Wins and Losses

Introduction: My goal for this essay was to show how baseball-related to life. More specifically how baseball has taught me how to deal with wins and losses in life. I have found that keeping the same mindset that I do when playing baseball, I don't get stuck on failures and stay humble with successes. I am proud of the descriptive language that I used in this essay and how it helped tell my story with detail. Next essay I want to finish it earlier so I can review more and get more peer reviews. Final Draft; Wins and Losses As I waited my turn I felt the tension rising. The game was getting more intense as the score between the two all start teams went back and forth. I stood behind the batter watching the pitcher throw strikes right past him hitting the catcher's glove causing a loud smack. This is when I started to feel nervous, the pressure was on me as the batter struck out and the 2 runners advanced on base. As I took my last practice swing I could feel my coach put his hands on my shoulders as a sign of reassurance that I was prepared. I stepped out of the cage feeling both nervous and eager to hit the ball. I positioned myself parallel to home base and took a second to take everything in. At this moment I could hear my mom in the background; “Let's go Jackson!” and my team starting a chant. Seconds later it was silence, a split second when it only felt like it was me and the pitcher. He threw his first pitch and it sped by me, “STRIKE!” was the only thing I could hear after that. I repositioned myself, watched carefully as he gripped the ball and then “STRIKE!” another one before I knew it. This is when I felt the pressure like never before, I took a step back and knew what I had to do to make sure we won the game. I returned to the plate and played what felt like a starring game with the pitcher. I was ready this time, two fastballs went by and I wasn’t letting the third. The pitcher lifted his leg to start his throw and I started moving my bat. In an instant, I felt my bat make contact and watched as I sent the ball flying over the left fielders head. “RUN RUN RUN” is all I heard my coach screaming as I rounded first base and headed towards second. As I ran I noticed my teammate running to home plate so kept on running towards third base. As I approached my third base coach gave me the signal to slide and I did headfirst into the bag. When I got the chance to stand up and wipe the dirt off of me I realized what happened, I hit a triple and got two RBI’s. I felt a great feeling of pride knowing that I helped my team take the lead. That story is significant to me because of the feelings I remember after finishing that game. I felt happy and accomplished and celebrated with my teammates which made it even better. That win felt so good because of how many times my team and I were the ones that lost and after that game, we left the field with our heads high. Another story I have about baseball is when I was on the losing side, and to be able to win you have to learn to lose first. It was a windy day with a light drizzle. I had been up to bat countless times before but this time the stakes were high. It was two outs in the last inning and we were down two runs. With my teammate on third, we had a chance of scoring and continuing the game if I hit. I took my last practice swing, took a deep breath and stepped to the plate. As the pitcher started to wind up I could feel the tension building. The first pitch he threw passed me before I eve started to swing my bat. I took a step back, adjusted my feet, and focused on the baseball and the baseball only. This time I had a great swing, I lifted my foot just on time and twisted my hips in order for the best possible hit. Once again the ball flew past me and my bat threw me off balance because of the amount of power I put into the swing. Now I knew I had to hit, my team was counting on me and the fate of the game was up to me. I walked back to home base with ambition and focus. I knew what was at stake and tried to block it all out as I watched the pitcher dig his spikes in the sand. My team started a chant as I tried my hardest to ignore everything around me. As the pitcher released the ball coming towards me I knew it was a good pitch, right down the middle. I squeezed the bat as hard as I could and swung it around me waiting to hear the crack of the ball hitting the bat, but it never did. All I heard was the smack of the baseball hitting the catchers glove and saw the opposing team rushing the field to shake hands and celebrate. I chose to write about these two experiences because they have taught me a lot about how to deal with wins and losses in life. Although baseball is just a sport I think that the emotions and mindset when dealing with successes and failures relates to other aspects of life. I also feel that I have had a lot of first-hand experience that no one is perfect through playing baseball, I have seen the best player on the team make stupid errors and the last batter hit a triple.