Personal Narrative: Visiting The Wrigley Field

“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 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.

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.

Year after year more than a million cub fans make the trip to Wrigley Field on the north side of Chicago. Wrigley Field is known as the friendly confines by many baseball fans. Built in 1914, Wrigley Field is one of the most celebrated baseball stadiums in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. Several key factors have contributed in making Wrigley Field what it is today. Some of the key factors: the owners, the stadium features, the players, the broadcasters, the historical games, the fans, and community have all helped make Wrigley Field special.

Earlier this year when I got my contract I was not only excited to see my name on the clubhouse wall but just to meet the Chicago Cubs, my team. I got walked into Wrigley field and it felt just like home. I took a couple steps in and just was dumbfounded when I saw that

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.

As I am on my way to find my seat all I can think about is the overpowering food smell flowing from the concession stands. As I made my way down to the field, I no longer had that weight on my shoulders and felt as calm as a millpond. Yelling at players, just trying to get a ball is one thing, seeing that ball come toward your direction feels like a $100 bill just sitting beneath me. Catching that ball was one of the most memorable moments I have had while being at Wrigley Field. As the game is about ready to begin and all the fans rise to their feet and begin to cheer for the Cubs. The game got into the middle innings and the score was still tied at zero. In the bottom of the 6th the fan favorite Kris Bryant stepped up to the plate with runners on 2nd and 3rd. As he was introduced and stepped up to the batter’s box, every single fan rose from their seats. The pitcher had that feared look on his face and began his delivering toward home. The pitch was right down the middle of the plate and as the ball popped off the bat, the stadium sounded like a large group of lions roaring in a secluded area. Kris had just given the Cubs the lead and the stadium was rocking as it felt like a jungle. The Cubs went on to win the game 3-1 and I had one of the greatest experiences and most amazing days of my life that

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.

Many people struggle to find what they are passionate about in life which can lead to an instability that can limit potential. However, I was one of the lucky ones that realized my passion by the time I was 2 which was America's pastime: baseball. Whether it was the fact that it had been a game with a long standing tradition in our family or the fact that it is a sophisticated game with many strategies and intricate details, I had fallen in love before I knew it.

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

Last night I made my first visit to watch a home game at Waverly. The game when all was said and done turned out to be worth the 1:45 minute drive. A late fumble at the one-yard-line kept Waverly from taking a late lead, that was followed by a drive of championship caliber by the Pirates to put this contest away.

The Cubs are my favorite baseball team, and when I heard they were playing the Cardinals, I wanted nothing more than for my team to crush the Cardinals. The game was very close throughout the day, but finally in the eighth inning the Cubs were able to hit two homeruns. The stadium erupted as the last runner crossed home base. The ending of the game was one of my favorite memories of that day.

There was cars passing by the trees outside of the metal chain link fence bases set up at every corner ,but it wasn't the happy feelgood setting, no it was the gloomy halloween setting this was my backyard on multiple very unfortunate days.

We start with the stretches. The seniors move to the middle in order for the younger volleyball prospects to see the exercises clearly. To teach them about Union’s school spirit early on, we chant U-N-I-O-N twice for every exercise. Then we lace up and hit the track. Run a lap, get low, run a lap, high knees, run a lap, butt kicks, run a lap, karaoke, then sprint for the finish. After our brief water break, we head up to the bleachers and a sense of dread fills the group of one hundred and fifty girls. “How many will they make us run today?” we ask each other. Three, four, five? It always fluctuates, so it is good to guess. As usual, the seniors start up the bleachers first and we shout out our names as we step a single foot on the first bleacher. By the end of the first round of bleaches, I am sweating profusely in the unforgiving August heat and praying for mercy. I look in the faces of other prospectivevolleyball players and share a look of exhaustion, while the sweat drips off my forehead and down my back. After the bleacher exercises are finished, we head into the gym and start tryouts. That is how it has been for the last