Baseball

Baseball

Baseball for me is a huge blessing and a huge gift from God. I started playing Baseball in Little League when I was little. At first when I started little league I was not the best. I really could not catch, I really could not throw,and I was not the best runner. God blessed me so I could hit but I was still not the best hitter.  God also blessed me with the gift of hard work and he blessed me with a great Dad who pushed me to get better. Through hard work and through practice I got better and learned how to play the game. As I got older I stayed with the same team and the same coach, we had our ups and downs as a team but we were still a team. Going into what was my last season in Little League I was excited and ready to play ball. But then at practice on day when we were fielding ground balls I took a line drive right off the nose. Luckily nothing broke but it really shook me up. I took a few days off of baseball that first week after as I was trying to get my wits about me. I did not want to play the rest of that season for fear of being hit by the ball. About two weeks after my Dad and me tried to ease me back into the game, but that did not work because soon after I took a pop up off the lip. After those two incidents I wanted nothing to do with baseball. I did not want to play and even had trouble watching a game on television. I remember we went to a Lake Erie Crushers game and I was scared to go and watch a game in person, because of fear of being hit by a foul ball. A ball even came near us that game and I freaked out and curled up in a ball. I wanted nothing to do with the game of baseball and even vowed never to touch one again. I took two years off of baseball tyring others sports like basketball, but I quickly realized I was not that good. My sport was baseball, but I was still scared of the ball and didn’t want to play or watch a game. But my Dad pushed me, he pushed me to get back into the game I love, he pushed me to put the fears into the back of my head.  He pushed me to realize that in Baseball you will get hit, but you have to be able to get back up, step back in that box or pull on that hat and go play defense. He pushed me back into the game I love and he pushed me to love baseball again. Going into my freshman year of highschool I was ready to play again, but I was still a little tentative about getting hit with the ball. One of my classmates Charley Lovett who I was getting to know at the time was trying to get me to play, my dad was pushing me to play and also my coach was pushing me to play. I remember Coach Loescher talking to me about playing and me being nervous about getting hit with the ball and the skill of the other players. Coach Loescher helped me and calmed me down and urged and and most importantly wanted me to play. Through the persistence of Charley, Coach Loescher, My Dad, and God I signed up for baseball. It was one of the best decisions of my life. I got my first Varsity hit as a freshman and started on JV as the Left Fielder. I didn’t want to play infield because I was nervous about getting hit so I played in the outfield. But the JV team needed a catcher so I figured “hey a catcher wears all that protective gear and does not field line drives, he must not get hurt or hit with the ball a lot”. That statement is totally wrong but we can talk about that another day. Any way as I played through my freshman year my fears of getting hit vanished. I had done the unthinkable and gotten back into baseball and it was one of the best decisions ever. I cannot thank the people that helped me get back into baseball enough. To Charley and the rest of my teammates thanks for pushing me to get better and thank you for all the great memories. To My Dad thank you for instilling hard work in me. Thank you for pushing me back in even though I did not want to. And thank you for coming to every game and thank you for loving me through the game of Baseball. Thank you to Coach Loescher for pushing me to come into the program and thank you for always being there for me. Thank you for giving this little scrony small kid the opportunity to play. I know that God will bless you for all you do for school, for baseball and for me. And last but most importantly not least I thank God for giving me the gifts and talents to play baseball. I thank God for putting people around me that would push me to get back into the sport I love. I thank God for giving me the drive and will to get better and to work hard in life and baseball. I also thank God for giving baseball to me so I can minister to other player and show them God’s love. I can not  thank everyone enough that helped me get back into the sport I love and I can thank everyone enough for all that they have done for me through baseball. I thank God for the wonderful game of Baseball and for the wonderful people he put in my life to get me back into baseball. I hope this inspires you to either get into Baseball or most importantly to jump into a relationship with Christ.

From Zach Strouse

God Bless