Personal Narrative: My Journey To A Baseball Team

I’m sure you’ve been told persistence is key, and believe that you can do something, not that you can’t. Well I’m not going to show it to you, or tell you, I’m going to prove it to you. The summer after 4th grade year, our baseball team had the greatest summer ever. At the beginning of the season since their was so many kids at our age group that wanted to play, the adults in charge had to split it up into 3 teams. All 3 teams had fair or average seasons. My team had the best of the 3, but it wasn’t quite good enough. We had had, just enough success, not as much as we would have liked. We found ourselves barely sneaking into the tournament as the worst out of 8 seeded teams. We had to play against the undefeated Watertown team in the first round. We were told we had no chance to win, and we believed that too. The most I’ve ever been wrong in my life was saying, “we have no chance to beat them.”

As soon as I made my very first varsity baseball appearance, I knew that I had to be the very best I could be or there was never going to be a chance of ever putting on that white and maroon crisp cleaned dri-fit Russel number 18 jersey. My heart was beating beyond faster than it should be at my first at bat because I had always heard “Just wait you haven't seen nothing yet, wait till you face them varsity pitchers.” Players older than me had constantly been saying that throughout my freshman season and it kept repeating over and over in my head like a broken record. Although I had studied the pitcher and had seen with my very own eyes, he wasn’t as good as everyone talked him up to be. I was still overawed and very nervous about messing up.

I was dropped off the travel baseball team? “How could this be” I asked my dad, he replied “I don’t know Josh you didn’t put that much effort into your last game and you don’t try in practice”. The travel baseball team is the most prestigious youth baseball team when I found out I had been dropped I was heartbroken I wanted to crawl into a hole and cry. My dad tried to talk me into trying to try out for different team I just turned around and didn’t say a word. I ran outside, grabbed my baseball glove and threw it in the pool I never wanted to see a baseball glove or bat again.

Each and every week I would head out to the baseball park, not because the experience would always leave me with joy, but because of the joy and satisfaction that the players had when they came and left the field. Many of the player’s parents told my fellow buddies and I, that the players would start counting down the days until the next Sunday, as soon as they’d get into the car! Throughout the entire Challenger season, I was reminded of how easy my life actually is, and how a how much I take for granted daily. With this program having such a great impact, I was dedicated to making sure that the player’s experience was the best possible. Which meant that I would often get there early, and help our Challenger division coordinator, to set up and makes sure that everything was ready for when the players came. My hard-work, and readiness to help out obviously were apparent to the coordinator, Jeff Sandes, as he came to me at the end of last year’s season to thank me for all the hard work, time and effort, I had put in to make sure that the players' experiences were the best

Competing for the spot. This kid named mike plays center field for the rangers, his high school baseball team. He is the captain of his team and his teammates and coach expect a lot from him. Their first day of training there was a foreign exchange student that plays the same position as mike and his name is Oscar Ramirez. When he first got their no one thought that he was good and no one knew who he was so they all looked down on him. Once he started batting and got out in center field then they all realized that he wasn't a joke. Everyone thought that if you played any sports than you are a jock and this kid named Zack always made Mike mad. Zack was walking down the hall way and stopped in front of Mike and was annoying him and called him

So what made baseball be the event that made me who I am today. Well I’m about to tell you. First it was the very first baseball game I played, then it was the first game I won, after that it was the first tournament I won, last it was the first World Series I won.

Ever high school baseball player has to remember there very first high school baseball game. I remember playing two inning in state playoffs for baseball. I only got to play those two inning because one of are teammates had to stop playing. It was the best two inning in my whole life it was so much fun but also so nerve wracking at the same time because I didn’t want to mess up anything or let my team down.

We were in the streets of the neighborhood, Ann Elizabeth to be exact. We had just began to play a game of baseball with my brothers new metal bat. Mom had already left for work and my dad was getting ready to leave as well. He was running sort of late. My brother and I were about to start the game, we check around us to make sure no one was near us to play a safe game. We saw our little sister and brother at the front doors neighbor's house playing with their daughter last time we checked. As my brother threw the baseball, I was getting ready to swing then bam! Before I knew it the bat had already crashed into my little brother's head. Let me remind you that this was a metal bat. A metal bat had ran cross my little brother's head. I was so terrified. My little brother was only 4 at that time. I did not know what to do. I held him in my arms. He was still conscious. I was holding my hand over his open wound. He bled a lot. My other brother had ran to let my dad know. My dad came rushing outside,

My palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy, as my dad tried to make awkward conversation with me as he drove. We were on our way to the Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the very new looking arena where the Washington Capitals practiced. The rink is far to begin with, down in Arlington Virginia, and the fact it was a dark and rainy Tuesday night did us no favors. The grueling stop and go traffic extended our ride to over an hour, good thing we left much earlier than we had to. The ice slot was set for 7:30, so I wanted to be there a little before 7 in order to have plenty of time to get dressed and get through my pre-game/practice rituals with ease. At 7:30 I would be on the ice trying out for my first AAA hockey team, The Washington Little Caps, the best team in the DMV.

Then we ran out of the tunnel and I was all hyped and then we ran over to the dugout and got ready then we went on the field and started to stretch. And our pitcher was in the pitching bow warming up his arm. And finally we started to play the game we were up first to bat. And I was batting fourth on the team which means I am clean up hitter in baseball. The first batter on the team Reed walked and the second grounded out to shortstop and reed was out at second but tevon was safe at first. Our third batter Austin hit a single to move up the batter into scoring position. Then I came up and I was so nervous I had the butterflies in my stomach.

“Heyboer, you’re at first. Head on out there.” As my coach said that, my nerves started rushing up my back. I was at Bicentennial park with my dad and my softball team for our last softball game of the summer. I was so nervous. Tension grew and my heart was about to burst out of my chest.

I click my cleats with my bat and dig a hole in the batter's box and stair at the pitcher. The pitch comes in slow almost in slow motion. I swing as hard as can. I hear the crack of the bat and I see the ball fly over the fence. I can't believe it. I never thought in a million years I would ever hit a homerun. I hear my teammates screaming. I round first, I'm almost at second when the shock wears off and I realize that I just won the game. A huge smile crosses my face as I round third and head for home. I get closer and closer to home. I stomp on home. Then before I know it the lights go out.

it's a hot Texas Sun beat down upon my neck a fast ball whizzed past my bat and into the catcher's glove after you had another strikeout. I trudged back to the dugout thoughts of failure filled my mind of my confidence slowly vanishing. I wasn't accustomed to anything less than success before high school. I prospered in youth athletics while living in South Dakota. I had a phenomenal baseball coach to transform my robbed potential into success on the baseball diamond. Unfortunately, my father's Air Force career demanded that we move before my baseball season. Without me my team went on to win the city state championships advancing all the way to the Little League World. When I was younger my family moved to not affect my athletic performance the difficulties began I was torn from my tight-knit community in Northern Virginia and forced to adjust to life in West Texas prior to the start of my freshman year. I struggled to regain the close friends and relationships I left behind for the first time in my life.

Six years ago I played my very first baseball game and I was the pitcher. Now you may think that when I was four I couldn't pitch. Well you were right I just played next to the pitching machine. Getting any baseball that came my way. Popfly, grounder, line drive, you name it I caught it. I was very good at baseball and I loved to play baseball.

Some people just think softball is as simple as someone swinging a stick, hitting a ball, and trying to get back to where they started. They don’t see what softball really means to someone like me. Someone who has dedicated their life just to be able to play on that field at a certain level. Someone who wants to go to college and play the sport that they love. Well, I play softball because of the love I have for the sport.