Baseball Memoir

When I was younger, I loved to play baseball. I would join multiple leagues every year, and spend days in the summer playing pickup games with friends. Of course I had other interests, but baseball 's combination of technical and physical skill stood out to me as something that I loved. As time went on, and I became more serious about the sport, I began to realize that I was actually terrible at it. I understood the strategy and could perform any individual task, but I could never piece it together to play at even an intermediate level. As I continued I became increasingly frustrated, making fewer teams and settling for merely intramural leagues. Finally, I reached an age where I could no longer compete without being selected for a team, and stopped playing competitively altogether.

As a child, baseball was not a competition, but rather an outlet for fun and an exciting activity, and that is how I saw it even as I got older. However, with aging, it became more competitive and success driven. It was difficult for me to reconcile my carefree attitude with the harsh, competitive nature of the sport. However, as I matured, it became easier. I stopped emphasizing blind competition, and began to enjoy the game for its method. I still dedicated myself to the game as a teenager, striving to get better every day, not because I wanted to win, but because I cared about the game, I owed it to myself to play to the best of my ability. Even as the sport moved on, I got enjoyment out of it and continued to play, even without a league to play