The guys on the team were all very accepting of me and it was easy to assimilate into despite being vastly under skilled by comparison. I decided to become an outfielder and thus practiced largely with the outfield team and coach who are an interesting bunch of people.
Results-wise the season started relatively poorly, we seemed to pull wins from every non-conference (not important) match we played but couldn't salvage anything from our conference (very important) fixtures. About mid-season we found our groove and picked up a few wins where they counted. We progressed to play-offs but unfortunately lost our first play-off game narrowly. I was somewhat glad to see the season end there as at that point we were in our last week of school and I didn't really want to be tied up with baseball until graduation.
I improved a lot over the season and finished with the ability to actually hit the ball out of the infield during practise as well as being able to catch fly balls without getting hit in the head (which by the way happened 3 times). The coaches decided to give me the most improved player award which meant a lot to me and when I come home will go up next to the other two trophies I have picked up in my 13 year athletic career (I believe the other two are a most valuable player award for rugby when I was 7 and a most valuable player award for the second XI hockey team which I got when I was 16).
Baseball was a really valuable American experience for me and will be something I will definitely remember and cherish. I'm more than grateful to the coaches and to the team for taking me on as a know-nothing liability and giving me the opportunity to learn such a fun game and tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment