Final Draft

My early childhood years were full of tee ball, peewee football, and junior basketball games. It was hard to be the star player when my teammates were all older than me. I was always the youngest player on the field. Sure there is going to be some mild intimidation at first, but from a very young age I had always loved baseball more than any other sport. Eventually, by the time I hit double digits, I stuck strictly to baseball. I was able to refine my "fundamental baseball skills." I accomplished this by devoting all my time and effort into baseball. “You have to develop your fundamentals,” that is what my pitching camp coach would always reiterate to me every 60 min session I had with him. I started throwing with Chuck Neil in the spring of 2005, by time I was fourteen. He ran a pitching camp in Naperville, Illinois that was known for producing some of the top pitchers in the area. My parents would drive me there 3 days a week for sixty minute sessions with Chuck. From the first day I could tell he was very knowledgeable on the art of pitching. He helped me developed my pitching skills significantly faster than the rest of the kids my age. Most of the baseball players in my league took the winter off to play other sports, or just to concentrate on school. I was hard at work, with Chuck, developing my pitching form, release, and follow through. Those were the basic fundamentals that Chuck stressed so much to me.
This opened new doors for me to play with the North Aurora River Rats travel baseball team. They only take a select amount of players and travel all over the state and sometimes out to surrounding states for tournaments. This allowed me to play the best of the best that were the same age as me. Right around this time I noticed that I could compete with the older kids. My intimidation and fear that I had before of being the youngest player never crossed my mind when I was pitching now because we were all on an even age. In the travel leagues I was able to be tested. All the years of travel baseball ended up building to my most defining moment in my baseball years to date.

It was early August 2007 and I was 16. I found myself on the team bus to Northern Illinois Travel Baseball World Series. All my hard work over the past 10 years finally paid off that year. When I got to Rockford I was in the zone I knew I would probably have to throw twice within a 3 day span. I knew what to expect I had played most of the teams there at least once during the regular season. They ended up saving me the first game 3 games and I was on the spotlight for the last game of the season. The pressure only caused me to be more focused. After watching my team blow through 3 games with no problem I was able to use my immense confidence to push aside all the pressure. I had been dreaming of this game since tee ball and I was in the exact position I wanted to be.
One muggy summer night when the air was thick with humidity and the mosquitoes bit over and over again. I stood on the mound with a freshly opened game ball. Its bleach white skin was only a temporary to the sweat and dirt that it would accumulate over the 7 innings of baseball ahead. "Hey niner here we go play ball,” screamed the umpire. The adrenaline rush I got before I threw that first pitch was incredible. After throwing 2 innings my arm felt great my team was making plays and I mean really good plays not just fundamental plays that are expected in the beginning of the season. This was the end of the road and everyone was on the ball. Likewise was the opposing team from near by Saint Charles. I threw a couple K’s over 2 innings and by the fifth inning our bats started light the sky up with line drives. The other team through started to catch me on a couple bad pitches and they produced a steady offense throughout the game.
It was the final inning and we were up by two runs. Before I went out my dad came over to me and said, " hey buddy remember this is your game go out there relax and throw hard." I did just that I threw as hard as I could and stuck the first batter out and the second was an easy strikeout at the bottom of the order. All my teammates started to yell encouragement out from the field behind me. Now all I had to do was get one more batter out and the championship was ours. The only thing was it was the top of the order. These next 3 batters were some of the most dangerous hitters I have ever faced. They had been connecting on my bad pitches all night. The next batter gave me the scare of my life. After three or four pitches he cracked a homerun to dead center on me. My heart dropped and I was thanking God that no other runners where on base. They were now within one run of forcing extra innings. This put me on the spot, my arm was dead, and all are other available pitchers were still nursing their recently used arms. I had to force next batter out no matter what. After 5 pitches, which seemed like an eternity he smacked one in the right centerfield gap, allowing him to get to second with ease. I was starting to get very nervous but I just kept thinking about what Chuck said about fundamentals. The next batter took the first pitch while the runner on second stole third with ease. We did not want to take the chance of an over thrown ball that would end up tying the game, and force an extra inning game. I threw with everything I had. The count was three balls two strikes. I’ll never forget what happened next. I threw my last fastball I had in me high and inside. Some how the batter stepped out of the box with his left foot and pulled that sucker to left field. It was crushed and this time my heart really did drop. All I could do was watch my left fielder track it back to the warning track. He stretched his arm out and caught it just over the fence. I threw my hands up and ran out to left field with the rest of my team. My left fielder, Robby Turner, a name I will never forget gave me the game ball. The only thing I could say was, “no no no no no this ball is yours you won this game for us.”
I played with that travel team up until my final weeks of this past summer. My teammates have stayed pretty much same over the past 4 years. We have developed such good chemistry that we can predict each others next move. When you play with any team for four years and win a championship together you developed something special. It is very hard to explain but it is kind of like a brotherhood. I spent more time training, practicing, and playing games with that group of guys in the past four years, than I have spent with my own parents. The decision to stick strictly to baseball was the best decision of my life. It has given me the confidence to over come anything with a little motivation. It has also given me the chance to develop friendships with people who have to same interests as me. I’m sure I could go on and on about how baseball has changed my life, but I honestly think that as long as you make good friends and do what you love you will be happy. That’s what the last four years of playing baseball has brought me.