When you love something would you give up if there was a tiny obstacle in your way? I know I wouldn't. In the short narrative “Baseball in April” in the book Baseball In April by Gary Soto, a boy named Jesse is determined to get better at baseball, a sport that both his brother and him love. Even though Jesse isn’t that good he sticks with the game and overcomes all the challenges he faced. In this story Jesse shows you to Never give up at something you love.…
Growing up, my siblings and I participated in a variety of competitive sports. For my brother and me, this consisted of soccer, basketball, and running track. We would constantly practice together and would make every aspect of it a competition. For example, whoever was breathing hardest at the end of a sprint lost, whoever shot more goals in soccer won, and whoever could dodge and fake out the other was the best athlete in the family. I would try and try to beat my brother but he always found a way to get the upper hand. Compared to my brother, I saw myself as a failure. It wasn’t until one parent teacher conference night that i realized that I was far more academically capable than my older brother. I had better grades and was more well liked…
My grandpa taught me how to be a switch hitter he said I would be more deadly against pitcher and at the time I didn't believe him because I was a kid and thought my grandpa didn't know anything about baseball.In high school I got my dad to let me play football I played halfback and was pretty good I was fast so I could outrun people and one day in practice I got kicked in the shine in practice an I didn't think anything of it because it football it will be fine but I was wrong when I woke up the next morning my ankle and shine were black an blue and swollen 2 times the regular size turns out I had a infection in my leg and that was the end of football for me and my dad was scared the same for baseball but it didn't stop me when baseball tryouts came I stole the show with my power hitting an my speed. When word got out about me mlb scouts came to see me the Yankees Dodgers and much more but I really didn't know they were there for me.I was drafted out of high school and was playing with the best team at the time the New York Yankees the Kings of baseball so when I went to spring training goals were…
I only had school every Monday and Tuesday because my mom was so busy and needed to work. When she came home from work she was so tired she would fall asleep. I would worry about not learning stuff but my mom would always tell me that the only thing i needed to learn was street smarts, which is all I need for living in Chicago. The only thing that kept me human was baseball when my dad left, it was there for me when I was sad, I would walk four miles every day just so I could go to batting practice. My mom is wonderful and takes me to every baseball game even though we don’t have much money, we always save up so I can play in the best division possible. I had people come up to me and tell me I could be the next big thing in baseball, but I do it for my mom, she helps me with everything from batting to pitching and she is the best coach you could ask for. My mom gives me strength to not quit and she makes me believe I can do anything. Today is the day, tryouts are always tough but I was gonna try my best and that is all I could do. The first drill was batting we had to hit into the left, right and middle over the fence that was 300 feet away. The first up batting was Jeremy he didn't get it over on any of them, the next guy John didn't get any either. One by one none of them got it over. I heard them call my name, “Zach Lingard, you are up next after Ron Harper”. Ron is the best guy I have ever seen at baseball at my age, and he only got it over one part of the fence, the left side of the fence. The coach called my name, it was my turn. I was terrified, not one of them got it over except for Ron and he only got one over the fence, here goes nothing, the first one on the left side the coach throws me a fast slider down low and I crush it right over the fence, my…
Laurel high school has been the most glamorous of places to play baseball. The grass was scarce, dominated from large patches of dirt scattered across the outfield. Our batting cage left untouched for months at a time, creating a chest high jungle of weeds that consumed you as you entered. There were no perks of playing for the baseball program. The athletic director ignored us, the students didn’t support us, and the School wouldn’t adequately fund us. All we had were ourselves and an insatiable drive to succeed. I entered my freshman year out of shape,and with little baseball talent at all. I arrived at tryouts as an underdog, but I didn’t let that deter me. After three days of intense tryouts, I was named as a member of the junior varsity team. Unfortunately, The season didn’t go…
I came from a family of really athletic people. My Mom and sister Kaitlyn both played softball from a young age and had many great accomplishments. My sister Kassidy played soccer from a young age as well. I have a lot to live up to. I started playing soccer when I four and I played for one year until I was no longer interested in it anymore. I started softball when I was five, and it wasn’t my favorite. I then retreated back to soccer for a few years. When I was in second grade, I cut my ankle on the bowl that my dog broke when I was trying to get cereal because I was hungry. After that I really didn’t want to play soccer anymore, so I decided to retire my soccer cleats forever. After this, I tried various different ranging from swim team to softball, and as you can imagine, softball stuck. When it did though, it came with my hot-headed personality showing. There was no way around it. I was also very independent, which could be a good thing in some cases, but as I got older I was required to do more group work. I just didn’t know how to.…
Hi , I’m Lilli Burton . I am in sixth grade, and play baseball with the boys. A barrier i have faced is trying to play baseball because I am a girl. Whenever I try - out , they say “ She would be great at softball.” I face the barrier in Summer and Fall when it is time for baseball. A lot of coaches are sceptical about putting me on their team, but I don’t let that stop me from trying and trying again.Until someone accepts me for who i am. To overcome this barrier , I used integrity by sticking up for my beliefs and not always caring about what people think of me . I also used determination by never giving up and try my best to get better and better everyday. My barriers are similar to Jackie Robinson’s because we both wanted to do something…
The dispassion I had towards Baseball was taking notice by my dad. He said, “You don’t like baseball don’t you…” I sadly accepted it and I felt the response would let him down. To my surprise, my dad responded by saying, “You don’t have to play baseball if you don’t want to. You can do whatever makes you happy.” Soon after conceding to not liking baseball, I went straight back to my favorite sport, soccer. Immediately, I felt much happier attending each practice and this gave me the drive to develop as a better player. Little did I know that my dad’s advice would still motivate me to this…
When at the age of five, my parents began to experiment with and place me in many different activities. The first activity was gymnastics, which was a complete failure. The gym instructor would lift my body to the high bars so I can get a feel for it and in that moment I knew it wasn’t for me. The second activity my parents decided I should try next was track and field. Track was fun at first, I actually like to run and I was pretty fast, I believed. When I joined the track team the season was going to begin soon only giving me three weeks to prepare myself for my first track meet. I trained for a while thinking I was decent ready for what life has to throw at me, then the day of the track meet arrived.…
It was a scorching hot October day in Palatine, Illinois. As my team and I warmed up for our cross country race we could feel the sun fry us. The Palatine Meet of Champions is always a competitive meet and this was the last time I would toe the line there. I was nervous. Thoughts started rushing through my head and I tried to stay calm. As the day went on, it was time to go to the line and start the race. Right before the gun went off;, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I visualized success. The gun went off and I bolted for the bottleneck. As we came to the last mile, I was in great position. I started making my way to the front and I felt like I was flying. Although I did not win, I placed fifth against many nationally ranked runners. I felt like I was on top of the world. At that moment I knew I wanted to pursue the dream of running collegiately. Later that week, I received a call from Coach Chorny from Miami University telling me that he would like me to run as a RedHawk. I was hooked after my official visit and later that month, I signed my letter of intent. My journey was set to continue.…
When I was 4 years old, I started playing T-Ball and I became obsessed with the sport. I played every summer from 4 years old until I started playing school ball. I loved the sport so much, I played travel ball every summer and fall. My goal was to play college baseball after graduating high school. I quit all other sports so I could train year around on baseball. My senior year I was chosen to take part in the Under Armour Baseball Tournament in Bradenton, Florida. I got to stay and train in the Pittsburgh Pirates facility. Once, I got back in school, the guidance counselor was meeting with each student to discuss their plans for college. Of course, my plan was to get a scholarship to play baseball and I had not really thought…
Before I was first playing baseball I wasn’t very good and didn’t understand it, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I played t-ball and parent pitch and it was very fun, I could never really hit, but I could field pretty well, and I was always better than my peers. My parents loved baseball and were always very encouraging of how I played baseball, and how bad I was. Once I turned an unassisted triple play, Which means that I got 3 outs all by myself, In the same play to end the inning. Until kid pitch i didn't know the game of baseball. I would constantly get hit by pitches cause I was a left handed batter, and pitchers at that age couldn’t throw me any strikes and would constantly walk me. Any time I got a pitch to hit I would hit pretty far and get a double or a triple.…
I have played the game of baseball since I was six years old. Even at this age, it was considered a late start. Although I had played Tee-ball for a few years, baseball didn’t seem to really interest me until around fifth grade. When I first started playing I wasn’t that good, but I kept…
I was extremely nervous despite the fact that everyone had told me I was going to make varsity since I had done so well at camp. There were about 23 people trying out for varsity and only 18 could make it and so I had a good chance at making the team but that still did not calm my nerves. Before we went out to the brand new turf field for tryouts I was psyching myself out and was doubting myself in all ways possible. My hands were shaking, I was sweating, all while listening to the calm chatter of everyone else echoing loudly in the locker room. “You can’t make varsity; the others are just too good” I was telling myself. During tryouts the pace was fast, the humidity was high, and our spirits were just as high. We had to do lots of ball work and ball skills on the first day and I was messing up completely at times. At one point I screamed out in utter anger because I just could not get my feet to do the correct things. I was so angry with myself because I knew I could do better than what I had done that day. I went home feeling utterly defeated but ready for the next day because there were two days of tryouts. The next day I felt absolutely great and I was doing everything right! I was passing every drill while receiving complements from my coaches. I felt great and as I was walking up the big, blue steps to the locker room, I knew that I had done great at…
“If there is one thing I want you learn from our time together, the most important lesson I could ever teach you as your father, is to never give up. When you’re all alone in life and it seems like nothing's going your way, you just need to keep being yourself and keep doing your thing, and people will notice how great you are. In the worst most awful time of your life my best piece of advice to you is just keep going, never give up on yourself and the results will surprise you every time. I guarantee it.” Words like this haven’t been told to me many times in my life. Throughout these first 17 years of my life, ever since my brother and I were young, we haven’t been with our dad constantly, I have lived with my father for probably 40%-30% of…