The Role Of Failure In Baseball

“Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday 's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That 's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that 's the way baseball is”(Bob Feller). People in America besides the food, the jobs, and the freedom love and enjoy Americas sports. While a great many of people see football as “America 's game”, baseball has been “America 's game” for over a generation. Baseball was one of America’s most earliest and famous games back in the 1800’s and still is to this day and age. People see baseball as a game or a sport and it is, but it in many ways is also so much more than just a game or sport. It may be to your surprise, but baseball has played a big part to our history here in the United States of America.

My own body had failed me and I had failed the team. I 'm sure it didn 't seem like a big deal to anyone else but it was to me because I had faced this forward many a time and he had never flat out beaten me like that. It meant that if he could beat me then all the other offensive people on other teams could also beat me just as easy. After the game it was all I could think about. It haunted me to the point I didn 't hear my dads usual commentary on my game. I kept thinking about it until I came to the conclusion that if I couldn 't play as fast as I used to I would have to make up for it in some way. The next day at practice I watched some of the defenders that were typically slower than most of our offenders to see how they overcame their lack of speed. I saw that a lot of them played tighter on their respective opponents and didn 't allow them a chance to turn at all so a foot race couldn 't be started. I tried that tactic but couldn 't quite get it. I was too used to relying on my speed, and I started doubting myself more and more. My passes started going completely off target, my shots either went over or wide, and I couldn 't hold

Every person faces a type of adversity at some point during their lifetime, and in that instance, he or she can choose to give up or persevere. In high school, I was on the football team. Everyday we had to push ourselves in each aspect of the sport, whether it be patience, discipline, endurance, etc. Whenever I got into the sport, I knew that it would not be easy, but I had no idea the amount of work that I would have to put into it to be successful.

Failure is an inevitable part of life, one cannot be successful in everything they partake in. Teenagers are prone to failure due to inexperience and immaturity. There have been several moments in my life where I was less than perfect. Those moments are not what define me, but how I respond to these challenges that strengthens my character. I am a firm believer that an individual has not failed until one has given up, because when someone relinquishes their drive they stop moving forward.

When I was younger, I loved to play baseball. I would join multiple leagues every year, and spend days in the summer playing pickup games with friends. Of course I had other interests, but baseball 's combination of technical and physical skill stood out to me as something that I loved. As time went on, and I became more serious about the sport, I began to realize that I was actually terrible at it. I understood the strategy and could perform any individual task, but I could never piece it together to play at even an intermediate level. As I continued I became increasingly frustrated, making fewer teams and settling for merely intramural leagues. Finally, I reached an age where I could no longer compete without being selected for a team, and stopped playing competitively altogether.

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.

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.

When times get tough and adversity is thrown at you like a curveball all you can do is stay positive and know to never give up. Unfortunately I have had to deal with a couple scenarios where I have been faced with adversity. I have had to overcome my parents being divorced, and a family member who has overcame a drug addiction. That was one of the hardest things I was ever faced with going through middle school, but knowing that there will always be a tomorrow and to not give up on someone has had a positive impact in the end. It has brought my family closer than we have ever been. At the end of school ball I was faced with some adversity to overcome, by the feeling of letting my teammates, and coaches down after punching the dugout. I had to face the adversity of a broken hand filled with guilt, and embarrassment. Baseball has always taught me to keep pushing through rough patches of life and always have faith, and stay

once said, "Baseball is a game of frustration and failure in many ways. As a hitter, you fail 7 out of 10 times, so you have to figure out how to deal with failure quite a bit, and that 's one of the keys to having longer term success." This means that baseball players need to have spectacular mental toughness.

One incident I can recount when I experienced failure was when I joined Cross Country. Since, I can remember I have always excelled at everything I did, from my academics to dance class to music lessons. When I entered into my freshman year of high school, I decided I would to join an athletic team in order to keep myself occupied outside of academics. I figured joining a sport would be another good attribute to add to my resume. Initially, my mind was set to join the soccer team. However, I found out there weren’t any openings available. The only team that had an opening was The Cross Country Team. I was terrified…my parents encouraged me to join as there wasn’t an option not to.

Imagine you want to make a team but you didn 't make it well that happened to me. This is the time I went through tough hope. After I didn 't make the team I practiced really hard to make the team next year. My journey through tough hope has affected me in many ways like this one.

For a young baseball player one of the highest goals to achieve is hitting a homerun -for me that was all I wanted. I already achieved most of what I wanted in baseball, and one of my proudest was a no-hitter, but it was no home run. When I first realized how bad I wanted this feat was one night after a practice where all we did was just hit. The majority of my teammates hit at least one homerun that practice, but me I hit the fence but never was able to send one over. The car ride home after the practice was horrible, I was a mess. I told my mom, “ I’m horrible at this game, I get so close everytime and I just can’t hit a ball over the fence.”

As a student athlete, I have learned to use failure as an opportunity to learn. The moments in which I have "failed" have only helped me grow and reflect on the mistakes that not only I have made, but also those made by others. I was forced to do this multiple times throughout my final season of high school field hockey. Even though the team had players who were devoted and had a true desire to win, the season ended as a losing record in the books. As the primary goalie and captain, this was extremely difficult to accept. However, I began to see the game as more than just a win or a loss. Losing gave the team the opportunity to closely look at what we did well, and what we needed to improve on. We were then able to focus more precisely on what we needed to do in order to succeed. I was able to learn that being successful and winning were not necessarily the same thing. We had success in a smaller sense; we worked as a team, played clean games and were noted for our sportsmanship. Although our record did not improve much, the overall attitude and skill of the team began to rise. We began to play for each other, instead of just playing for ourselves. This change was astronomical for the overall well being of the team.

In life, failures sometimes happen. It happens to everyone. However, failures don’t define us as a person, but it builds you as one from those experiences. In my seventeen years, I have experienced my own share of blunders, each teaching me a new lesson. The person who succeeds without first failing hasn't really learned anything; in failures, there can be a learning experience and an opportunity to grow.

Exhaustion was all I felt by the time I arrived at home. I pushed myself to keep up with everyone, but I overdid it. I did not want to go back. It was too much for me, and I wanted to quit. In retrospect, the whole scenario I created in my mind was quite dramatic. I felt that I was the worst on the team and that because I was so terrible, no one would like me. After only one practice I was ready to give up. I did not want to put in the effort. Fortunately, my parents forced me to continue with the team. I arrived the next day with an intense