A little brotherly competition

Growing up, Luke and Peter Hartman played a variety of sports, and they were pretty evenly matched in most of them.

Peter thought he was the better baseball player. Luke thought he could compete on the tennis court. They both think they’re better at basketball. 

“From the time we were kids, we just always played against each other,” Luke Hartman said. “I feel like a lot of the time when it’s me vs. him, we can get past the game and you start playing mind games.”

The Mountain Brook High School brothers have honed in one sport as their school careers have progressed. Luke, a senior, recently signed to play baseball at Bucknell University. Peter, a junior, is the No. 1 singles player for the Spartans and hopes to play tennis in college.

Now that they both play one sport, something strange has happened.

“He’s actually been asking me to play (tennis) recently,” Peter Hartman said. “I can’t even think of why he would want to do it. He says he wants to see how he does.”

That would be no contest.

On the same note, Peter stepped into the batting cage a few years ago to see what he could do with a baseball bat in his hand. That was no contest.

“It was a little disconcerting to me honestly,” Luke said. “I was a little surprised just because he played for several years.

“He honestly swings the bat the exact same way he does a tennis racket. He looks like an idiot, but it was funny. We had a good laugh about that.”

Peter did not believe his brother when told that he swung the bat like a tennis racket, so he asked for his swing to be videoed so he could see for himself.

“I was literally swinging a tennis racket. I would have to concede on the baseball field,” Peter said.

Aside from the constant desire to try — and fail miserably — to one-up the other, it is obvious that the two brothers, separated by just a year, have a great amount of respect and admiration for reach other.

“I love Pete, and I think he’s a great kid,” Luke said. “It’s just been fun growing up with him, obviously. We share the same athletic interests. We push each other in ways that you can’t get from any other outside source like a brother.”

The two have the upstairs portion of the house to themselves for now, and use the space to blast music and, of course, compete against each other.

“We’re always playing music and having push-up contests,” Luke said.

Who wins those contests is up for debate.

“If it’s just one contest of who can do the most push-ups, I win. But his endurance is a little better than mine,” Luke said.