Persuasive Speech

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

“Remember how it happened! That swing was Perfect!” Arthur responded. ”Pretty soon I might become a baseball player!”

"Aaron was pretty stellar to shoot with." Young says. He came in and gave it 300% and we laughed through most of it. Not sure how any of the shots turned out." He joked.

He nodded and stood up, making his way back outside. I hate lying to him, but honestly, I don't feel like practicing today. Yes, there is a game tomorrow, but I need to relax and rest to make sure I play my best tomorrow. I need to stop thinking about Calum; he's ruining my mindset. He can't get into my head and ruin my career.

“Remember this morning when I said I couldn't play that well and I've been practicing since I was 10”

It all started as a normal game day. I got up in the morning, took a shower and then proceed to put on my uniform. I put everything on just right to look like the perfect ball player. After that, I went downstairs and get some breakfast. While walking down the stairs, I hear the sound of sizzling bacon and eggs cracking. I also could smell the sweet and delicious waffles being made. When I finally reach the bottom of the stairs, I see my mother making me breakfast as she usually does before a game. "Good morning, are you ready for your game?" she asked. "Of course!" I replied, "I think I might hit a home run today." "Well I better be there to see it," she said happily. She then handed me my breakfast and I went to the table.

“Thanks Coach. But what if I get disqualified or accidently jump off of the block early, or even miss my event.” I said frantically trying to gather my thoughts.

Football in high school took most of my time. It made me put family and friend’s aside because it was a sport I committed myself to every day. I knew I was not going to be playing at the pro or college level yet I wanted to have a good high school team; unfortunately that didn 't happen. My junior year, we won two games and lost the rest. During my senior year we won four games and lost the rest, but that was two more games won than the previous year. Sometimes I felt like all that work and commitment was not worth it. During the last home game, however my team and I did something outrageous. We proved to all those newspapers, opposing teams, and loyal and un-loyal fans that with hard work and team work, we were able to achieve great things.

“OK, first of all, Connor, thank you for going after the ball in the box. That should’ve been a foul. You had a great chance, but everyone else was standing there watching and not running up to the ball trying to help. I think we could’ve done so much better that game. But, now we have to go out tomorrow and win our game if we’re going to have chance to advance to the finals. Alright?” My coach told us.

One of the hardest challenges of my life was the constant struggle to try and get better in the most important thing in my life, Basketball. I started back in the 8th grade, as it being something to do and because I was a fat kid. I was so awful it wasn’t really funny, like turnover on every play kind of bad. I hate to lose and I hate feeling like everyone is better. On top of that I didn’t necessarily have the best supporters to help me, the only one I ever got a good job was from my dad he would always tell me i’m doing good and giving me advice since he was a very good player back in his prime. I remember and always will remember these words “All these kids you see are blessed with talent, you are too but they have all the skills already and you need to work hard to get them but, Hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard.”. I never really understood the meaning of those words until two years ago. But back to

“I’m ready coach, I’ve trained my best to be here and I believe I can make my mark here.”.

“One night I had to play football there and it was the high school championship for football. We lost 13 to 27 it was a tough game.”Told Terrell.

“You said that I was a horrible football player and that I shouldn’t be running back.”

“Would you like to play baseball again? You’ve worked so hard. It would be a waste if you gave up baseball.”

After school that day, I was ecstatic to tell my baseball coaches about this huge opportunity, but they didn’t seem surprised when I told them. As it turns out, they had helped me to throw out the pitch. When I won the tickets to the game, that was because of my perfect attendance. The first pitch, however, was a separate competition, between me and the kids from other schools who had won tickets. Teachers and coaches had to write something about their student and send it in for the chance to win the chance at the first pitch, and my two baseball coaches had done just that. Not only them, but the secretary and Mrs. Armstrong both wrote in as well. It’s because of them that I got the opportunity. About a month passed, and the date of the game seemed to sneak up on me like a shadow. My mom was already in the cities because she was visiting friends the previous night, so that just left my dad, my siblings, and I to drive up. Of course, with my luck, we couldn’t even get that right. We were already running a bit late, and our car was out of battery. We tried for a while to start it, but eventually we had to get our neighbor to drive over and help jump our minivan. Thankfully, it worked, and we were on our way. Using means slightly outside of the law, we made it to Target Field, home of the Twins, with time to spare. We met up with my