Coming of Age

Saturday mornings bright and early 8 years ago when I was in the 4th grade, waking up at 6:30 in the morning so I could be at the field at 7:00 ready to warm up for my game. Game time and everyone’s stoked for the game and my coaches are ready to toss me the ball right down Main Street so I can rip the ball over every ones head and run around the short 60ft bases. But this isn’t all I wanted to do during these times, I look over to the next fields and see the big kids playing ball. Running faster, hitting harder and throwing farther than anyone I’ve ever seen before. All I really wanted was to play on that 90ft diamond where players throw to players not coaches. My dream was to play with the “Big Kids.”

I remember my first time ever playing coach pitch and we were warming up I saw a couple of older guys playing catch and throwing the ball real far. But of course I know I can’t throw that far but I said to myself what the hay why not give it a shot. I told my teammate Skyler, the boy was throwing with to “move back” until we were about 100ft apart (that’s kind of far for kids to throw in the fourth grade). Then I took aim and focused real hard on my target, gathering all my strength to throw the ball al the way to him on the fly. Then I threw the ball as hard as I could into the air watching the ball sail high. But all dreams were lost when I saw the ball going down and down till it fell short of him about 30ft. I knew I was in over my head but I was determined to reach him on the fly one of these days.

Two years later I’m in mustang, the first league where players throw to players and we were on a trip to New York because we had entered a tournament there. The team and I were all at the house where the parents were staying and watching the 2005 replay of the homerun derby and watching balls fly out of the park like mini rockets. I told myself as well as the rest of the team that I was going to take one out of the park one of these games and everyone was ragging me telling me “yeah ok” or come on really?” but that didn’t faze me. So maybe the third game during the tournament I still didn’t hit my homerun and we were beating the other team up id say like 13-2 and we were in the fourth inning. I watch my friend Jarin get walked so he’s on first so now I’m up. Ready to show the guys how it’s done. So the first pitch comes a fast ball coming….”ball!” yells the umpire coming a little too high. I take my signals from the coach at third and back into the batter’s box. The next pitch was a strike curveball down the middle so the count stands 1-1. I reset my mind looking for that one pitch fastball to take it out of the yard. The pitch comes and it’s the one. The ball was coming as if time were slowing down so I can hit the ball out. I load my hands and swing the bat…”PING” the ball flies high and to right field I’m running toward first watching the ball fly like a bird hoping it will carry over the wall but it lands just short of the wall and the right fielder was there for the first out. I went back to the dugout with discuss and i was willing to do anything to get another chance of taking one out.

Now I’m in high school playing third base for the Moanalua Menehune and it’s the first game of regular season. The thought of me almost hitting a homerun and not throwing the ball on the fly still lingering in my mind. Of course over the set of 5 years I got bigger and stronger but I need to put it to the test. In the first inning of the game I’m at third and it’s about 110 foot throw from third. I was playing a little deeper the usual because it was a big batter and then there was a hard shot to me on my right side. I took a step back and ran a little to the right slid on my right shin to field the ground ball. Now I’m about 120ft from the base, I don’t have much time left so I just grabbed the ball out of my glove popped up to a standing position and just threw the ball to Nolan the first basemen with all my strength the ball was thrown right on the money. The runner was almost there but the “Pack” the ball hit Nolan’s glove then….”Out” yelled the umpire. Three outs and the inning was over. All my work I put in over the past 5 years finally paying off with a nice play to start the season.

During the same game, by the 5th inning we were already winning 20-1 and I was up with bases loaded. In this situation all you want to do his hit the ball nice and solid. So I’m in the box ready to rock and roll and the first pitch comes like a lob right over the plate and “ping!” I hit the ball solid right on barrel and the ball is flying over to right field. I see the right fielder on the other team running back and back till he stops at the fence...the umpire gives the signal that it’s a HOMERUN!! My first out of the park grand slam of my career. I was happy and excited for this because I finally did it. I finally hit a homerun.

All the things I set my mind to doing coming true in a matter of 2 hours on the same day. I mentioned to all my friends that were with me on the trip about my homerun and they were all happy for me. Now that I was older and more experienced and I knew what I could do. I could now throw the ball further and hit the ball farther then I ever imagined doing. I went from the little kid wishing I could throw the ball far and hitting a homerun to actually doing it. Through this baseball experience it has taught me that I could accomplish anything as long as I was willing to try and work at it not only in baseball but in my life as well. So remember, as the old saying goes, “anything is possible if you put your mind to it” ;)