Noah L

Noah L

1st hour

3/4/10

The Backyard League

    This was just a normal day in the backyard of 16-year-old Michael Weston.  Him and his buddies were just playing baseball.  Like they do every Saturday.  Michael was the catcher.  He was the best anyone had ever seen.  He could throw someone out that was already half way to second or third base.  His friends were so amazed that they called up a minor league baseball scout to come out and watch him play.  Even though it wasn’t organized baseball he could still see Michael in action.

    When the scout got there only the people in front of home plate could see him so they didn’t even acknowledge he was there so Michael didn’t even know he was there so he didn’t get nervous or anything with the scout around.  They just kept playing and just by chance Michael was having a good day.  To help him out all of the base runners were stealing even though they knew they couldn’t make it to the next base.  Within the first five minutes Michael had over eight steals that he caught them on.  He also had gotten a few outs himself from high, short, fly balls.  The scout was so impressed he started to applaud and that is when Michael Weston finally figured out there was someone watching him.  He didn’t know who the guy was until he came down and introduced himself.  Michael was so shocked that he was speechless.     

    When he finally came to his senses he said yes almost immediately.  Michael and the scout talked about him coming to meet a minor league team and signing contracts and all that complicated stuff that comes with going into minor or major league baseball.  Michael couldn’t wait to go home and tell his parents what had happened that day at the baseball field (or in other words the neighbors backyard).  His parents were so overjoyed that they didn’t even believe their own son so they had to go talk to the person to see if it was even possible that their 16-year-old son could be in the minor leagues. 

    The next day Michael and his family went to go see a minor league game at the Cedar Rapids Kernels stadium.  He was so filled with emotion when he got to the stadium that he actually started to cry from excitement of being on the Cedar Rapids Kernels team.  When he saw them play he was amazed at how much their catcher was like him.  He could make the long out and capitalize on any fly ball he could get to. 

    When the game was done Michael Weston was introduced to the team and when the scout said he would be playing in their next game in a week that is what upset the team the most and how he would get to play right away when they all had to wait until they got in a lot of hard work and the practice hours to play.  That is when Michael knew he would have to really work hard to impress the coach in the next week of practice.  He felt like he didn’t deserve to be there after what those guys said.  He went home that night thinking about what they had said and he couldn’t even sleep he was so upset with himself for even thinking it would work out.

    He had practice the next morning at 7:00, but he went in at 5:00 and lifted weights for an hour and a half or more.  When he coach got there at 6:30 to get ready for practice he saw Michael in there and how dedicated he was so he let Michael off easier on the first day of practice.  He was sort of curious why he got such an easy first day of practice.  Then after practice Michael stayed after to practice some of his catcher stuff.  The coach was still there when Michael left about two hours after everyone else, so they talked about Michael’s dedication, hard work, and participation during practice and how well he gets along with some of the team that doesn’t hate him.  That is what earned Michael a spot on the starting roster as the catcher.

    His parents had no idea Michael had even left too early for practice because they usually don’t get up until about 7:30.  When Michael got home his parents were so proud of him and how he stepped up and showed that he was capable of being on a minor league team.

    The first game of he season was against the Iowa Cubs, a long time rival of the Cedar Rapids Kernels.  Michael did the usual of throwing out anyone who even thought about stealing a base.  The game was supposed to be a blowout with the Iowa Cubs winning by more than 10 runs.  The Cedar Rapids Kernels stepped it up and going into the bottom of the ninth it was all tied up and the Cedar Rapids Kernels were one run away from winning the game and for once beating their long time rival.  The first two batters got out and Michael was up as the last batter of regulation time and he had struck out all of his last times at the plate.  The first pitch was a ball.  The second pitch was also a ball but he swung at it.  The third pitch was a strike and Michael connected on it but it went foul.  So he had two strikes on him and he was getting nervous when the crowd started chanting his name and that almost made it worse.  When the last pitch was out of the pitchers hand everything started to go into slow motion for Michael and that helped him concentrate and connect with the ball.  When he made the connection the crowd went insane and when they saw it not coming down very fast  and then they saw the distance…………………. and it was OUT OF THERE!!!  He was the overall hero for his team and that made his friendships with his teammates were made better by that hit.

THE END!