This is a lesson on how not to learn a language. We had a talented, yet underachieving high school baseball team. I had a decent high school career, but I was never gonna be a pro. Greg Antusht, it was rumored, was destined for the big show. For Greg, baseball was everything. On our bus rides to the game he would sit by himself and listen to tape recordings of last night’s Phillies games. Admittedly he was a good pitcher and a couple of colleges recruited him to play at the next level.
We were playing a crucial game, late in the season and the game was even in the top half of the last inning. The winning run was on third base and I was playing left field. Greg coaxed the batter into hitting a lazy flyball my way that should have been a third out. But it was not as I dropped the ball, and the other team scored a run putting them ahead 5 to 4.
I came up to bat in the bottom of the last inning with a man on second base with two outs. I got a pitch I could hit and hit a very deep flyball. I did not know I could hit the ball that far. Despite my best efforts, the left fielder for the opposing team reached out at the last minute and caught the ball. It was destined for extra bases and possibly a home run. That was the last out of the game. We lost 5 to 4.
Immediately after the game was over, Greg came over to me and started yelling at me because I did not seem upset enough that we lost. He was furious, he thought I should be showing more remorse, I had lost the game for us. This was ignoring our week hitting opponents scored five runs against prodigy Greg. Yes, one of them was unearned.
He was really disappointed. I don’t think I’ve ever ever seen anyone so disappointed in my life. I’ve felt sorry for him. And this is how I came to learn the word Enttausch in German. That word in German means disappointed and it sounds so much like Greg’s last name.
I remember my response to disappointed Greg. After his rant was over. I looked him in the eye and said to him “Greg I aced my Trig test today.”
My German is steadily improving. But that is no way to learn a language. The next time “enttausch” is used in a German conversation, I will soon be two sentences behind with this long translation and then thinking about this silly baseball story.
The Side Effects of Endorphins 