Jonny Dub, Kev and I had quite a day yesterday. We started off at the driving range. Kev brought out his expensive Nike clubs that he got from China for a buck fifty. Jon had his old irons. Jon was killing the ball. I don't play golf so I was asking Jon and Kev how to take a good hack. I asked Jon to hit a few so I could watch him. After playing baseball with Jon for several seasons I recognized his swing right away. Jon uses a baseball swing to hit golf balls. It's kinda like watching Happy Gilmore if he was a baseball player instead of a hockey player. Kev has had a bit of training and every tip he has from the golf pro is exactly opposite of what Jon does. But hey, it works for him. Jon was driving balls 200 yards on a line.
If you read the blog at all you might know that Jon talks crazy most of time. But every once in a while you'll run into some topic that is right in his wheel house. You wanna talk sailing? F1 racing? Italian Sports cars? Ichiro's buttox? Jon is your gay guy. Turns out he's got a natural talent for golf as well.
Back in baseball he would stand at the back left corner of the batter's box and take a huge step towards the plate with this big looping swing. He wasn't much of a contact hitter but when he did make contact he could drive the ball to gaps.
After golf we went to DZ Akins and enjoyed roast beef, scrambled eggs and liver. We had a good look at the Ted Leitner special but everybody decided against it.
Then we went to play with my new Christmas Present... The Laser Ball! This magical ball tells you how fast you can throw a baseball. It comes with a piece of thread that is exactly 60.5 ft long. When you start to throw the ball it starts a clock. Then when the ball is caught the clock is stopped. This magical laser ball then does some quick computations. Rate = Distance / Time. From now on whenever Gaslampball does an interview in person I'm going to have them throw Laser Ball so we can see where they are coming from. Keep in mind that we haven't had a face to face interview yet.
Jon threw first and was hitting the high 50's then pulled out all the stops and threw like 63 mph. Jon I'm sure wants you to know that he had some problems with his shoulder and could throw much harder in his youth. Kev then threw and was hitting much the same speeds as Jon. I think Kev may have over done it today with all of our activities. He maxed out at somewhere between 61 or so. I threw next and started hitting high 60's right away. I didn't want to give up until I hit 70 mph. I eventually ended up throwing 73. I spiked one ball that Kev said was right at the plate and it was at 75 mph. You can judge for yourself if you want to count that one. We were all beat by the end. What a day!