Every person has a favorite sport, whether they like to play or watch it. If you asked most people today what their favorite sport is, it would probably be football or basketball. My favorite sport is baseball though. Over the years baseball has taken a backseat to football. Baseball was once called America’s pastime, an American game. Some of the greats to play the game were national heroes, but for some reason baseball is slowly declining in the favorite sports’ rankings.
My dad really influenced my love for baseball. He would tell me stories of him and his brothers and all his friends as they would go out during the summer and do nothing but play ball. He would also tell me about his short semi-pro career and how good of a catcher he was and how he could have gone pro at one point in time. He gave it all up for the army and the family he had back home.

I have always loved the game of baseball. Ever since I was able to play I did. I first learned to play baseball with my dad in my back yard when I was a young kid. He would take me out back and he would toss me the ball and I would smack it with a bat. As I got older it got a little more competitive. We would see if my dad was good enough to strike me out. He never did. I think he just took it easy on me to make me feel good. When t-ball came around the fun began. My dad took me to all my games and he would watch me play. Of course, I was a little more ahead of the game than most kids but I’m sure it was still fun to watch. After t-ball came coach pitch. That was the best time in my life when it came to baseball, because my dad and his friend coached my team. Whenever I did something wrong or I didn’t know what to do he was always there to help me out and correct me. We did pretty good as a team at coach pitch even though nobody ever kept records and stuff.

After about two years of coach pitch my mom and dad got a divorce. My mom got custody of me and my sister and we barely got to see our dad, so my dad quit the coaching job. There was only a year left of coach pitch so it wasn’t too bad, because then came regular kid pitch. Even though my dad wasn’t a coach anymore he still tried to make it to every one of my games. My team did really well in kid pitch; we kept all our players throughout the years of playing. My mom ended up moving to Manhattan and then Chapman, so my sister and I followed. I still played ball but my dad couldn’t make all of my games anymore because of the travel distance, but he does try really hard and it means a lot to me.

Whenever I play baseball I think about my dad and what he means to me as a person and a role model. He reminds me that baseball is all about having fun and playing the game. Baseball has taught me a lot the things about life and so has my dad, to me baseball is a connection to him. We both share the same passion for it and it brings us closer together. I hope that one day I can play ball like he did, and maybe when I get older and have a son of my own, I can share my love for the game with him as well.