Thursday, March 17, 2016

A Story From the Life of Bill P. Ghostwritten by Sebastian C.

1990 State Champions


A Story From the Life of Bill P. 
Ghostwritten by Sebastian C.
        
The Dream is Alive


People often ask what they key to success is, many wonder if there really is a key. But i will tell you there is a key, and that key to success is confidence, which should not be confused with cockiness.


Smack. The sound of a baseball pounding into a catcher's mitt. Clink. The sound of a baseball meeting with a bat, sending it flying into the outfield. Sometimes i would make it my goal to have the players hit a baseball into the tennis courts during our practices or during the games, as it was located just outside the outfield, and see if we could stop the matches going on. However we started the season away from the small little field we called home. Instead we went down to Florida for a spring trip.


While there we scrimmaged four teams during our stay. While it was the first time we had seen the field all season and the teams down in Florida were almost done with their season we knew we had to remain confident. It wasn’t too difficult to remain confident however as we were the returning state runners up in the state tournament and winning the title only a few years before. While we didn’t beat every team we played during our stay in Florida we managed to leave with a record of 2-2. Not the best but considering that these were not only some of Florida’s best teams but that they started their season earlier than us and had seen almost half of their season before we had even seen the field in a real game situation


Because of this we only grew in confidence. Losing only 4 more games in the regular season. One of the toughest games of the year was against Gahanna however. Gahanna had a left handed pitcher who was heading straight to the MLB right after high school. We knew going into the game that he might have a few wild pitches and we tried our best to prepare the team for it.


While I was working with one of our designated hitters when i heard the crowd gasp in shock. I ran to get a look at what had just happened, our batter was on the ground cupping his face with the trainer trying to tend to him. I wanted to do something but i was stuck in the dugout unable to run out onto the field. I felt awful he had always been afraid of being hit by a wild pitch and i knew that actually being hit couldn’t be good for his courage on the plate if he were able to come back. I walked over to see how he was doing after they removed him off the field I walked over and heard him talking to the trainers and being asked the usual questions.
“Do you have blurred vision, nausea, etc.”
“No.”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Three”
“How does your nose feel? Anything else in pain other than your nose?”
“Nose hurts but other than that no pain.”
While his nose might have been ok I was more worried as to whether he would have the courage to step back onto the plate once he was back. Turns out that pitch had both figuratively and literally knocked all the fear out of his head and once he was back he was able to bat almost without fear.
Heading into the district tournament he was back with a new helmet, this time with a face guard to protect his face, well he wasn’t the only one who wore that helmet. Most other players considered it to be “lucky” and while it probably wasn’t the most important moment of our season it was one of the little things that had contributed to the confidence we felt that season.
Heading into the state tournament our confidence was only reinforced with a 7-4 win over Euclid in the state semi-finals. Our team had made it to where we were the previous year and we were prepared to bring home the title we had been hunting for since our last title in ‘87. The state finals game came around quicker than we thought, and while we were confident in our team there was still tension in whether or not we would be able to bring home the title. The ride was one of the longest of the season despite it being only 15 minutes away. We started warm ups almost immediately, consisting of practice throws and form swings. The seniors showed up from their graduation shortly after we had arrived. The game started quickly, it felt like we could have warmed up more however I believed we were ready. The little doubt we had quickly dwindled as we scored multiple times in the first inning eventually run ruling Cuyahoga Falls in the 6th inning. We had brought home the trophy and while boarding the bus after the big win I jokingly started rubbing the “lucky” helmet telling it he did a good job.