Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers who made last year’s all-star team and hit a record 28 home runs in one round of the Home Run Derby has a lot more than All Star memories to be thankful for. He is alive, reunited with his family and back in baseball, which only a few years ago seemed impossible since he was in the middle of dealing with a cocaine addiction. Josh was drafted in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays , as a young kid , Josh stunned all different kinds of people with his skill for the game of baseball , reaching nearly 80 mph on a pitching gun at age 12 meant he was destined to play in the MLB at one point or another. When Josh was drafted in 1999 he as well as others expected him to be an automatic first round pick ,…
Even from the time he was born. Chris showed that he was exceptional and that he wanted to do more with his life than the normal. “Chris had so much natural talent...but if you tried to coach him, to polish his skill, to bring out that final ten percent, a wall went up.” (qtd in Krakauer 111)…
“The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy” by Bill Simmons, was a book only the Sports Guy could write. Save a few hundred pages for Simmons to inform the readers on how he became the basketball and Celtics fan he is today (hint: it was his dad choosing between a motorcycle and season tickets to the Celtics), why as a child he called himself Jabaal Abdul-Simmons, footnotes galore, his hatred for Isiah Thomas and Wilt Chamberlain, and many of the greatest “What-if’s” in basketball history. Other than that, Bill Simmons uses this behemoth of a book to indulge on his version of “The Secret” of basketball, winning championships, and gives his take on how the NBA Hall of Fame should be constructed. In a pyramid style ranking with five levels Bill Simmons has who he thinks should be where, as of 2009, and each level getting smaller and smaller due to the higher standard. It all ends with the 12 best of all time, sitting atop the pyramid like kings with Michael Jordan number one. Again there was no one other than Simmons to write this book. “You could dress me red, drop in into a Crips neighborhood, tell me that I have 12 minutes to start a high-caliber NBA conversation before somebody puts a cap in my ass...and I would…
Josh became addicted to crack cocaine a few years after he had been drafted out of high school as the number one pick for about 4 million dollars. Josh ended up losing everything, from his wife and kids to his baseball career. His life seemed to have slipped away at the blink of an eye. Josh found courage…
Chris McCandless was a bright, dedicated, and sophisticated young man that followed his dreams and accomplished it. He was a very admirable…
Unguarded is a ESPN documentary about the career of former Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics basketball player, Chris Herren. Chris Herren is from Fall River, Massachusetts, a city on the southern coast of the state, near Providence Rhode Island. Fall River is a city in which you are constantly surrounded by poverty and struggle. As Chris Herren grew up, he had the talent to be a basketball star, if not a professional. He attended Durfee High School, where he amassed 2,073 points. He went to Boston College, expecting to have an amazing career there. In his first game, he broke his wrist, ruling him out for the rest of the season. During this time, boredom crept in. After returning to his dorm room one night, he was greeted by his roommate and two girls. The three of them were…
Die with fame, not without. A.E. Housman can concur. The poems, “Ex-Basketball Player” by John Updike and “To an Athlete Dying Young” by A.E. Housman both concentrate on what occurs after an athlete’s days of glory. Most of them seek fame, but only a few will achieve it. Their goal is not to die within their days of glory, it is to live on and have their fame live for an eternity. Unfortunately, in today’s society athletes mainly want the monetary success that comes along fame. They quickly become judged by their actions and can be forgotten if they do not reach stardom or fulfill their fame set by the standards of society. Sharing similar themes of adversity and death, the two poems still differ from one another. This causes the authors to…
McCandless early year of his life was abusive and unsettling because his father abused him in many ways that only siblings and he can explain. His father also had another family and impacted McCandless. McCandless could express it. Growing up, his family wanted the best for him. His parents believed that they could buy his respect. McCandless thought other. Overall, Chris McCandless’s childhood wasn’t the best. His journey was the highlight of his life until it came to the end. He was poisoned and suffered for many days with an illness of starvation and was barely able to stand up. During his last days, Chris McCandless writes, “‘I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS ALL!’” (Krakauer 199). Chris McCandless finally opened eyes to see what he had in front of him because he realized that his family did care for him and that the people he met along the way gave him happiness, but was too much of a fool to realize. Another most obvious reason for Chris McCandless being a fool for him leaving his life. He left his family, money and career behind to go chase his goal to Alaska. It was awfully nice of him to donate his money to charity, but he lost everything he…
The novel 'Dougy' by James Moloney is intended to capture the attention of young readers. It talks about Racial Conflict, Racial Discrimination, Family support, and Determination which is experienced by all the people in the world especially in multi-cultural countries. The story also deals with a range of issues facing Aboriginal society. It tells the readers the fear and misunderstanding between Aboriginals and white Australians that has existed for decades.…
One of the big things that Chris McCandless and Timothy Treadwell had in common was that they had troubled pasts, lied to the people they met, and changed their name. Although on a larger scale they changed and lied for different reasons, on a smaller scale they did it to get away from life they didn’t want so that they could finally live the way they really wanted to. They were both smart, McCandless went to Emmory and Treadwell went to Bradley on a swimming scholarship, only to lose it because of a back injury. A point in their pasts where they differ is in substance abuse, Treadwell had a terrible drinking problem and referred to his life with the bears as is “13 year sobriety plan”, McCandless never had any problems like that.…
"Miami no es los Estados Unidos" (Miami is not the United States) is a phrase that I heard many times while growing up in Miami. It is problematic, because at its core lies the idea that a city that is teeming with Latinx/Hispanic immigrants could not be representative of what the United States "really" is. An idea that is pervasive but that unnecessarily emphasizes the vibrant culture of Miami, and underplays the socioeconomic inequality that exists in many other cities. As an immigrant I have grown up as a part of communities that are often considered under-served, and that consistently struggled financially. Something that I was aware of from a young age, and that truly shaped the way I looked at my future. With every time that my mom woke…
The Victorian Era was a time during which Queen Victoria, born in 1819, reigned over the United Kingdom, ruling from 1837 until her death in 1901(“Victorian Era”). 1830 is considered the beginning of the Victorian Era to some literary historians, but the keystone that really made its mark on this era was the passage of the First Reform Bill in 1832 . This bill gave the middle-class Englishmen some form of hope toward finally being heard by their government (“Victorian Era”). “The death of the poet laureate William Wordsworth in 1850, rang the death knell for idyllic romanticism in the arts and the onset of Victorian high seriousness with the ascent of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) as the new poet laureate”(“Victorian Era”). This time period was more of a time of transition, and the end of the Victorian Era became evident in 1861, when prince Albert died of typhoid or cancer. The Victorian Era was considered the time period when literature began to develop from Romantic to the literature of the twentieth century (“Victorian Literature”). The widowed queen withdrew from the throne therefore robbing Great Britain of an intelligent and astute leader”(“Victorian Era”).…
In the public's eyes Chris McCandless may seem like he went crazy or insane, and they may be right. But he went out and followed his dreams, went against societal norms, and experienced things that most people will never get the chance to. People can say a lot of different…
In the film, the basketball players, Junior, Worm, Timo, Kenyon, and Damien undergo both challenging and unique experiences that alter the way they interact inside and outside of school (Bridgett, Carter, Scanlon, & Toffler, 2005). Kenyon finds out that his longtime girlfriend, Kyra, is expecting; the couple faces with the decision to keep or abort the unborn child and if Kenyon will relocate and continue playing basketball on a college level (Bridgett, Carter, Scanlon, & Toffler, 2005). Needless to say, Kenyon’s focus is shifted toward his personal life rather than the team and his education (Bridgett, Carter, Scanlon, & Toffler, 2005). Timo is the most vocal character in the movie and creates interpersonal problems with the team and within himself (Bridgett, Carter, Scanlon, & Toffler, 2005). Upon meeting Coach Carter, Timo dishes out insults, showing that he’s the “man” of the team (Bridgett, Carter, Scanlon, & Toffler, 2005). Timo’s life on the street is very versatile and he gets into a scuffle with local gang members (Bridgett, Carter, Scanlon, & Toffler,…
It’s easy to believe Chris suffers from a mental illness such as high functioning borderline personality disorder. This misconception comes from the fact that Chris creates a new version of himself, Alexander Supertramp, fails to maintain relationships he creates throughout his journey, and is meticulous with how the trail to his past life is left. These traits seem to be enough to diagnose Chris with such a disorder, that is if you take it out of context. Chris creates a new version of himself to symbolize the new life he is soon to pursue. He wants to limit the connections to his old life in all ways possible. A life that he regards with disdain, because it failed to meet his moral code. A code highly represented by a passage Chris highlighted in one of his books, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth” (Thoreau qtd. in Krakauer 117). Chris’ family failed to understand, and respect these ideals, resulting in Chris’ cutting them out of his life. His parents insisted on trying to increase his quality life with material values while also keeping their previous affair a secret from Chris. He fails to maintain his relationships with people not because he’s antisocial, but because he resents society, and doesn’t…