Failure In Baseball

About three weeks ago, the Packer Varsity baseball team beat Berkeley Carroll school for the first time in twelve years and in glorious fashion. Tears streamed down my face as our winning run crossed the plate in extra innings, dust flying up as my teammates and I mobbed each other at the plate. Yet a few short days later, our team was blindsided by the news that St. Ann’s had pulled off back to back upsets to squeak their way into the playoffs ahead of us - just as our season seemed to be looking up, it was over.

In life a person will go through ups and downs, good times and bad times. When they are down or in a slump it may seem like the world is fighting them everyday; bearing down on them. Within these periods a person may start to lose hope and fear that life will not get any better for them. These periods do not indicate failure because it is only temporary because whenever life gets down it only means the future is due up to get back on track. If things are going bad now that means that times are due up for the better.

The life of a young baseball player is a very enjoyable one. Baseball has always been my favorite sport, it requires the highest amount of concentration and mental strength. Physical strength is also required to be able to hit and throw the ball; these are all skills required that apparently my freshman year of highschool I did not posses. I had always believed that I had the necessary skills to play baseball and play it well. However, tryouts my freshman year proved me wrong.

Failure is something that all people encounter in their lives. In some situations failure can break a person or make a person, meaning a person can fail at something and just simply give up. Others will fail and that failure can give them the inspiration to try harder to one day achieve their goal. I'm the type of person to fail and work harder until I am content. As my championship baseball coach would say "What’s our motto? Never give up!"

I was dropped off the travel baseball team? “How could this be” I asked my dad, he replied “I don’t know Josh you didn’t put that much effort into your last game and you don’t try in practice”. The travel baseball team is the most prestigious youth baseball team when I found out I had been dropped I was heartbroken I wanted to crawl into a hole and cry. My dad tried to talk me into trying to try out for different team I just turned around and didn’t say a word. I ran outside, grabbed my baseball glove and threw it in the pool I never wanted to see a baseball glove or bat again.

I remember the struggles I went through at the beginning of the season. I only had 4 hits in 10 games. I worked on my leg lift, my load, everything I could think of until something worked. Then, something clicked. I was reading a book on common problems hitters have and I realized I wasn’t seeing the ball. So, I went to the cage and just stood there for hours upon hours, observing baseball's go by, but not hitting them. Then, out of nowhere, I got two hits.

Several years ago, I was talking to my late grandpa who had gone to see Hall of Famer, Ken Griffey Jr. give a speech to some young children. After his speech, a dad stood up and asked “Mr. Griffey, you and I have something in common. I have been playing baseball all my life just like you. We are about the same age and we even come from the same hometown. The only difference between us is that you are a celebrated All- Star ballplayer, and I-- despite decades of hard work-- have never been able to play past college ball. This breaks my heart. I have dedicated my whole life to baseball, but to no avail. My spirit has been completely diminished by all the rejection and disappointment. I was wondering if you have any advice for me, but please do not just dismiss my question and tell me to persevere. I have heard that too many times and

Ever since I was four, baseball constantly affected my life. When I was younger, I just played the sport because I always had energy and need to do something besides watch Spongebob. Before I knew it, I fell in love with the game. I nagged my dad to come to the park with me so we could practice. We would hit, run, play catch, and even watch baseball together. As I got older, my dad had become more serious when we practiced. He yelled nasty things if I didn’t perform at his expectations. I transferred to Mid Pacific as a new student, in the eighth grade, with no friends. The morning before the first day of school, I was excited. As I look at my sister drive off, I suddenly lost my confidence. The boy who was popular, likeable, funny, and even handsome had completely

Reaching more what happens when a correction officer goes rouge? Gary Heyward ex-Rikers correction officer wrote a book, Corruption Officer: From Jail Guard to Perpetrator Inside Rikers Island showed one man’s rise and fall when he became corrupted with control. Gary Heyward was born and raised in New York City’s Polo Ground Projects in Harlem. He joined the United States Marines at the age of nineteen and became a decorated war hero by serving in both Desert Storm and Desert Shield Operation in 1990 and 1991. After receiving an honorable discharge from the Marines he found work as a New York City corrections officer, working ten years at the famous Rikers Island. Then his fall came on May of 2006, where Heyward was arrested and convicted for

From early one, I was a standout in baseball. From ages 8-13, I made the league’s travel all-star team. Being the only black kid and the only one in public school, I often found myself sometimes out of my comfort zone when it came to hanging out with the team. Generally, the team consisted of the same players and coaches every year, so the faces rarely, if ever, changed. As we got older, things began to change. I eventually found myself on the pitching mound for my respective league teams starting at age 10. Now, not to toot my own horn, but I was hands down one of the better pitcher’s considering that I was younger than many of my fellow peers. By the time I was twelve, I could throw a ball almost 70 mph. At age 13, my team went a whopping 15-1 beating teams by an average margin of

I joined a softball team loosely resembling a movie out at the time, “The Bad News Bears”. I joined at the Harlem Community Center (HCC), but there were not enough boys for a league, so we formed a team in the Northwest Community Center league. The HCC sponsored us as well as having provided uniforms. We were not part of the community center for which we played. Yet, were as good as most of the teams were playing, a few players on the team were good, many were mediocre and there were the terrible players. I was not good enough to be

Three years ago I tried out for the baseball program Slammers. Slammers is one of the elite baseball programs in Colorado. When I heard about the organization I knew I wanted to play on that team. The problem was I had to try out. When I tried out I felt like I did my best, but the outcome wasn’t good. Unfortunately I didn’t make it. The coach told me my arm strength needed some work. I was devastated. After that the search for a team was on. The team that I ended up on was the Colorado Blizzard (a team not as good as Slammers). Every practice that year I worked and worked on my arm strength. From throwing weighted balls to long toss. After the year was over I felt like I got much better and hoped I was good enough for Slammers. That offseason I kept working and working. Then I finally got another opportunity to try out for Slammers again. Before that tryout I went to a field with my dad and just made sure I was looking clean. When the tryout came I worked really hard-- hustling, listening, and doing my best. Two weeks later I got an email that said I have made Slammers

One personal accomplishment that I am most proud of is being able to play baseball again. Baseball was my passion, and having to walk away from it was very difficult. I metaphorically view baseball as a microcosm of life, which has taught me several lessons. On the diamond is where I learned about love and support, especially from my parents who were always there to cheer me on. I learned about developing habits, good and bad. Habits can develop physically and mentally; these habits can range from a poor swing to an overly self-critical attitude. Baseball taught me how to grapple with my fears and anxieties. Sometimes they may never go away, but that does not mean we cannot learn how to contain them. These are just some of many lessons that

Failure, everyone has experienced it at least once and everyone knows its not a very good feeling. Today im going to tell you a incident were I have experienced failure. It was my first season of little league coming out of tea-ball I had a lot of confidence my team had won the championship and I had played first base. coach-pitch was definitely a change for me I had to adapt which is pretty much what im going to talk to you about.

Failure is something that we cannot go through life without experiencing. The best thing about failure is that failure can be used as a great learning experience to improve upon things in our lives and career. Using failure as a learning tool is dependent upon the person and how they view it as well as how they use it. Failure is a matter of perspective and the lessons in failure are important aspects towards growth and development. If we did not experience failure there wouldn’t be opportunities for learning. Failure can teach us about ourselves as well as provide an understanding for our