Words by Rowan Zorilla
Illustration by Casey Jones
Skating and baseball both involve a lot of standing around and shooting the shit and maybe drinking beers. There’s a lot of not skating, and a lot of not baseball that’s a part of it. Another thing is there’s a lot of high pressure scenarios, at least ones that you put on yourself. Like, people aren’t always gonna make you feel bad, but you could be in a skate van all day going to a bunch of spots that you don’t like and then the end of the day comes and they’re like “we’re going to this spot for you!” And now you gotta grind this rail. You could be playing a whole baseball game and then at the end of the day a fly ball or a grounder comes to you and it’s on you to really handle the situation or else the whole day can go to shit, or you could lose the game, you know?
I guess this goes for most sports, where people have their positions, but in baseball, it’s really different. You can have a guy that’s great at hitting but sucks at the field, so maybe that’s like a big rail skater that can’t skate ledges. Or you have the pitcher that can’t hit, or field, or play any position except for pitching. You have these different strong points, but some people are just all around good players, like Grant Taylor. He can play every position on the field and bat. But then there are other guys that only skate a backyard pool, or a ledge, or a manny pad. And that’s kind of how it is in baseball too.
There are guys that live their whole life only playing first base or the outfield, but never any other position. Or guys that can barely run but can hit bombs. It’s like skating in that way because you don’t have to be good at every single aspect to succeed, or to be on the team.
Both things are kind of all-consuming too. There are professional baseball players and then there are people who just live for the game. In the same way, you could talk to someone about skating and they could know every single video that ever came out, what year, and who has what tricks in it, but not be a professional.
