I Am Not Most People

I walked up to home plate nervous because my grandfather was in the stands watching for the first time, but I took a deep breath, tightened my grip on the bat, and stepped into the batter’s box. The pitcher looked at me and smiled he had to think I was going to be easy, but I wasn’t going to give in without fight. He took a quick glance at the runner on second, and boom the fast ball came in so fast I didn’t even know he threw it. Now I was shaking. The pitcher had the upper hand, but I looked at my dad who with his eyes said to me “you can do this” so once again I took a deep breath, tightened my grip, and stepped back into the batter’s box. The pitcher throws the ball hard as I load up and swing hard, but the ball curves

We walked together to the field, the spikes on the bottom of my cleats clicking with each step on the parking lot pavement. A huge field with onlookers filling the bleachers on the far side came into view, lit up by the soft evening light. I spotted the girls on my team and my tired looking grey-haired coach. Me and my dad split up, me going to warm up with my team and my dad going to sit with the team parents. As I was passing with my teammates I watched the opposing team carefully. I observed how neat their drills were and how accurate their shots and passes were. They all looked so athletic and that really made me doubt myself. How was I supposed to prove to everyone that I was a good player if I had to play against a team this good? What if I mess up and the other team completely destroys my team? The loud buzzer that ended the warm ups sounded and both teams went to their side of the field. My coach called today’s starters out, and luckily he didn’t choose me. Relieved, I went to go sit on one of the hard metal chairs they provided for the teams on the sidelines. The chairs were uncomfortable but that didn’t bother me. I had other things on my mind. I sat shivering watching the events of the game

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 was a hot summer day in Hammond, Louisiana and I was pouring down sweat like I had just jumped in a pool. The game was just about to begin, me and my team was eagle eyeing the bomb squad. It was so quiet that you could hear your own sweat hitting the bench. The umpire broke up everyone’s concentration by saying, “play ball”! The defense had ran out on the field and I started rolling ground balls from 2nd to short-stop to third base. They had all made good throws back to me and then I threw the ball into the dug-out because the game had begun.

A mistake, there must have been a mistake it's not real it can't be happening. I raised my head to look at one of my best friends shock on his face second only to mine. Coach apologized to those who hadn’t made the team and offered, if anyone wanted to know why they had been cut they could come speak to him and the assistant coach privately. What did I have to lose? So I went. It would have taken a real man to be able to look a coach in the face immediately after his dreams had been crushed, I am not embarrassed to admit that there were tears in my eyes as i conversed with the two of them. The news of being cut stung, but the reasons that followed pierced my soul; being told that with my skill level i should consider playing a different sport. Life stood still, i told them i would come back the next year and improve and prove myself to them; they had no idea that i had no intention on keeping this promise. Baseball was over, as i tried to gather up the last reserves of my pride i looked across the gym to my friends and lifted my hand in farewell but couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my cheeks. As I walked through the front door of my home i collapsed right in the doorway and finally felt safe enough to truly let my emotions show; I cried for a long time and only paused for a moment when my mother arrived home and looked at me expressing her sorrow through the way she looked at me. If I

This inning was the spark of our lead, for we scored a couple more runs, but the game was not even close to over. For they could easily make a comeback.. Their team was breaking down both physically and mentally. However one baseball game would not exhaust me, for I practiced hours of pitching, batting, and baserunning. With the game , and it’s natural whizzing by, I was actually startled while taking the mound in the bottom of the sixth inning, but then again, my hard work paid off, feeling as fresh and as controlled as the beginning. I was facing the top of the lineup, which means the best players on the other team. The first batter I struck out with a breeze. The second, not so much. I had to bust out my wicked curveball on a full count to make him take a seat on the bench. Next up was their best player. I reared back and fired the ball as hard as I could. “Strike one!” called the ump, the sound muffled by the sound of the glove. The next pitch, a curve was thrown, him chasing the ball which leads to strike two. The next pitch, I knew I had to give everything I had, and upon firing the ball at a high rate of fire, the glorious glove came in contact with the ball, ending the game then and there. After the ceremony we partied, using water instead of champagne. The whole team went to a burger restaurant, and laughed and ate

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.

Nothing beat the overwhelming emotion of stepping up on the pitcher’s mound and hearing the chant of my name, my heart clawing its way out of my chest. Before throwing the first warmup pitch, my mind raced through the entire season. How, as a team, we have made history winning all three major tournaments in the high school level. We had beaten many top competitors and lost plenty crushing defeats as well. My mind pondered, which situation will I be in today, glorious victory or destructive loss. This is the feeling I lived for during high school, it was my sole purpose. However, this was merely one minute of that fateful day in which I played prodigiously trying to win a baseball game.

It was Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016 when the cubs won the world series. Now to be honest with you I’m not a big baseball fan. Ok, i'm not a big sports fan at all. For some reason this year I got really into baseball making me and my family extremely nervous for this game but they did it. The Chicago cubs won the 2016 world series. Jumping ahead to Friday, November 4, 2016, I set my alarm to wake me up at 4 a.m. I was not ready for the crazy day that was ahead of me. I had somehow managed to get up at 4 considering I went to bed at 1 a.m that night. The train was at 5 so it gave us about 45 minutes to get ready and go to the train station. Once we got to the station, along with all the other very excited cubs fans, we sat down and waited for the train

The tigers have been playing a lot longer than we all have, we lined up, I was the first on to bat. He pitch STRIKE 1, he pitched again, I swung my hardest… and… SMACK the ball kept growing higher and longer HOMERUN!! The crowd went wild! We hit the first point of the game. Next it was Jimmy, Jimmy always hit higher and longer home runs than me. As Jimmy went up to bat, the pitcher pitch and.. SMACK! It went really high and came down right over the fence. The hooper redbirds were in the lead with two home runs and no outs. ¨man this going to be an easy game¨ I said while watching the game next up Johnpaul he was the bet batter and catcher on our team, every home run he gets he gets 5$ from his parents. As he walked up to bat I was thinking ¨we have to win this game so i can stay on the team¨ he pitch BAM! Flew into the outfield and out of the arena!

The time had finally come for the boy and his father to head downtown to the stadium. As they got closer to downtown, traffic began to back them up for miles. The boy began to worry that they would ever make it to the game on time, creating an illusion of an endless line of cars blocking them from the stadium. Alas, they made it through the disruptions and had arrived at the ball park, the boy looked on in awe, as it was bigger than he ever imagined. Their tickets were scanned, and walked to their seats, first row behind the dugout; the most plum seats in the whole place. The game began with the toss of the first pitch, as the opposing batter stood at the plate; the crowd let out roaring boos. The boy asked his father why they were yelling at the player, his father began to explain he had been caught cheating with steroids and will forever have an asterisk next to his name because of it, all the fans despised him. As the game carried on, each team went back and forth scoring runs until it was tied in the bottom of the 9th inning. The boy’s favorite player was up to bat, and with one swing of the bat, sent the ball over the fence for the game winning homerun. A nuclear cheer erupted throughout the entire stadium as everyone celebrated winning

I was playing center field waiting for those flying balls to come straight at me so I could catch them to get the players out. The girl that was batting hit the ball so hard that it sounded like she broke the bat. The ball was about thirty feet in the air and I shuffled backwards to see if it was going behind me sure enough it was. I sped up my speed to keep in sync with the ball, I put my glove out in front of my face and with a lot of force the ball landed right in the glove. The crowds started to cheer, and so did my team mates. I threw the ball to second base and got the runner out on a double play. The crowds cheered and roared with excitement. The game passed quickly, and we were in the last inning. Our team was the last to bat. The bases were fully loaded. The crowd cheered for a beautiful hit. It was now my turn to bat. My chance to show everyone that I improved. As I was walking my team mate shouted, “You got this, Andre!”. Then all of a sudden everyone started to chant and scream my nick name. This brought tears to my eyes because they all believed in

November 14, 2015 was a day that I will never forget. It all started with a couple phone calls that I received and had to make a few weeks prior to November 14, 2015. During my summer of 2015, I received word that Rutgers University liked and was interested in me for baseball. I always saw the coaches and recruiting coordinators at my games, but never really knew that they were interested in me and wanted to keep watching me play. As the summer season ended I had to call the Rutgers Baseball Coach at a specific time so he would pick up. Due to NCAA recruiting rules, they could not call me, so that phone call had to be set up through the head coach of my travel team. Once I got hold of the coach, we talked for a few minutes and then he informed

The team wasn’t too great, we won about as many times as we lost, but that was fine. I struggled beyond belief, leading the team in strikeouts at the plate. One night we were in a tied up game heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. We managed to get a runner to third, but with two outs I couldn’t bunt. Once I had watched the first two pitches go by for strikes I knew I had to be looking to swing and come through. I had a feeling that everyone assumed I was about to strike out once again. But once I saw the pitch leave the pitcher’s hand, I knew it was all mine and connected on a line drive to left-center field. Hearing all of my teammates and the parents yell for me felt amazing. The ball landed landed deep in the outfield and as soon as I reached first base I realized I has just hit my first walk-off ever as the run crossed home to score the winning run. Soon my teammates ran out to bash my helmet and congratulate me on my feat. I’ll always carry that moment as my favorite sports memory of all time and I will never forget

The crowd was roaring like wild animals. Our teams had switched sides to start the second match and everything came into focus then. I could hear individual people cheering in the crowd, the student section was going nuts. The smell of the butter coming from the popcorn at the concession stands suddenly stood out to me. Most importantly, I could feel the yearning and the passion coming from my teammates. We wanted this win–bad. I was one of the leading hitters on the team and it was my job to produce the big hits for the team and motivate them to take everything the other team would hit at us. We started the second game and things were still going well for us! It wasn’t a fluke! We were playing well because we were working hard. If we didn’t hit hard they were going to pound it down, we couldn’t let up. So when our setter set me up and I saw out of the corner of my eye a triple block I knew I had to get it through their hands, but the ball was behind my head. In that split second I made a decision that changed my life forever. I swung away and I felt my shoulder pop and then the worst pain of my life went through my entire arm. I grabbed it right away knowing something was wrong. I’ve never felt pain like this in a game before. In that moment I knew that was the one. Every player knows what it’s like to get hurt. You get sprained ankles and sprained knees all the time, but this was the injury I knew had been coming to me. I looked up at my parents in the crowd and they knew too. Something was wrong.