Christie Played Less Hardball on High School Baseball Team

As Chris Christie continues a fierce public dispute with a childhood friend and longtime ally over the "Bridgegate" scandal, others who grew up with the governor portray a less combative person who once graciously gave up his starting catching position on the Livingston High School baseball team.

The governor fired back over the weekend at David Wildstein, a longtime friend and former statistician on Christie's high school baseball team, one day after the ex-Port Authority executive's attorney said "evidence exists" Christie knew about the George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were happening.

"Bottom line—David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein," Christie wrote in an email Saturday to supporters obtained by several media outlets, including The Bergen Record.

Christie criticized Wildstein's character and credibility in the email with a number of bullet-point items. The governor claimed a 16-year-old Wildstein "sued over a local school board election" and "was publicly accused by his high school social studies teacher of deceptive behavior."

The governor's aggressive response to his childhood friend is far different from the attitude he had in 1980 when his father considered legal action to block a transfer student from taking Christie's starting catching position in his senior year of high school, according to the Washington Post.

Friends said Christie opposed his father getting involved and he ultimately remained on the team and backed up the star transfer as Livingston won the state championship, the article said.

"We still remember how he conducted himself. . . . He did it with such class," longtime friend and former minor league pitcher Scott Parsons told the Washington Post.

Former Livingston High Principal Al Berlin also remembers a calmer, less "combative" Christie back then.

"Not quite as combative as he is now. Not quite as aggressive. And a lot lighter," Berlin told the Washington Post of his memories of Christie as a teenager. "As smart as Chris is, I doubt if he would have done something as stupid as they’re claiming he did."

However, the once popular governor continues to come under fire.

Christie was booed over the weekend in Times Square at a pre-Super Bowl event, and in an unscientific Patch poll, more than 53 percent of the about 10,000 votes cast say he should be impeached.