I still remember Richie Ashburn coming to our Saturday morning Little League field in Collegeville. It was around 1957 and I was about 10 years old. Even at that age, I had a hard time settling for hitting singles.
I was so bad that I was happy with singles. Then I learned that baseball was a brainy game and the brain mattered almost as much as physical ability.
Kids had a hard time throwing strikes because they wanted to throw fast rather than accurately. So I learned to choose my pitches carefully and even learned how to throw accurately.
A walk was as good as a single with nobody on base or even with bases loaded, so I moved from last in the batting order to leadoff. I also got called in as relief pitcher a lot because I could throw accurately.
The result was that I went from a crummy player to a star until about the age of 15 or so when the marginal players had quit baseball and moved on to something else and the competition (including kids who could throw accurately) was much keener.
Yeah, it was a huge ego letdown, but those good memories still remain. And, once in awhile, as an adult, those skillsets honed at ages 9-15 or so would come in handy for an inning or two.