Short Essay 3
Britton Angle
Professor Barkhurst
English Comp 1/Short Essay #3
25 February 2015
Dave Dravecky…My Childhood Hero?
Maybe having hero in the title is a bit of a stretch and an exaggeration. Have you ever indulged in a book that has your attention every minute of every page you read? I am sure the answer is yes. I think most people have related to this feeling at some point. Dave Dravecky, a book written in 1993, is the book that stole my mind from page one. A book that was so fascinating to me, I used it for my book report in school at least three times. As I reflect back on that, perhaps writing a book report on the same book in three different grades is a bit excessive…or just pathetic. After I finished reading this book the first time (I read it at least two times), I am almost certain that this is all I talked about. My family could attest to this. “Gee whiz Britton, stop with the Dave Dravecky talk”, I can hear them say. School friends so tired of hearing me rave about this book. “You have got to read this book”, I would say. Actually, come to think of it, most everybody around me could quote the book without ever reading it, thanks to my nonstop blabbing about every detail.
I am not certain what started this infatuation with the book Dave Dravecky. Perhaps it was my love of sports (although baseball has always been my least favorite sport), or maybe it was the character of a man who was the famous left handed pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. A man whose professional pitching career was ended far earlier than expected secondary to a cancerous tumor found in his left arm, his pitching arm. Perhaps I was hooked because it was about a man who had a miraculous comeback after a large portion (nearly half) of his deltoid muscle was removed to aid in the elimination of the cancer cells and to prevent possible spreading of those cells. Whatever it was, this book gave me such a special feeling.
Most everyone knows about the pitch that could be heard around the
Professor Barkhurst
English Comp 1/Short Essay #3
25 February 2015
Dave Dravecky…My Childhood Hero?
Maybe having hero in the title is a bit of a stretch and an exaggeration. Have you ever indulged in a book that has your attention every minute of every page you read? I am sure the answer is yes. I think most people have related to this feeling at some point. Dave Dravecky, a book written in 1993, is the book that stole my mind from page one. A book that was so fascinating to me, I used it for my book report in school at least three times. As I reflect back on that, perhaps writing a book report on the same book in three different grades is a bit excessive…or just pathetic. After I finished reading this book the first time (I read it at least two times), I am almost certain that this is all I talked about. My family could attest to this. “Gee whiz Britton, stop with the Dave Dravecky talk”, I can hear them say. School friends so tired of hearing me rave about this book. “You have got to read this book”, I would say. Actually, come to think of it, most everybody around me could quote the book without ever reading it, thanks to my nonstop blabbing about every detail.
I am not certain what started this infatuation with the book Dave Dravecky. Perhaps it was my love of sports (although baseball has always been my least favorite sport), or maybe it was the character of a man who was the famous left handed pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. A man whose professional pitching career was ended far earlier than expected secondary to a cancerous tumor found in his left arm, his pitching arm. Perhaps I was hooked because it was about a man who had a miraculous comeback after a large portion (nearly half) of his deltoid muscle was removed to aid in the elimination of the cancer cells and to prevent possible spreading of those cells. Whatever it was, this book gave me such a special feeling.
Most everyone knows about the pitch that could be heard around the