Flashback To The Wise County Reunion

I had a buddy that fell for this trick back when we were in high school. We were stylin' at the Wise County Reunion and came across the old "throw a ball in the bucket" game. How hard could it be?  The Carnie even let my friend take a few practice tosses! He was fantastic. Dropping them in the bucket like Yu Darvish.

Now on to the real game. Pretty quickly, he had lost 10 bucks because the ball was hitting the bottom of the bucket and popping out. It wasn't a matter of missing the basket, it was keeping the dang balls in the basket.  "You want to try some practice throws again?" asked the Carnie. My buddy did and once again couldn't miss.  Back to the real game and he was down $30. It wasn't until he was down $70 that we figured out there were Practice Balls and Game Balls. We weren't very smart. (But I was smarter than him that day because I didn't play.)

My dad suggested going over the next day and, when handed the practice ball, my buddy whip out a sharpie and put an "x" it. "Tell him you'll play with that one."  We were only 17 and not that gutsy. Haunted me ever since.

(And I had to have some excuse to post the video.  The poor sap made me laugh by always having that banana with him.)