes we used a tennis ball, but more often a baseball--we called the sport, "Hardball-Stickball").
I played on the high-school baseball team (although I weighed only 124 pounds), and hit over .300 in my Junior and Senior years. Based on the practice I'd had all my life with my brother, I was very difficult to strike out,
I was starting Shortstop on the Freshman team at Wesleyan University, but then decided to quit after four games (even though we were about to go to Florida for Spring Training). No future in baseball. When I told the coach about my decision (standing behind the batting cage), he asked me why. I told him, "I have to study Nietzsche.”