Autobiographical review: Starting and Closing John Smoltz, a Cy Young Award winner and World Series title holder writes the book starting and closing describing the struggles, “career ending” injuries and hard work that it took over his 14 years in the Major leagues to earn the title of being one of the greatest pitchers to ever step foot on the mound. At 7 years old Smoltz decided that he was going to play baseball in the Major leagues for the Detroit Tigers. In 1985 Smoltz was drafted by his dream team only to be traded to the Atlanta Braves in 1987. In Chapter One Smoltz talks about the kind of person he is and what he had to do to further his career as a major league baseball player after many injuries that should have destroyed his career. The reader of Starting and …show more content…
This is simple yet very strong statement, shows that Smoltz wasn’t playing the game for anybody or anything else but for himself and the love of the game. The quote also displays that Smoltz was a fierce competitor and losing was not an option. Smoltz would often times become injured during the middle of a game but instead of calling it quits he would alter his mechanics to take some of the stress off of the injured tissue. This shows that he was not afraid to fail because changing his mechanics during the middle of a game could result in getting shelled by the other team in front of thousands of people and worst of all, letting his team down. Smoltz was a very positive guy. He states, “If there is anything that I’ve learned in this journey, it’s how to make the best out of really crappy situations” (8). This is a very good lesson the reader can take away from the book because if a person is always looking at the negative side of things he/she will most likely be a negative person and end up being stuck in the same spot. Thinking about the positive side of things helps a person move forward and escape those crappy
Camden Selig’s road to success in college athletics hasn’t been a traditional one. He started off at Washington and Lee University majoring in psychology. He tried out for the baseball team but sadly got cut. During his time there he was a sports photographer for the yearbook and dabbled around sports on a small scale. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree and went on to Ohio University to get his masters in sports management. After he graduated, he didn’t quite know what he wanted to do. At first he thought he wanted to get into baseball. He had a passion for it and enjoyed the thought of having
“Mariano Rivera carves out legacy with trademark pitch: with the mastery of the cut fastball, Yankees’ right-hander is the all-time record holder for saves and may be the best closer in baseball history.” Baseball Digest, Nov.-Dec. 2011, p. 28+. Student Resources In Context, http://link.galegroup.com.
“3 Nights in August Strategy”, by Buzz Bissinger is a story of strategy, heartbreak, and joy inside the mind of a manager. Baseball does not seem as complex as it really is, at first glance it just seems like people hitting a ball and then throwing the ball to any base. Bissinger though, describes the baseball as “complex and layered”. Every inning, score, number of outs, and base runners will determine what play you should make. Many people are unaware of the intensity of strategy used in baseball, so much that Bissinger says that he is still learning despite how long he has been in the scene coaching. The book is split into three sections each describing a game of the Cubs versus Cardinals series.
"Pitching is the art of instilling fear" (Sandy Koufax). These are the words Sanford ¨Sandy¨ Koufax believed in, and strived towards throughout his entire Hall of Fame baseball career. Through his impeccable talents on and off the field, Sandy was able to engraft the characteristics of trust, loyalty, and determination into all of the hearts of those who watched him. Sandy Koufax was the most influential baseball player of the 1960s, because he had a lot of experience with the game of baseball since he was young, he had a great impact on the people who watched him because of his actions, and he helped pave the way for the game of baseball to become even better.
If you love sports fiction books, especially Mike Lupica’s, you will love this one. The book I chose to write a book talk on this quarter is called The Batboy. In the book, Brian, a fourteen year old child, gets the opportunity that he has always wanted. Brian is hired to become the batboy for his favorite baseball team, the Detroit Tigers. Although Brian’s dad was in the major leagues at one point, he left Brian and his mother when Brian was eight. However, Brian got over that when he was young and the situation was not a big deal anymore. When Brian thought things could not get better, he found out that the Tigers signed his favorite player Hank Bishop with Bishop coming off of his fifty game suspension because of steroid use. While reading
Another impressive aspect of Rogosin’s book is the way he ties the hardships that African American’s faced and baseball together in a seemingly smooth connection. Rogosin realized that although he was writing a book on The Negro Leagues, he also couldn’t neglect the background information that came along with that time period. Rogosin includes stories of how teams remained afloat by scheduling exhibition games whenever possible to make money for the team. Rogosin goes on to say “it was pure economics: white people had more money.”2 Another aspect that is appealing in the book is Rogosin often draws comparisons to The Major Leagues on how the leagues differed and how they were similar. The disparities between the leagues really shocks the reader, and challenges their perspective of the time period the book acknowledges.
I will talk to you about why the Whitesoxs were the favorites, why the Whitesoxs players didn’t like their management, and how that affected how baseball changed his management.
But, Peterson didn’t only have a love for the game of baseball, but had a love for writing. After he had graduated from Upsala College, this love he had for writing lead him to work for many newspapers in Suffern, New York, Titusville, Pennsylvania, and Elyria, Ohio before joining the World-Telegram and Sun in 1962. But, in 1966, the paper closed and because of that event, he turned to freelance writing and set out to learn the history of the Negro Leagues. By interviewing the star players of the Negro Leagues and studying the plays of the players through microfilms. Peterson was inspired to try out for the Brooklyn Dodgers when he was nearly 30 but, these try-outs were unsuccessful for him as a player, and so he returned to writing newspaper
Thesis: The Fundamentals of baseball can result in a successful pitcher is proper mechanics, good arm motion to hit your target and lots of flexibility/mobility that can result in high velocity meaning speed.
Throughout the entire story, similarities are easily spotted, but as the end comes into sight all the difference are made clear. The stories branch off into two different endings. In ‘A Cap for Steve’ everything comes to a nice ending. “Maybe I could be your coach…watch you become a great pitcher.” (Callaghan, 177).
The game of baseball evolved immensely during the 1900’s. There were new rules and rule changes, new teams in new states, and then there was Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was a true legend from the day he was born in 1919. Baseball had it all in the first half of the 1900’s, fans filled the stadiums day after day, even during the war times. There was a big-name player on almost every team, children and adults admired these professional baseball players. The only thing professional baseball didn’t have during these times were African American players. Learning about the hardships that he had to overcome as a young boy, and the accomplishments he made from his college days at UCLA, to becoming the first African American professional baseball player, Jackie made it known that he was an American hero.
It wasn’t that long ago when I became in love with the game of baseball. I still remember the day that my neighbor met me outside in the front yard just as we always did. It has been approximately two years ever since that Friday after school he asked me if I want to go to a Angel’s baseball game. I decided to go nothing better to do that day, when I got there it was such a rush seeing all the people that came to watch a baseball game. I followed my neighbor down the line, eagerly I waited to try to obtain a baseball players autograph. My friend gave me a baseball to try to get autographed, and later that day I luckily got my first baseball players autograph. His name was Dino Ebel the bench coach for the Angels,
The story of Jackie Robinson has become one of America's most iconic and inspiring stories. Since 1947, American history has portrayed Jackie Robinson as a hero, and he has been idolized as a role model to the African American baseball community. It is an unarguable fact that he was the first to tear down the color barriers within professional baseball. The topic of Robinson’s role in integration has long been a point of discussion amongst baseball historians. Researchers have accumulated thousands of accredited documents and interviews with friends and team mates such as short stop, Pee Wee Reese, and team owner, Branch Rickey. However, few journalists have asked why Robinson was selected and what was Branch
My breakfast started to creep back up my throat as game time got closer and closer. I walked across the patch of grass behind home plate and was towered over by the 30 foot backstop with a huge net suspended from it. My bulging bag of equipment was beginning to make my shoulder hang. I walked down the steps into the cement dugout and placed my bag under the bench that spanned the entire length of the dugout. I sat down, laced up my cleats, and put my warm-up jacket on in preparation for batting practice. I stepped onto the grass surrounding the dugout to get the feeling of how wet the grass was. I dug my cleats into the grass and began my usual routine of taking certain practice swings as I gazed upon the press box in the wake of the backstop. Preceding the burn in my forearms, caused from the practice swings, I marched behind the dugout to the rows of batting cages to wait my turn in line. Pacing back and forth I knew I had to keep my nervousness to a minimum. I popped in a wad of Big League Chew and continued to
It seems you either love him or hate him - but there's no avoiding him. Adam Sandler has risen to the top, and he has his loyal fans to thank for it. While most actors fight their way to the top while relying mainly on hype, for Sandler this was actually against him. No one thought he would succeed, but the fans made it happen, carrying him to the top of the box office.