Personal Narrative: Getting Cut

One of the biggest failures I have ever experienced would have to be sophomore year not making the high school baseball team. Baseball was something that meant so much to me and playing for a varsity team was one of my biggest dreams as a kid. When I made the freshman team I thought for sure that was my ticket to varsity. I can remember walking up to the front door on a Thursday morning praying that my name would be on the list. The moment I looked at the list I was crushed, I didn’t know what to do. All I could think is was this the end of my baseball career?

I set my goals for the year and tried my hardest to stick to it. Not to mention, I did exceptional in my previous season in baseball. I was named the Jv batting champ and was all league. I was a little disappointed in myself though because i did not perform as well during the summer. I got a few hits and there but i wasn't satisfied at all because I know competition is always around. It can get stressful at times because then all you start to think about is who is going to take over your spot and who's going to overcome you. I tried to ignore that feeling but it kept getting back to me. In addition, try outs were the second week of school so i knew i had to step up my game. After tryouts, i thought i did really good. I Only miss through about 2 throws and I was throwing harder than I ever had. It was until the next day, my point of view towards this whole program

In the game of baseball more than any other sport, you really have to focus and think about what you’re doing on every single play. Of course there are parts of the game that become somewhat natural, but baseball is a game of fundamentals. You have to always be on top of your game and one step ahead of the curve, no pun intended. Every play contains different situations, which call for you to do an assortment of different things. You have to be thinking of what it is you’re going to do if the ball is hit to you, and what you do if hit to any of the other eight of your teammates on the field. Have you ever felt on top of your game, but for some odd reason you just couldn’t focus and preform at the best ability that you know you’re capable of? That’s what happens many times in baseball. You really have to focus and know what you’re doing wrong, and what adjustments to make to fix it. More than all other sports one little odd or unusual thing you start doing or change in your mechanics has a huge effect on the amount of production and performance out on that diamond. While hitting, throwing, or catching the ball, the simple extra movement or step you’re taking can cause a hundredth of a second difference in your throw, swing, or pitch, but this game is a game of seconds and that slight movement is the difference between a homerun or a ground ball, an amazing play in the field and an error, a strikeout or a ball

It was a very warm and tense place in the gymnasium of the Alpena High School. A group of freshman and sophomore baseball players were waiting for the words you wanted to hear which was “Congratulations” or the not so good news of “Sorry” from the coach deciding if you made the team. Personally, at the start of baseball tryouts I thought to myself it’s going to be a toss up to see if I would make the team having a 50/50 chance. I was nervous for the most part because there were an abundace of upperclassman also trying out for the team that were on it last year. There were twenty-seven people trying out for fifteen spots to play JV baseball.

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.

By the time I was eleven, I dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player like Tom Glavine, a left-handed pitcher for the Atlanta Braves who was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. My parents trek one hundred fifty-six miles round trip to practice twice a week and that same distance for hitting lessons, pitching lessons, and tournament games. I spend hours in the car and make sacrifices to achieve a high level of skill. I accomplish these commitments because I have a passion for the game. When I step onto the pitcher’s mound to face a batter, I experience an adrenaline rush like riding a roller coaster. Also, I enjoy the competition and embrace the challenge each time I attempt to strike a batter out or step into the batter’s box to hit the baseball. This summer, I accepted a college scholarship offer from the Georgia Institute of Technology to play collegiate baseball. Now, I am one step closer to my aspiration of playing baseball

As soon as I made my very first varsity baseball appearance, I knew that I had to be the very best I could be or there was never going to be a chance of ever putting on that white and maroon crisp cleaned dri-fit Russel number 18 jersey. My heart was beating beyond faster than it should be at my first at bat because I had always heard “Just wait you haven't seen nothing yet, wait till you face them varsity pitchers.” Players older than me had constantly been saying that throughout my freshman season and it kept repeating over and over in my head like a broken record. Although I had studied the pitcher and had seen with my very own eyes, he wasn’t as good as everyone talked him up to be. I was still overawed and very nervous about messing up.

I felt completely alone and high school baseball was my opportunity to establish myself among my new peers confident from my previous experiences. I arrived at my new high school's baseball tryouts looking forward to success unbeknownst to me. I was hopeful too I'm prepared compared to the skills of the 60 dedicated Texas athletes enjoy his

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.

When there is so much at stake in your baseball career, are you confident and strong enough with your pitch? Can you throw effectively? Is your throwing arm strong enough to endure long games?

As I put off opportunities to improve my skills, and my character, the toll only became harsher and more difficult to overcome. In turn, my status among the other athletes began to deteriorate. Witnessing my peers expedite their game as I still struggled did not phase me so much at the time. In fact, I was sure that my role on the team would remain the same. This was obviously false, as within the matter of weeks I was pushed back further in the batting lineup, and committing more errors in the field than ever before. It was during our playoff run that I had realized the resulting detriment, when each player was counted on more than ever before. We ended up making it to the championship, only being one run short of winning. Although our team was able to accomplish that much, I felt short handed when it came to the successful

​ Baseball to most it just a simple game that involves one just throwing a ball, another hitting it, and then another catching it, but it’s much more than that. The ability to hit a baseball three hundred plus feet, that’s coming at you at speeds greater than 85 mph, is hard to attain. Now imagine trying to catch a ball that’s coming at the same speeds, not so easy now right? Apart from the physical abilities needed to play, the mental part of the game is also important. The game of baseball is similar to life if you’re not prepared physically and mentally to go about your business you won’t succeed.

It is a game of inches played nearly everywhere by every age. From backyards to little league parks and professional stadiums, by tee-ball playing kindergartners to old-timer leagues, baseball is a game that is considered America’s pastime for a good reason. Baseball, and simply sports in general, help teach many important life lessons such as hard work, sportsmanship and dedication. These qualities, along with many other things, are necessary for success in today’s world. The sport of baseball is very popular in other countries as well, and for many of the youth in these countries, it represents a way out. A way out from the poverty and crime and a way to a better life here in America. Out of all of the opportunities afforded to me

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.

Baseball is a sport of many skills and figuring out the weaker part between all the skills is very challenging in baseball because it’s broken down into so many parts of the game. The sports are divided into offensive technical, offensive tactical, defensive technical and defensive tactical. All of these skills have a very strict guideline that one will fail without the other. In this paper, it will go through the details of the most important part and yet the weakest part in the youth baseball today. Offensive technical skills have been the struggle in youth kids these days because of the facts everyone wants to hit for a home run. Home run shouldn’t be the focal point of the offensive, but in today games it really has been the team in the professional really just want that guy who can hit fifty plus home run in a season.