[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by chucksabr

Funny story: I was at end of my cohort (born July 11, league cutoff July 31) so I was smaller than most kids in the cohort, and they got bigger faster, so I became afraid of a fast pitched ball. (I was an exclusively RH hitter against almost universally RH pitchers in Little League. I am now a switch hitter in an adult league.) But I was also a slick fielding 3B, the best in the league at the time. The DH was brand new and I lived in an AL town, so I asked to be DH'ed for, and the coach agreed to do it. I still made the All-Star team as a 3B.

The next year I had a new coach who was not going to put up with my nonsense and forced me to go to the plate--mind you, he wasn't going to coach me or anything, he was just going to make me go to bat--where I was frozen stiff, striking out looking constantly. One game, middle of the season, my oldest brother came up to me while I was on deck and offered me a 1/4 pound of M&Ms for every base I got, if I would get a hit. Lo and behold, I got a triple! After that I pushed down my fear and actually became one of the better hitters on the team.

And the moral of the story is: Never underestimate the power of the candy incentive.

Everyone knows the green M&M's make you hit home runs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap6pAUBsl30