Personal Narrative: How Baseball Changed My Life

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run”(Babe Ruth). I was wondering how much baseball really affected my life and the choices I make. The answer is a lot, and it still continues to leave a mark on this life I love. Over the many years of my involvement in the game I have learned that life is full of ups and downs. Baseball teaches people to bounce back from negatives, this I believe.

I grew up in a family of baseball players. My grandpa was the first to really get into then it passed on from my dad to me. Growing up I was always practicing or playing baseball. My father and grandfather taught me the basics and it was almost a new way of socialization. Having to learn baseball was like learning a new language. Playing baseball when I was young started as just fun. Starting at the age of 5 I never did much playing. I more so stood in the field and kicked dirt around.

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 step up to the plate. The hot lights of the Mets stadium hit my face. Clayton Kershaw was pitching. He is the best pitcher in the MLB. The pitch comes. It was a slow hanging curveball right over the middle. I swing will all my might. I hear the crack of the bat and I see the ball fly over the fence. I trot around the bases and I am approaching home plate. I step on home then I wake up.

Lights blaring into my eyes, the crack of the bat, the shouting of the overly-devoted parents, the salty aroma arising off of the freshly roasted peanuts, all came together to create the overwhelming presence of a little league baseball game. This was a place where I spent most of my time on week day afternoons, in the spring, watching my brother succeed at America’s pastime. He was really quite good at this sport called baseball; he had just been granted the position of starting pitcher for the team. Sometimes things that have occurred in my life, and stuff I have received, that I may not have necessarily deserve, can be taken for granted. However, after what was about to take place my eyes are given a new perspective.

it's a hot Texas Sun beat down upon my neck a fast ball whizzed past my bat and into the catcher's glove after you had another strikeout. I trudged back to the dugout thoughts of failure filled my mind of my confidence slowly vanishing. I wasn't accustomed to anything less than success before high school. I prospered in youth athletics while living in South Dakota. I had a phenomenal baseball coach to transform my robbed potential into success on the baseball diamond. Unfortunately, my father's Air Force career demanded that we move before my baseball season. Without me my team went on to win the city state championships advancing all the way to the Little League World. When I was younger my family moved to not affect my athletic performance the difficulties began I was torn from my tight-knit community in Northern Virginia and forced to adjust to life in West Texas prior to the start of my freshman year. I struggled to regain the close friends and relationships I left behind for the first time in my life.

Last year, I experienced something that changed my life forever. It didn’t make me a different person, it just changed how I viewed things in our daily lives. Last year, I volunteered with a group known as Challenger Baseball. Challenger Baseball is a program, that gives differently-abled kids, a chance to experience all the fun parts of playing baseball. Each player is paired up with an able-bodied buddy. Not only do the buddies help the players play baseball, but they are also there for the player to talk to. Last year, I volunteered to become one of these buddies. At first, I was a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect. However, that fear quickly turned into joy. The smiles on all the players' faces, was more than enough to get rid of any fear. Although

I remember the time I arrived to the plate with a man on third base in the bottom of the 9th inning when my team was down 1 run. I stepped out of the box to take a look down the third base line for signs and what he told me to do was “Cody, do your job.” I gave my coach a nod and went back into the box. I stepped into the box and my mental thinking was, “leave nothing back and let’s win this game.” The pitcher started his windup and throws strike one to me and then strike two. I finally realized that this next pitch was going to be a strike; therefore, I was thinking, “I am swinging on this next pitch.” The pitcher did his windup again and the pitch was thrown low and outside, and I took the swing. The ball landed in the hands of the shortstop man. I hustled down the line as fast as I could and I stepped on the bag before the ball hit first winning the game for my team.

As my Varsity baseball team suits up for practice we whip out our “Easton Mako Bats” and our “Evo-Shield arm sleeves.” Everyone prepares for the season as we break in our new 200-dollar gloves. As I Un-zip my “Demarani Bat Bag” I search for the stick of eye black that seems to add spice to my game as I smother it under my eye, to “reflect the sun” of course. Our accessories become a part of our game, and we begin to value them more than the game itself.

lukas k//After school I hung around with my friends until baseball practice at 4:30. until baseball practice. At baseball practice we practice and fielding and hitting.after baseball practice me and my friend Max walked back to his house, after baseball practice me and my friend Max Walked back to his house, because it's only five blocks away.we hung out and rode bike for a couple hours until my dad pick me up. When my dad picked me up, he informed me that I could babysit. my dad picked me up, he informed me that I could babysit. After thinking about it, I said “yes”. He brought me to McDonald's, then to Shanes. The person I babysit for. After babysitting until 330. I went home, took a shower and went to bed. The next morning I got up at

Have you ever loved something so much, your world would be incomplete without it? For me, that is baseball. From t-ball to high school, many of my life lessons have been learned on the field. Without baseball, I would not be the person I have become. I am now six-foot four and throughout my childhood I have always been at least six inches taller than my peers.

Do you know the feeling you get when you’re doing the thing you love most in the world, for me that is baseball. My participation in sports influenced my skills in multitasking and handling multiple stressful situations at once. I play sports every season possible, teaching me about myself and all my friends on one team growing up into adults. I have maintained sports, grades, and jobs for four straight years without being ineligible one time. The people I am surrounded by around sports, young or old mold my future of being a successful adult. I thank every single coach, and teammate for helping me with all of my accomplishments, the biggest one being the Champion of a Varsity Baseball District Title.

A place can be any position or point with space around. A corner, a site on the internet, McDonalds, or even if you’re lost in the woods you're still in a place because of the space that’s around. A place such as The Mexican Restaurant, where my parents go on special occasions or when I talked to a friend at The Baseball field about certain point of every aspect of the game we play, or even when My family was so traumatized when our dad went out onto the ocean when the waves we crashing in. He tells us he’ll be fine so he heads out on the sand and starts walking the opposite direction of us, the waves came in and crashed into the feet of the cliff. We thought he was gone but he came back and said the waves almost got him but he found a crack

A suicide squeeze is a desperate play in baseball that I have seen a lot playing catcher - and I’ve lived through the same kind of desperate effort to come back from deep losses to solid wins. I started playing at age four and never stopped. I am currently the captain of my high school team and co-captain of a competitive summer team. I am obsessed with this game, because I find it to be a perfect combination of athleticism and intellectual strategy. It is also a terrific environment to develop leadership skills.

Six years ago I played my very first baseball game and I was the pitcher. Now you may think that when I was four I couldn't pitch. Well you were right I just played next to the pitching machine. Getting any baseball that came my way. Popfly, grounder, line drive, you name it I caught it. I was very good at baseball and I loved to play baseball.