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Clayton Wilkins Autobiography

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When I was a child the atmosphere of baseball was almost intoxicating to me. The scent of freshly cut grass as it tickles your nose, the sound of the ball whooshing through the air from the mound to the catchers’ glove, and the sudden crack of the bat as it knocks the little leather ball hundreds of feet out into the park. All of my senses are in full joyous glee when I am surrounded by that environment. Unfortunately, I only got to enjoy this atmosphere from the bleachers. I was born with many medical issues, one of which being asthma that did not particularly like the freshly cut grass tickling my nose. I would spend my time in the stands watching my half-brothers and cousins who were much healthier than me live my dream of becoming the next …show more content…

This happened when my Great Grandmother married a man named, Clayton Thompkins. Clayton was eighty-eight years old, had never married before, and did not have any kids of his own. My father had left my Mom and I many years before so the relationship seemed to spark instantly. Clayton took me under his wing and became a father figure that I was not use to having around in my life. Every Sunday at my grandmother’s house, we would waste the day away with the sounds of our voices. We would discuss about our favorite team the Oakland A’s and how much we despised the New York Yankees. Clayton had kept me happier that I could ever remember as a child. However, it never slipped his mind that I was upset with all my sicknesses and that I couldn’t actually do any of the things we would talk about. It was then Clayton would fill my young heart with the ideas of being in sports without being on the field. The theory arose that, I could become a statistician for baseball since math came so easy to me as a subject. We would listen to ESPN Radio and he said I could be like our favorite sports radio analyst, Colin Cowherd. I may even choose to get into writing and become a sports journalist for a newspaper or magazine or even interview my favorite athletes on Television. These new dreams that Clayton inspired in me gave me new goals and purpose in

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