Keaton’s
Starting Line-Up: A Blog About Baseball
By: An
11-yr-old Midwestern Boy on the DL
I knew that I really liked baseball when I started watching it with my
dad. I think I was four years old when I first started watching games with him. I would sit next to him
on the couch and he would teach me about the game while we watched. I asked him if I could I play on a
team and he signed me up for t-ball and ever since then I have just loved this sport. The name of my first
t-ball team was the Gray Wolves and my dad was the coach. My best friend played on the team with me and
his dad was the coach, too. My mom told me that when I was a toddler I got a little bat, mitt, and a ball
from Santa for Christmas and I really liked to play with these. And when I was six months old there is
a picture of me holding a squishy baseball and I am smiling. So learning about baseball and really liking
it was pretty natural for me.
I
like the uniqueness of baseball…most other sports always just go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like
basketball, soccer, football, and hockey, but baseball runs on a diamond. That’s unique.
And it’s the only sport where defense has the ball.
I also like baseball because you have to be good at lots of athletic
skills – you have to hit, run, catch and throw. I love the feel of the ricochet of the ball hitting
off my bat and how I feel inside when I make a good catch, how the ball just plops right into my glove. When
I’m running towards a base, I feel confident that I am going to make it and that feels good, too.
Most of the time I think ahead during a
game when I am fielding and figure out where the play is…where I have to throw out at first, second or third, and even
home.
I
have been playing baseball since I was four years old so that’s seven years now. First it was t-ball,
then it was coach-pitch, then it was kid-pitch, then it was pinto, mustang, and then bronco leagues in my neighborhood.
I also have been on three tournament teams for my home town. We haven’t always played good
but we do always have a good spirit about the game and have good sportsmanship for the game.
My favorite part of the game is when I’m up to
bat because I’m hoping the pitch will be down the middle and I’ll just smack it right over the fence.
My dad tells me that my batting average this season was .517 before I broke my arm skateboarding. (That’s
why I’m writing a baseball blog now.)
Tonight I’ve been watching the Homerun Derby. It is always exciting to see all of
the greatest batters go for the victory.
Baseball has always been my all-time favorite sport.
Til next time…that’s a HOME RUN!
Keaton, age
11
