Hard work, dedication, sportsmanship, and fair play builds champions.
Promise Park 1978, it a warm spring evening. The azalea trees are blossoming, birds are chirping, dandelion are growing in the baseball outfield. Spring is in the air. It is the long awaited High school baseball season. I can see it like it was yesterday. Me in my bright purple and gold pinstripe baseball uniform with a matching hat. Me wearing my blinding white socks with purple stripes down the side and newly brought white baseball shoes. Sharper than a razor I felt I could glide across the baseball field with the greatest of ease.
The team I played for the Butler Tiger’s had been chosen pre-season conference champs. We were a group of young men who had been playing
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It is the first game of the season and we are playing our cross town rivals the Hartsville Red Foxes. The Red Foxes has beaten us the last three years. This year we are ready to win. Like a kid waiting form Santa Clause we have been anticipating this game. The teams’ emotions are high, like a balloon filled with helium. We have a built-up energy like pressure contained in a steam generator piping. Our baseball team steps on the field with our game faces on. We are steering at the opposing team with the look of a tiger ready to pounce on its prey. The first inning goes by and neither team has scored. Then the second inning plays out the same as the first, three batters up and three batter down. Both team's pitchers are pitching like there is no tomorrow. The ball is coming through the strike zone like a ball of hell fire. The third inning, the fourth inning, the fifth inning, the six innings and still no score for either team. We play through the seventh and eighth inning and the most either team has done was get players to first and second base before the inning is completed. It is the bottom of the ninth inning and I am up to bat. My first few times at bat, I walked, got a single, and later a double. I am determined to get a hit that will put me somewhere on the base in scoring range. I feel if I can just get to third base, we have a chance. The pitcher wines up and it’s a fastball that zips …show more content…
I step out of the batters box to gather myself. I take a couple of check swings. I tell myself now you are ready. I Step back into the batter’s box and prepare myself for the next pitch. In my mind, I am thing if he pitches a fast ball I am going to swing for the heavens. The pitcher throws a fast ball. I can see the ball moving towards me as if it was moving in slow motion. My eyes zoom in on the ball like a pair of binoculars. I swing it is a hit into the outfield over the centerfielders head. I run with
I’m standing on the home plate arms up with the bat my eye is on the Pitcher he’s about to throw I ready myself he throws! I hit the ball! High and far I’m running I pass first base the other team throws the ball to the second butt they miss the catch!! I just pass second base one more base to pass oh no they throw a fastball but wait! The catcher is off the base plate I keep running the player on the other team throws the ball I slide I wait did I make it or am I out?
Imagine standing on a softball field expected to perform at the age of 5. Even though the butterflies in my stomach were starting a war, nothing was going to stop me from stepping on that field to play my first tee ball game as a Little Tiger. Fans cheered, but what I noticed most was a little boy in the outfield picking his nose. Standing in the box, I was terrified; the field looked huge. I had never seen anything like this before, but I knew that the little boy was the person I needed to hit the ball to, so I hit the ball as hard as I could. The ball went soaring through the air like a bird on fire. Dropping from the air, it rolled to the fence. At that time, I knew I had fallen in love with the game of softball. I was smiling from ear to ear, I couldn’t believe I had hit the ball that far! Both sides screamed, yelled, and shouted with excitement. Was all this commotion for me? I rounded first, but I couldn’t go to second because my teammate, Kylie Leach, didn’t run. I didn’t know what she was doing. Sadly, the batter after me hit a ground ball to the pitcher, and the other team threw him out at first.
It is July 12th, in California the Sacramento Leopard High School baseball team is warming up for the big game against the Sacramento Gorillas. They are big hometown rivals. The first time they played, Billy won the game with a walk off 3 run homerun. Only this game is the State Championship and who ever wins this goes to Nationals. The only problem is the temperature is 112 degrees Fahrenheit, but the game must be played. Ricky the star player for the Gorillas is going to be on the mound today. He usually throws a 93 mile per hour fastball,lt is the best in the state of California. Billy will be on the mound for the Leopards he throws a 89 mile per hour fastball.
At the end of the eighth inning we pick up the game with Kansas City leading the Minnesota Twins one to zero. Steve, sitting on the bench in the corner with a towel over his head in the Kansas City Royals dugout as his team is batting in the eighth inning, has thoughts that go back to his Little League days when his father Joe Ballard would say. “Don’t worry about the batter, play pitch and catch with the catcher. That’s how to win a game from the pitcher’s mound.”
The first pitch that the coach threw to me seared the hair right off my head since it was going so fast. “Strike one!” called the ump. Alright, I needed to believe in my abilities. The next pitched was hurled right in line with my face! When I opened my eyes, I saw that the baseball was a perfect pitch and the catcher hadn’t moved his glove. The coach was making a fool out of me with his famous curve ball. “Strike two!” the umpire proclaimed. The next pitch was the one that I would make my mark on. The pitcher wound up and thrust the ball toward the catcher’s glove. I loaded and fiercely swung as hard as I could. After what seemed like forever, I looked into the catcher’s glove, and there was the ball. I felt dreadful. “Strike three!” I heard in the background. As I walked back to the dugout, I wondered what did I do wrong, what could I have changed, and what does the coach think of
“Next up the right fielder Auuuuusstin Meeeehhhhrrrr” belows out of the speakers at full blast as I approach the plate. Feeling loose I ease into the batter's box sinking my cleats deep into the soft dirt where I can get a solid stance. Stretching my bat across the plate showing the pitcher how much reach I have tempting him to throw one in the zone. Weight is on my back leg as I slowly bounce the bat in my hands anticipating the first pitch. The pitcher begins his windup and I stop moving the bat and focus on the ball.
My breakfast started to creep back up my throat as game time got closer and closer. I walked across the patch of grass behind home plate and was towered over by the 30 foot backstop with a huge net suspended from it. My bulging bag of equipment was beginning to make my shoulder hang. I walked down the steps into the cement dugout and placed my bag under the bench that spanned the entire length of the dugout. I sat down, laced up my cleats, and put my warm-up jacket on in preparation for batting practice. I stepped onto the grass surrounding the dugout to get the feeling of how wet the grass was. I dug my cleats into the grass and began my usual routine of taking certain practice swings as I gazed upon the press box in the wake of the backstop. Preceding the burn in my forearms, caused from the practice swings, I marched behind the dugout to the rows of batting cages to wait my turn in line. Pacing back and forth I knew I had to keep my nervousness to a minimum. I popped in a wad of Big League Chew and continued to
The first pitch came in. ¨Ball outside,’’ the umpire said as I stepped out of the box to take a breather. The second pitch came in as a Strike as I tried to get a hack at it but it broke across the plate. I stepped out of the box to regain my composure. Bases loaded 1 out. The third pitch came in and was a fastball that was traveling across the plate at 72 miles per hour, but I got my bat on it at the right time and the ball was in the outfield in a matter of seconds. The ball rolled passed the outfielder as I ran the bases as fast as I could. The outfielder struggled to get the ball in and threw to the cutoff man. By the time he got it in I was already at third for a straight up triple to score three runs to tie it up . “ Timeout,” I called as I took off my helmet and got ready to pitch.Jose took my place to pinch run for me as I needed to start warming up to pitch.
We practiced everyday nonstop and won game after game. We became infamous to the other teams for our ability to decimate our competition. Everything was going well until the semifinals when I was called up to bat. I never had to bat in any of the previous games because there was a turnover before I even had a chance to bat. I was completely dumbfounded, I double checked with the coach to make sure I was truly next, I then asked the batting coach and he said the same. I nervously put on my gloves and helmet as I watched the previous player who had stuck out come back to the dugout with his head down. It was the last inning and there were players on first, second, and third. A tied game between us and the White Sox. I slowly dragged myself to home plate and stood there. I raised the bat behind my head and held it firmly just as my batting coach said. I concentraded my breathing as sweat began to collect on my fore head. We had two outs and all I had to do was tap the ball and we would go on to the finals and then glory. The pitcher gazed took a deep breath and paused. Then in a blink of an eye he
Dreams are born on the diamond. As a recently born baby, just came out of a female’s body, all wrinkles and stuff. That is your life on the baseball field. Learning how to throw is like a baby who’s learning how to crawl. Taking some swings are like trying to start walking, and learning all the new rules just like walking.
The pitcher threw the first pitch, strike 1. I swung at a ball out of the strike zone. The second pitch the pitcher threw caused me to get my second strike. I didn’t swing at the ball. I gripped on my bat tightly, ready to hit the ball. When the pitcher pitched the third pitch, “ting”, the sound of the ball being hit was heard throughout the field. I watched it go higher and higher till it finally started to drop. “Run!” the crowd kept shouting at me. I ran as fast as I could, racing base to base trying to make it home. I turned my head to see I hit the ball to the back of the fence. I reached third base and the ball was thrown to second. I didn’t care, I wanted to try to make it home. My foot let go of the bag and I ran as fast as I could, dirt flying behind me. I was a lion going after its prey. Like the last game I played, I felt unstoppable.The guy on second base got the baseball and threw it to the catcher on home base as I slid, the catcher had dropped the ball. The crowd screamed and cheered going crazy. I brushed off my pants and received many high fives from my team mates. After saying good game to the other team, I ran up to coach to talk to
Everyone darts back to the dugout for the bottom of the seventh. I know I am the third hitter, so I get my helmet and gloves out of the cubby hole on the left side of the dugout. I grab my favorite green and black Easton bat. The first batter hits a solid double to get on. The next batter walks up to the plate, and I am on deck. I walk out just outside the dugout on a dirt rectangle that goes the length of the dugout. From this place I can really take in the whole stadium. The crowd behind home plate is all on their feet. All the players in both dugouts are screaming. The players in the field are focused as a lion while hunting its prey. The batter watches two pitches, then makes solid contact. I can tell because it makes the beautiful, TING, noise when the ball hits the sweet spot of the bat. He also gets a double, and the runner on second scores. Tie game with a runner on second, and I am up to bat. I stroll up to the plate looking down at my feet, feeling the pressure. I set up in the batter’s box, and stare down the pitcher. He nods. I am expecting a fastball, as the pitcher gets set. I am a little nervous, so I watch the first pitch zip by. I look out in the outfield, and see the outfielders playing very far up, so they can throw out the runner at home. The pitcher gets set again, and comes with another fastball. I see it coming the whole way. I twist my hips and drive the ball hard. I watch it sail, and the outfielders
I was getting very nervous, because all three of us were hitless today. Okay, we need base runners, and we need them now. Don’t try to do too much, just get a hit. I thought. The first pitch was a fastball right down the middle of the plate, a perfect pitch to hit. My eyes got big, and my mind said swing, but before I could react, the ball was past me.
Tigers are a fascinating, and endangered, animal. They develop fast, and go off on their own when they’re mature. Tigers live in various climates, and eat various things as well. They are very strong, and have amazing energy. Not only are they magnificent to watch, but there are many interesting, and not well known, facts about them.
In The Jungle Book, the tiger named Shere Khan plays the villain. Although the movie makes the tiger look evil, it’s actually just a normal animal trying to survive in the wild like any other. Tigers are one of the biggest cats and they are carnivores. They have a territorial behavior and they are sadly endangered.