Fixed. Very possible he thinks he did squat 6 plates, he just doesn’t know what a squat is (IE his depth was minimal). I “squatted” 495 for a few reps when I was 13 or 14 in my high school weight room. I might have dropped my ass 6". But that’s what I thought squats were at the time because everyone else was doing it that way.
Anyhow, agreed that this shit is so common that it doesn’t even really bother me anymore. Most of the time it’s “I have a buddy” though, which is equally hilarious. It’s the adult version of “my dad can beat up your dad.”
But yea. I just don’t enjoy calling people out. If someone wants to compare himself to me because they know I lift or whatever, good for them. No skin off my back, I can’t worry about what other people tell themselves, or what they can or can’t do vs what they say.
“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.” - Marcus Porches Cato (Cato the Elder)
I’m fond of claiming to be the best athlete on the planet over the age of 50. Last summer my throwing arm was very weak casting doubt even in my own mind if I should still make the claim. Rooting around on the internet and finding guys like this asshole https://karnellvickers.com makes it tuff also.
These unlikely stories are worse when you hear them from people in highly responsible careers.
A number of years ago I noticed the front door of a house in my neighborhood was cracked open but didn’t give it a second thought. A day or two later I saw the door was still cracked so I walked up and rang the bell. No bell so I knocked. No answer so I yelled “hello?”. No answer so I pushed the door open and saw the whole place was ransacked.
I went home and called the police and ten minutes later a sheriff officer showed up and he was an old baseball teammate from about ten years previously.
He checked out the house and didn’t find any bodies or anything then we chatted a good while afterward. He told me how he went to a Spokane Indians Baseball tryout and they wanted to sign him to pitch and play 3rd base but he couldn’t due to the responsibilities of his job.
If you don’t know, Spokane Indians are a major league affiliate and you do not try out for the Indians. They are owned by the Texas Rangers and if the Rangers scouts like you and want to sign you, they will place you at any one of their minor league teams. If they like you, it will be for your pitching or your potential as a 3rd baseman, not both. And, they are not going to like you if you happen to suck.
This guy conveniently forgot that I played with him for two seasons and I would know that he had absolutely no chance of getting signed by a professional baseball organization. He probably wasn’t good enough to pitch for a junior college team and he probably wasn’t good enough to play 3rd base for a large high school. He knows I know this and yet this sherif officer looked me right in the eye and made these claims.
If he had been mopping the floor at a cafe it wouldn’t have been so bad but as a police officer it just makes it all the more astounding to me.
Bullshit stories must be popular in all walks of life. We all know how painfully common it is in weightlifting and from high school glory years. I can assure you it’s all too common in baseball too. In the years I’ve played in the local baseball league about 90 percent of the pro claims I’ve heard have been proven false by this little thing that happened to come along called The Internet.
This morning I had a rare treat though. I was talking to my team manager and he was telling me about a new player he got. He told me the guy asked to be the main starting pitcher. My manager of course told him he would have to prove himself first as a reliever. I said “did you tell him we have and ex-pro pitcher on our team?” He told me this guy says he played pro to which I responded “don’t these guys know you can’t lie anymore? We’ve got Baseballreference.com and you can’t lie”.
I looked the guy up when I got off the phone and sure enough, the kid did play pro ball. Very refreshing.
We had practice today and I got to see this guy in action. I could tell in 5 seconds he never sniffed pro ball. He looked more like a crack addict than a baseball player. Realizing the player info I found on line had to be someone else, I asked him about his experience and the independent league team he named was not the one I found so yeah, different guy.
When I got home (an hour ago) I did some deeper digging. I was shocked I couldn’t find an arrest record involving meth but at least I found the one for assault (domestic, so probably his mother) and vandalism. This arrest was was just four months ago.
He had a full size baseball bag full of gear. The type with rollers that can carry a bunch of bats as well as all your other equipment. This is the type of bag someone who is serious about playing has but I couldn’t find any evidence he even played in high school. He may have played JV or even varsity as a junior but he was not named as a senior in the accolades the baseball team gives it’s graduating seniors.
Since high school he moved several times in his home state before moving to Washington. I can’t imagine how that bag full of gear stuck with him for all those moves especially since he is such a shitty player. My best guess is it’s an item he stole to support his meth habit but he got busted for assault before he could sell it. Forced to get off the meth and needing to avoid the risk of selling stolen merchandise, he decided to use the gear to try to relive his Babe Ruth glory years. I know this sounds like a long shot but damn, it’s got to be right.
Bottom line, he turned out to be just another liar.
I wish I could show you all his Facebook page. Disturbing is the best word.
I’ve told this story on here before but it’s a good one so I’ll tell it again.
This guy was benching with 225. He saw some friends come in at the other side of the gym so he threw an extra plate on each side then went to greet them. He met them half way and they all made their way back to the bench. It must have been a Monday. He said he was all done and helped them unload the weight so they could warm up.
Technically he didn’t speak a lie but damn, that’s still a lie in my book. One of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen in a gym too.
So I used to work for an international graphic design company, and always heard about this guy who left rift before I got there, that he used to tell outrageous stories. I can’t accurately retell what I was told about him, but I honestly thought everyone was bullshitting me with the stories I heard.
Fastforward to now, I was offered and took a job with my old company’s competitor, and lo and behold, this guy works there now. The stories begin slowly - every time you say something happened to you, he chimes in with some time it happened to him. But then shit goes sideways. He just volunteers crazy stories with no prompts from anyone. He claims his family owns “a million dollar coon hound.” Being from the North and moving down South, hearing anyone talk casually about coon hounds is funny enough, but what? A million dollars? Then he says, the next day, that he was hunting with his hound, and it ran up ahead to a stream, and when he caught sight of it again, a raccoon was on its back, holding its head underwater, attempting to drown said million dollar coon hound. He only had a shotgun with buckshot, and was afraid of hitting the dog, so his response was to break open a buckshot shell, pour the pellets into his hand, load them into a slingshot he had on him, and put three of the pellets through the raccoons head from 50 yards with the slingshot. Boom.
We never say anything at work, just kind of nod and change the subject, except a couple days ago when my boy mentioned that he was 5’10 (he is, I can tell), and this kid says “yeah, I’m 5’9”. I immediately blurted out “bullshit” without thinking, and felt a bit dickish as the kid turned bright red, but I swear to god he’s like 5’4 and almost as wide as he is tall, like a little cream puff. It’s obviously a pathological problem, but it’s really crazy to see it up close.
