Thwack !: A Short Story Of Softball

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.

Softball isn’t all smiles and winning. Sometimes things could almost get sweet. For instance, we were the first team to ever beat Gladstone. I remember it was the second game of the season and we were playing at the dome. I remember Zeke punching the air, “Hell yeah! That’s what I want to see!” and telling us we didn’t have to clean up the equipment because we had won. We went home on a high, so incredibly proud to be on that team.

Softball has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. As a little kid my dad would teach me how to hit in the backyard with a Wiffleball bat that was taller than me. As the years passed, I started to fall in love with the sport more than I imagined possible. From little league to travel ball and all the way through varsity high school ball, it has always been a huge part of my life. Most people don’t understand the sport or how someone can be so engulfed in every aspect of it. However, they don’t get to experience the life lessons that this sport of extreme highs and lows teaches the player. It teaches you patience. It teaches you that imperfection is normal. It teaches you that things can turn around in the blink of an eye and most importantly, it teaches you that all good things must come to an end.

Numerous individuals expect that softball came from baseball, the sport's first diversion really occurred on account of a football game. The historical backdrop of softball goes back to Thanksgiving Day of 1887, when a few graduated classes sat in the Chicago, Illinois Farragut Watercraft Club, restlessly anticipating the result of the Yale versus Harvard football game. At the point when Yale was reported as victor, a Yale graduate energetically tossed a boxing glove at a Harvard supporter. The Harvard fan swung at the clustered glove with a stick, and whatever remains of the gathering looked on with hobby. George Hancock, a journalist for the Chicago Leading body of Exchange, tongue in cheek got out, "Take care of business!" and the first softball game initiated with the football fans utilizing the boxing glove as a ball and a floor brush handle set up of a bat.

Softball is a sport that is known throughout the United States and the world. Softball originated on Thanksgiving Day in Chicago in 1887. The game was actually said to have begun as an indoor game. Softball was started by a group of men who had gathered at a club to watch the Harvard vs. Yale football game. When the news came that Yale had defeated Harvard, 17-8, one Yale supporter, overcome with enthusiasm, picked up an old boxing glove and threw it at a nearby Harvard alumni, who promptly tried to hit it back with a stick. This gave George Hancock, a reporter for the Chicago Board of Trade, an idea. He suggested a game of indoor baseball. Naturally, Hancock's friends thought he was talking about playing a game outdoors, not indoors.

My breakfast started to creep back up my throat as game time got closer and closer. I walked across the patch of grass behind home plate and was towered over by the 30 foot backstop with a huge net suspended from it. My bulging bag of equipment was beginning to make my shoulder hang. I walked down the steps into the cement dugout and placed my bag under the bench that spanned the entire length of the dugout. I sat down, laced up my cleats, and put my warm-up jacket on in preparation for batting practice. I stepped onto the grass surrounding the dugout to get the feeling of how wet the grass was. I dug my cleats into the grass and began my usual routine of taking certain practice swings as I gazed upon the press box in the wake of the backstop. Preceding the burn in my forearms, caused from the practice swings, I marched behind the dugout to the rows of batting cages to wait my turn in line. Pacing back and forth I knew I had to keep my nervousness to a minimum. I popped in a wad of Big League Chew and continued to

Each of my years playing softball has been a momemtous experience for me. Indeed, I have learned valuable lessons about life. I have not only gained experience on how to approach different life situations, but the game has also provided an insight of me. In other words, softball has impacted my life and will also shape my future. Therfore, this will seek to discuss some of these impacts contributions to my life.

The coaches on the other team and all the parents and teams were watching and I got that girl out before she even got to first base and we won the game! I got two outs and the crowd cheered then we got a medal and it said for the best 6th and 5th grade softball players throughout Wisconsin #1 place, but the sad thing was we weren’t going to have the same players on the team next year and it was the last game we would ever played with each other.

Mattie is on the 9th grade softball team. She plays very well as an out-fielder and a sub for any position, but pitcher and catcher of course. Mattie knows all the positions and how they work, so that’s why she has the skills to play all of the positions. She kindly volunteers to pinch run for the catcher and pitchers quite often. Mattie runs as fast as she possibly can for the pitcher and catcher, because she knows how hard they’ve worked the entire game

She is the player who shows up early to practice and stays late to put in some extra batting practice. These actions have encouraged me as well as other teammates to work harder and had made us realize that one of the ways to make the team better is to individually make yourself better. Lastly, I have never met anyone who honors the game of softball more than Lauryn Banks. This year was my final season of softball. Our last game was a heartbreaking loss third round of playoffs. After the game, I was overwhelmed with emotions. The rest of my team was consumed with themselves, but not Lauryn. Lauryn came to me and embraced me while I cried. In this moment, I realized that Lauryn embodies what it means to be a teammate. She cares about her teammates more than for their batting average or how many errors they have made. She cares about them for them and the actual person they are. I feel this is a quality that will carry Lauryn far in her life. There is no better way of honoring the game than taking the lessons learned and applying them to their future

Yogi Berra believed that, “Baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical.” From my tenure as a college softball pitcher at Point Park University, I learned how imperative being mentally sound is to the game of softball. The legal field is a very demanding field. I know my experiences gained on the diamond will allow me to flourish in a field dependent upon mental toughness.

From the young age of five, through the eleven years full of learning curves and numerous injuries, I was shaped by my self motivation and peers. Softball was a profound component in my daily life. When I was younger I would have never thought softball would have such an incredible impact on my character. Today, my past experiences shape me into an individual who can be seen as not only a leader, but as someone who can work as a team to achieve goals and standards. I remember learning to pitch for the first time.

Unfortunately, every player will be told something negative in the athletic life. Jennie said, “At the age of 12, I was told I was not a championship pitcher”(Finch 3). Today, most athletes will give-up right, but she didn’t do that. She chose to presevere and kept on working hard; she wanted to prove the coach wrong. During her youth, her love for the game just kept on growing; she never had to be told to go the extra mile, or go and work on her own.

When I was playing travel softball for Angels Fastpitch in my second year of ten and under softball, this memoir began. My coach would not play me much because he said I was not good enough, he said I could not catch. He said many other things all were horrible. The emotions that came

Softball ruled over my life from the time I was five years of age until I was fourteen. According to the people who had watched one of my games, I played first base phenomenally and had some wonderful at bats when I focused on centering my power to hit the ball with all the force I could muster. Unfortunately and fortunately, my father coached every team I played on from T-ball to fast-pitch. At every game, he observed my mechanics and hand-eye coordination, and this pulled memories of watching my brother hit numerous home runs and make game-winning outs from his mind. On nearly all of the car rides home, he would tell me “You remind me so much of Dusty. I see him the way you throw, in the way you hit the ball, and the way you present