Childhood interest in playing Baseball

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It might seem contradictory to hear of an autistic/AS child who has a special interest in playing baseball. But baseball, like all autistic interests, does have an autistic quality to them in terms of repetitive behaviors. I will offer an account of my childhood as an example.

When I was 8 years old I began to develop an interest in playing baseball. My family was big on sports and I had uncles, neighbors, and siblings who were all into sports, so it was cultural value my family held. I told my mom I wanted to join the league at the park district, so she signed me up, and the following summer I began playing baseball in an official league for the first time. I didn't particularly enjoy being in the league. For one, I wasn't very good and my coaches would tell me that I need to do a lot of practice because I "swung the bat like a girl" and "ran like a duck".

My propensity for repetitive behavior and routine manifested in going to the park every day during the summer, just by myself, with a baseball and an aluminum bat. I would start out at one end of the park field, throw the ball up in the air and hit it when it came down. Of course, I wasn't very good at it at first, and I often missed the ball when it came down. The bat I used was also kind of heavy at the time, but eventually I got used to swinging it, and before I knew it I had been hitting the ball pretty well. Once I hit the ball, I would then walk over to it (however far it went) while twirling the bat with my arm in order to get used to the weight of the bat. I would perform this ritualistic-like behavior for hours on end at the park, getting better and better each time. In fact, anywhere I went I took my bat and ball with me. My uncle had a backyard the size of a football field so I would always bring my equipment with me there to practice.

Another repetitive behavior of mine was throwing the ball against the cement wall at the park and have the ball bounce back to me so I could catch it. It was like getting infield practice while getting throwing practice. I would stand so many feet from the wall, throw the ball at the wall at varied speeds, and catch it like I would catch a ball hit to me in the infield. This behavior I would perform for hours as well.

My older brother, who was also into baseball, would ask me why I do that all the time, wondering why I never seemed to get bored with it. At the time I didn't know what to tell him other than "because I enjoy it". In retrospect, I enjoyed it so much because it gave me a peace/piece of mind (haha, eggcorn), as well as good practice. All this practice helped me build up a considerable amount of skill in baseball, and I eventually became a sort of savant in the game. I was known around the league to be an extraordinary pitcher, a shortstop with excellent reaction speed, and a powerful hitter.

Eventually, as I got older and into high school, I sort of lost my passion for baseball as I was become more interested in creative endeavors, such as writing, science, mathematics, and the like. The thing that was most different about my interest in baseball compared to others' interests, was that I never enjoyed watching baseball. I enjoyed playing and performing the game, but was always bored when I went to watch a game either on TV or at the park. I did, however, enjoy playing baseball video-games, such as All-Star Baseball 2002, MLB 99, etc, and I had an expansive knowledge of the players of the game. Currently, I have no interest in either watching or playing the game. I still have my old baseball glove and a wooden bat I used back when I used to play, but I have no regret from quitting baseball. It is as if my mind has transfered its energy into intellectual pursuits. I went from being an athlete to being a 'mathlete'.

Does anybody else have a similar experience with baseball?

I've joined the baseball team at school in grade 8. I loved being the batter at first, having a pretty good aim, but then I quit because we began having practices after school and I hated not getting to go home right after my classes were over. I'm not much into sports, except for solitary ones like swimming or jogging. I also remember being into hockey and basketball.
There's a HFA guy at my autism support group who is obsessed with basketball. He's not just interested in the concept and the mechanism of the game, but actually likes to play it. He got some job at a gym (I think he said he was a gym supervisor) but then got fired because of saying something inappropriate to his manager. It does seem contradictory to me, though, that an autistic's special interest is a team sport.

When I was 6 or so, I actually had a glove. I decided I wanted to be a pitcher. So, I went to my school with the glove and a tennis ball and threw the ball against a wall. I developed a lively breaking pitch. Unfortunately, I had no absolutely no ability to throw with any semblance of speed or accuracy. I still don't: my physically smaller daughter throws harder and more accurately than I ever could. When my team left town, I lost interest in baseball and quit memorizing its statistics. Yet, even as a young adult, I would still occasionally practice throwing those junk pitches of mine.

Baseball was my favorite thing as a child, but I sucked at it. I couldn't hit the ball or catch it, I just enjoyed playing it. I never joined a team because of the fact that I sucked and I was afraid of competition. Still am.

When I was around 10 I started to get into baseball. I didn't play on a team but I did like carrying a bat and ball around with me all the time. I didn't have many friends so I'd hit a ball bit the bat and have a dog fetch it for me. I got really obsessed with baseball shirts too.
It wasn't very popular in my country back then though.

When I was a child I played rounders which is something like the British equivalent of baesball.

I was obsessed with baseball as a boy. Still am, to an extent. I did the thing with bouncing a ball against the wall, too. I switched to using a golf ball though, because the sidewalk scuffed up a baseball too badly.

One reason that baseball appeals so much to AS people might be because of the reams of statistics available to pore over. No sport has statistics like baseball.