College Baseball Narrative

Baseball was in my blood. Some of my earliest memories include batting cages with my Dad, sliding into home plate and throwing my first curve ball. By eight years old, I was playing ball year-round on travel teams and loving every minute of it. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that this was my sport, and I would play it in high school and possibly beyond. But, during the summer of 2010, the unthinkable happened. Picking up a golf club for the first time, I fell in love with a new game. I played every chance I got that summer. Begging my parents for clubs and lessons, my passion grew and most of the following summer was spent on the golf course, not the baseball field.

Ever since I could remember sports have ruled my life. When I was a young boy I played football and baseball. I loved playing both of these games tremendously. As I grew older I distanced myself away from football as I wanted to focus solely on baseball. Although I stopped playing football in the sixth grade, it taught me many things I will never forget. I have now played baseball up to my twelfth grade year in high school and all four years of my high school career I have started for the varsity team. Baseball is my passion. Baseball is the fuel to my fire. It has taught me countless things including determination, respect, and teamwork. These skills I have learned won’t just benefit me on the baseball diamond, but it will help me through every aspect of life.

Baseball seemed to be my life when I was a little kid. Playing catch, hitting balls, pitching, the whole nine yards. It has always a life long dream of mine to play Major League Baseball. I was a little kid with big dreams, nothing seemed to be impossible. I got older though, I started to realize some dreams were just too big.I couldn’t throw 100 MPH and didn’t have lightning fast speed. I realized I wasn’t going Pro in baseball but the most important thing I took away from it was the life lessons learned.

Baseball has always been called a game of mistakes. When you are batting you fail more often than not. You are considered a great player if you succeed only a third of the time. Yet to succeed, you must move past your failure and forget about it. When in the field you are likely to make an error at some point, it happens to everyone, it's about clearing your mind and moving on. I have always believed these lessons help me in my everyday life and the classroom. If I don’t do well on a test, forget my homework or I don’t do well on a project I don’t let it get me down. I think learning what you did wrong, fixing it, and getting it right the next time should be the goal. A failure needs to become a learning experience that you can build off of.

When I was younger, I always wanted to be someone famous like a singer, an actress, or even an astronaut. But one day I came across a sport, but this was not just any boring sport to me, it was a sport that I knew I wanted to do for a career or even until I grew old. It might just be a ball and bat to some people but to me it felt more than a sport. It felt like an endless vacation from everything going bad in my life. That sport is softball. But I knew something that felt so wonderful has to have some challenges.

Born and raised in Philadelphia I had that competitive city kid attitude. I was different though which made me more competitive from the rest. If it was as simply as someone walking next to me on the sidewalk towards the street I would still wanna beat them there. I never lost that instinct and I am proud of it. Being the best at anything and everything is my goal. I've been playing baseball since I was four and I don't take the sport lightly. I've led many teams to championships, winning awards also to go along with it. My teammates and I both look at me as the captain of the team. If we lose I look at myself and what I could have done better to help the team. Baseball is my life and my passion and I want to play the sport as long

The first pitch was a strike right up the middle no chance for me or derek to get to, on the very next pitch the runner stole second base.

It was the change of an inning. I went into the dugout, got my drink of my water and rested my arm for the next inning of pitching. First batter was up for our team, he got a hit. The second batter, strikes out. Then next thing I know is there is two people in front of me before I am up to bat. So I get in my bag to get my batting gloves, helmet, and everything else I needed to go hit. I stand towards the front of the dugout till it is my turn to take some practice swings in the on-deck circle. The batter that was up got walked and now it was my time to do my pre-hit routine in the batters box. I took three swings, then stretch, then talked to people in the crowd to not sike myself out before

Baseball is a game I have been playing since the age of eight. Since then, I have been a phenomenal hitter. I was a right-handed hitter when I started playing baseball, and I was the best hitter in my age group. I always hit home runs when it was my turn to bat. The coaches who picked the teams argued about who would get the first pick because they all wanted to pick me first. Batting right-handed came naturally. I was young, and just picked up a bat and started swinging. Around this time, I played around swinging left-handed, but it was a complete failure, so I brushed it off to the side, forgetting about it for a while.

I take one foot out of the box and let out a breathe I didn’t know I was holding in. I once again looked to my coach Mike for direction and go to take a practice swing. Little did I know the catcher was getting up to pressure Maddy back to first base from her lead. As I was taking my swing I heard a thud, my bat had hit something solid. I immediately filled with remorse and tensed up. My bat suddenly got heavy with guilt. The catcher dropped the ball and fell to her knees clutching her back. I went limp and looked around confused and shocked. I didn’t know what to do so I started walking towards the dugout. Timmy met me halfway and put his hand on my shoulder I looked up at him and that’s when I realized tears were streaming down my face. I felt weak like a helpless child. Timmy reassured me that it wasn’t my fault. “You have the right to have one foot in the box and take practice swings, it’s going to be ok,” he said, but I wasn’t really paying attention to him. I looked around at my team and the crowd they were all shocked like me. I could hear the girl’s muffled sobs from where I was standing. “Do I really hit that hard?” I thought to myself. The other team’s coaches walked the catcher back to the dugout and a new girl came in. I reassured Timmy I would be fine then walked back the box. The game resumed and I got

Baseball gives me confidence and reminds me of where some of my talents lie. Baseball has always been a talent I can fall back on when I begin to feel bad about myself. Though baseball can not always solve my problems, hitting in a batting cage or playing catch with a teammate is nearly a surefire way to get me into a more positive state of mind. At the beginning of fall, I made a profile on a baseball recruiting website that is used by a majority of college programs, and every now and then I will receive a notice that college coaches are looking at my profile and are potentially trying to recruit me to play baseball at their school. For me, college baseball is a huge goal, and finding that I may get that opportunity causes me to further believe in myself. Though maybe not directly associated with a baseball field, when I am at a field I am reminded of the stress relief and learning of future opportunities, and I receive a confidence

I was so nervous for this morning’s competition. Today was the day that I had the chance to show to a judge what I had to offer into the heat of the KMEA Piano Kansas State Competition. The songs that I had practiced over from June to October were mere children’s play compared to others in the group who played pieces like Claire de Lune and the 12 Variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (no one in middle school with common sense would choose repertoire made for high schoolers). “Melody, make sure you go over the spots in your songs that you need to work on”, Mom said, shattering my thought process.

Dane Kutnick is in right field , Tanner Smith at first, and Jason VanDenLangenberg is catching. We have played 3 tournaments together, but we already looked like we have been playing together for a long time. We may not have known it yet, but they were going to turn one of the best plays of the year.

Well if you are like me, you watched the Rangers win a back and fourth game that was the epitome of September baseball, were overcome by joy, and then passed out because you were just flat out tired. For a game that ended on Wednesday morning, a Rangers win would have been the only acceptable outcome. For me the game meant waking up and walking to class quite sluggishly, and for many of you I 'm sure it meant a long day ahead at work, staring at the clock waiting for it to be 5:00pm. You 'll probably even sit there thinking, I 'm definitely not going to do that again tonight. But I 'm here to tell you that you are, and you are for a while, because this team is fun to watch and it 's meaningful September baseball baby! So whether you missed the

A couple of our guys got on, but then I was up to bat. I was so excited. I got up there and decided that I was going to take the first pitch (not swing at it) to get my timing to make sure I get a hit. Ball one, I step out of the box taking another practice cut. I got back in the box and waited for the next one. The umpire calls, “Strike one!” I thought it wasn’t a strike, but I went with it because I didn’t want to get into a fight. I step out of the box, fix my batting gloves and take another swing the get back in. The next pitch comes and you could hear a “DING”. I swung and hit it down the right field line. I ran as hard as I could and got a double. The next batter struck out and ended the