Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Baseball Classification Essay

Levi Lewis
Mrs. Boresen
Expos 6th hour
Feb 2, 2009

Baseball is a very competitive sport at any level. Whether it is tee ball or right up at the major league level, everyone who plays the sport has something to offer. There are different levels that teach a player many things to make them better as they reach higher levels. Baseball teaches you many things from good social skills to making friends that you will have for life. It is a great way to get exercise and learn and enjoy America’s past time.

Tee ball is a great way for children who want to play baseball and develop social to experience. Tee ball teaches children the basic fundamentals of the game of baseball. It helps develop how to hit a ball, how to field a ball, run the bases, throw to each base, and just how to have fun. It also teaches the kids the rules of the game and usually a tee ball game is about three innings or when the kids become tired. It’s really fun to watch the kids enjoy the sport and get experience for the next level to play at. Tee ball is also a great way for a kid to make friends and socialize. It teaches how to step outside your comfort zone and learn to play with kids you don’t know. At the tee ball level, the competition isn’t as competitive as much higher levels because the kids are out there for fun.

Another level of competition in baseball is the traveling teams. This level is where you start to be competitive and continue to increase your skills. When you are on a traveling team, you get to travel and see many different teams that consist of different players with better skills. At the traveling level you get to enjoy new competition and put the skills you learned at tee ball to work and begin to play and gain experience needed for further levels in baseball. Being on a traveling team is so much fun because you get to see different places and meet new people who you could play against for life and become good friends with. You also learn the “real” rules of baseball and how the game is supposed to be played. A rec game is usually between five and six innings. It is also fun because you get to be in front of a crowd and it’s the first time you can experience butterflies in your stomach and just go out and have so much fun! Your skills increase so much and you continue to get better. Overall, at the traveling level of baseball, this is where you polish your skills and begin to become competitive.

High school and college baseball are just about one in the same. For the most part, college baseball can be more competitive and each player’s skills are just about full developed. In high school, you take all the skills you learn and perfect them for the college level. High school baseball games are played in seven innings while college games are played in nine. The rules are all the same, but the field you play on in college is much bigger and more major league like. In college baseball, you get to travel more places and see better teams and play for more championships. Overall, high school and college are similar in many ways.

Major league baseball is the ultimate goal for any player who has ever played the game. This level of being a major leaguer is where you have polished your skills in every way and made it to the very top. In major league baseball, the rules are just the same as in college and a game is nine innings. The only other difference between college and pro ball is the schedule. In pro ball, a team plays one hundred and sixty-two games! That’s about one hundred more than college. You literally play every day. In pro ball, you again meet new people and travel the US. Pro ball is much more laid back but has a much more complicated and long schedule for an individual player. A player’s day can start at about eight or nine in the morning and may get done around eleven or twelve at night. A player does this for all one hundred and sixty-two games. As you can see, pro ball is filled with a more complicated schedule.
Baseball is America’s past time and has been referred to that for centuries. The game of baseball is a great game to learn sportsmanship, social skills, and being competitive. As you can see, tee ball, rec ball, high school and college ball, and at the major league level can be very similar and the same. They all teach you great skills but all lack the level of competition, but that all comes as you get older. Baseball is a great love for many Americans and I encourage people to get out and play this great game.

Bibliography

Works Cited

Nemec, David, and Saul Wisnia. 100 Years of Major League Baseball : American and National Leagues, 1901-2000. Minneapolis: Publications International, Limited, 2000.

Porterfield, Jason. Baseball : Rules, Tips, Strategy, and Safety. New York: Rosen Group, Incorporated, The, 2006.

"Baseball Player." Test Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More. 04 Feb. 2009 .

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Winter Narrative

My Christmas experience could easily be considered the vacation of a lifetime. Many people dream of doing the many things I did over Christmas break. I took a cruise to Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya, and The Bahamas. I had always dreamed of what it would be like to be on a ship and sail across the ocean to different places and different countries. Little did I know that I was about to experience this.
It was very early on the morning of December thirteenth when my family and I left for DIA. We were all very excited to fly to Orlando and set sail on a new adventure aboard the Carnival ship Glory. We arrived in Florida and took a shuttle from the Orlando International Airport to Port Canaveral where we would get on board the Glory. As we approached the port, we could begin to see our ship. My family and I couldn’t believe how big a cruise ship really was! It easily seemed over a mile long and almost just as wide and stood very tall. My family and I checked in at the port and began to make our way towards our cruise ship. As we got inside we all stopped with our mouths wide open in amazement at how beautiful yet enormous the inside of this ship was. It was simply breathtaking! We made our way to our cabin, checked in there, and then began to explore the ship. The ship had so many places and things to do on it. It had a pool, a basketball court, a put-put golf course, an arcade, a theatre to perform on, and it even had its own mall. My brother Derek and I spent most of the first two days playing basketball and swimming and meeting new kids from all around the US.
As we arrived in our destinations, I began to find out that each country was uniquely different and yet the same. As we entered each country, we discovered that we take for granted what opportunities and how well taken care of we are in the US. We also learned that the people of each country were nice and some enjoyed the tourism and the opportunity to learn about other cultures. My brother and I practiced our Spanish a lot and quickly learned the art of bartering in the shops. We also had the opportunity to enjoy the second largest living coral in the world in Belize. It was a very beautiful reef and I had a mana ray swim right underneath me!
Our trip was overall eight days long but I was very blessed to experience as well as learn so much about other countries and cultures. After experiencing these things at a young age, I look forward to more trips to other countries after I graduate from college.