Baseball Memory

I do not think it was one moment in my baseball career that defined it, so much as an entire season. I played little league from when I was four years old on, and it always was my favorite sport to both play and watch. When I was eleven, I had a lousy tryout and was placed into the minors for the season. Of course this originally brought tears, and quite a puncture to my self esteem. There were a few other eleven year olds in minors, and even twelve year olds, but I never considered myself to be in the same category as them athletically. My team was made up of one other elven year old, a few ten year olds, and what seemed like 100 nine year olds. I will never forget the pain I went through the first weeks of practice, thinking I was on a team with people ten years younger than me. What I didn't know was that I was in for the best year of baseball of my entire life. I still think today that it was a mistake for me to be in the minors that year, as I still do consider myself the best player in the division that year. However, I ended up turning a situation that seemed so terrible into my most memorable sporting experience ever. I had a brilliant coach who had the intensity to make a sub par team like us win the championship. More than just his skill as a coach, he had a true understanding of the situation I was in. When we were a few weeks into the season, I could truly tell that the people on the team looked up to me. It was so great for me to be in the position of a leader for an entire year. Sure, I was embarrassed to be in the minors as an eleven year old, but establishing a real connection with my teammates and my coach canceled out the embarrassment. I've often been in the situation in which I have someone older than me to look up to. This is one of the few times in my life that I have actually gotten the chance to give this back, and it felt amazing. As our team entered the playoffs a favorite to make the championship game, my coach held a meeting to end one practice. He said that he was so proud to have someone on the team, that showed such great leadership as a person and a player, despite possibly being disappointed about not being placed in the right division. He named me team captain through the playoffs, and said that he thought I could carry our team to win the championship. I can never duplicate the honor that I had to wear the "C" on my jersey, even for just the three weeks of playoffs. Our team did end up winning the championship that year, and the #11 Muckdogs jersey that is still reused in our league remains to have the "C" sewn in just above the letters on the left side. I consider that the mark I left on Hillsbrough Little League. Our Hillsborough minors superbowl team continued in the same footsteps by winning the tournament by mercy ruling every other league. To finish off the season, I was called up to the majors for the last game, because the Braves were short a player, and chose me to fill in. I went three for three, made a diving play at third base, and hit 4 RBIs to help our team win by two runs, and was given the game ball. It was actually a better game than any that I had my entire twelve year old year in the majors. During the 2005 Little League season I learned that baseball is such a great game not only because it is so fun physically, but because of all the wisdom and friendships that are shared by anyone who plays. I think that my experience during my eleven year old year is what baseball is about, and whenever I reflect on it I regret my decision to move on from baseball even more.