Little League Champions

            This is a story of small segment in my lifetime.  I chose to write about the year that I won the Little League Championship. I chose it because it is the only time I have been on a team that was the #1 team at the end of it.  It was my 2^nd to last summer rec season…

            …”Alright boys,” said coach Derrick Bulthuis, “We’re gonna win the championship this year, right?!”  “Oh yeah,” we all responded to him.  He just laughed.  We had been so close last year, losing to Granite Falls in the championship.

            “Let’s take some infield.”  So we ran out and our season was underway.

 I remember thinking, ‘’Man, we’re looking pretty good,’’ as we made all the plays almost perfectly, ‘‘maybe we actually got another chance at it.’’  We went through some of the first couple practices.  Some of them were real scorchers, so hot that we even had a couple water fights with the softball teams.  Practices were fun.  Finally, we got to our first game.  I didn’t quite remember what team we were playing, but we completely blew them out of Prinsburg.  “Wow, now we really might have a shot,” I thought once again.

            This team that was going to be good that year was made up of this year’s sophomores, freshman, and 8^th graders.  At that time, we were just coming out of 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th grades.

As the season progressed, we had more practices, water fights, scrimmages against the girls, and also kept on winning our real games.  We were just having a plain old blast out there.  I usually played at 2^nd base or shortstop, sometimes even 1^st base.

About halfway through the season, I had my best game of the year.  I went 4-4 with a triple, 2 doubles, and a single.  Along with those hits, I had 5 or 6 RBI to go with them.  We killed the other team that day.

The end of the season was starting to roll around and we had only one loss so far.  It was to RCW Navy.  We lost the game 7-3. It wasn’t a very good game.  Other than that game, we were still playing great and winning.

Finally, the season ended and we were headed for the playoffs.  I don’t remember who we played first, but we beat them pretty easily.  We had made it to the second round.

We got home and starting practicing again for about a week after that.  No more water fights now.  Derrick told us, “OK boys, we made it to the second round, now let’s go win us a championship next week! But first we gotta win the first one.”  So we finished the week of practices.

Then came the big tournament day.  We were playing Raymond first.  That day’s games were going to be played in Renville.  It was a very hot day and we had to have a lot of liquid.  The game started and we were playing just as well as ever.  We ended up winning by quite a bit again.  Ecstatic with excitement and emotion, we talked and laughed with each other while watching the other game.  Hanley Falls won.  They were the only ones who stood between a championship and us.

The championship started later that day, it was the first close game we’d played all year.  It was great!  It got to the top of the last inning and we were ahead like 6-5 or something.  I was playing first base.  Someone hit a ground ball to Grant at short; one out.  Then they hit a pop up that I caught; two outs, only one more!  I remember Derrick saying, “Come on boys! One more, go to first.”  The hitter walked up to the plate.  Fly ball, center field, everyone yelling, “Come on Tyler!”  It was headed right for him.  The ball seemed like it took forever to come down.  Finally, it fell, right into the webbing of Tyler’s glove.  I couldn’t believe it, we were Little League champions!  What Derrick had said in the beginning was right!

We took our victory lap around the bases.  I touched home and said in my head, ‘Champions.’  It was the first time I had won something important like that.  Then, of course, we had to take team pictures.  Now, it was finally official.

Prinsburg

 

Prinsburg is, in my opinion, one of the best places to live.  I love it so much, that if at all possible, I’m going to live here and raise a family here too.

            One of the reasons to like Prinsburg is that everyone basically knows you or at least knows who you are.  They’re also mostly friendly to you.  There are only about 500 people so it’s not too difficult to know who everyone is in town.

I’ve never heard of any kind of crime that may have ever happened here.  The closest thing was someone was running from the cops through our neighbor’s backyard.  But he even turned himself in the next morning, and admitted he had over-drank the night before.

            You get to have a nice, spacious lawn for the things you want to put out, like a deck or something, with a table and chairs on it.  Some lawns are also big enough for the kids to play all sorts of fun games with the neighborhood kids and their friends.  There is never really a feeling of crowdedness in the small town of Prinsburg.

There are no trains to wake you up in the middle of the night or police sirens constantly sounding day and night, lighting up your rooms with red and blue lights. There is also no sound of car horns on the interstate.  Nothing.  Just peace and quiet all day and night.  The sky is black during the night, showing off all of its stars because there is no orange glow from all the lights.

            We’re also getting a brand new baseball field that will be very fun and great to play on.  It will have perfect grass with agri-lime sand infield dirt and warning tracks around the field.  So Prinsburg will have one of the better baseball fields in the area that people will look forward to playing at.

It’s also great because there are some of the basic stores or businesses here.  There is Warren’s, a gas station with beverages, a few groceries, and “treats” for some people.  Then there’s the bank, the car service shop, an insurance branch of a company, a recycling place, a café, and a post office.  Also there is the school, which happens to have been around for a while.  Prinsburg has all sorts of the kinds of buildings that you need and they’re right there for the people in Prinsburg.

            Prinsburg is a very calm, homey place to live and I would encourage people to live here.  On the other hand, don’t, because then it would start to get bigger, and that would not make it as good for me.

Spring vs. Summer

 

           This essay will show a lot of the good and bad similarities and differences of spring and summer.  These two seasons actually have quite a bit of things different from each other.  There also are a good amount of similarities, too.

            Spring.  In Minnesota, you never know what the temperatures are going to be like.  Usually there is an average of about 65 degrees.  But there could always be a chance of snow.  Assuming there isn’t snow, there are a lot of things about a normal spring that are different from summer.  The grass has almost a camouflage look to it with the different browns and greens as it tries to come out of its hibernation.  The trees are just starting to bud, also coming out of their long winter.  The birds making themselves known after a very long winter away, chirping louder than ever.  The air is cool and crisp in the mornings and evenings.  And there is always the school baseball.  It can be either in 60-70 degree weather with the sun shining, or about 40 or less and windy or raining/snowing.

            Summer, it is the time of year when it’s hot and humid, but yet enjoyable more often than not.  Even though it can get to about 100 degrees and humid on some days, there are a lot of things that make it great.  The grass is a lush green and thick and soft.  The trees look better than in spring because they have all of their leaves on them.  Family and friends go with you on vacations to popular tourist places, or just to the lake.  The lake is a great place to relax and have fun, enjoy the peacefulness and quietness of the calm water, birds, and other things.  Sometimes you can even go for a swim in the nice, cool water.  Then there is the 4^th of July.  It is the holiday where you participate in town activities with your friends, and then go to the parade at night.  There is also the fireworks that explode and make awesome colors during the night.  Another difference is that in spring, you don’t think of grilling hamburgers, making corn on the cob, watermelon, or lemonade.  Then in the summer, there’s even more baseball.

            Spring and summer’s temperatures are both enjoyable for most people.  The birds, as well as in the spring, chirp 24/7.  There’s always constant playing or watching baseball all throughout the two seasons.  Also during spring and summer, the smell of rain and good fresh air fill your nose.  There are probably more, but I can’t think of much more in detail.

            Spring and summer are both good seasons and are alike and different in many ways.  Isn’t it great spring is finally here!?

Left Behind: The Vanashings Book Review

            The book that I decided to do was one of the Left Behind series books.  It was the first book of them.  I have read 25 out of about 50 books in the series.  I just chose this one because you have to read them in order for them to make sense.

            It’s called The Vanishings, two different authors who work together to write all the different books write it.  Their names are Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.  They wrote it as a Christian book.  It’s based on the book of Revelations when Christ returns and takes all the Christians to heaven.  It could also be considered a fiction story because the characters and some of the setting is made up, except for when there is one of the judgments from God.

The main characters in the book are the four kids, Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan.  There is also a pastor who got left behind. His name is Bruce.  Judd is 16 years old who decides to take his dad’s credit card, since they had the same name, so he can run away from home.  Vicki is 14 at the time.  Her and her family live in an old, run down trailer park.  Her parents and little sister come to know Christ shortly before the disappearances, but she wants no part in it.  Lionel was 13.  His family is originally from the South but lives on the outside of Chicago.  He pretends that he knows and loves God, but he really doesn’t at all.  Ryan is only 12 years old.  Him and his best friend do everything together, except that his friend loves God and Ryan doesn’t.  The four kids get basically adopted by Bruce, who they met at a church service that was intended for him to explain to everyone what in the world was going on.

The book begins with the author introducing and describing the main characters.  Then it goes on to tell the stories of what the night was like for all the four kids when their families disappeared.  It says how all that was left of them were piles of their clothes and anything that was not flesh.  Judd was on an airplane running away when everyone disappeared.  Vicki wakes up and realizes that her whole family is gone and trailers are being burned down, smoke everywhere from people cooking and then disappearing. Lionel was sleeping in the basement along with his uncle who had been out late together the night before.  His uncle wasn’t a Christian either though, so when his parents didn’t wake him up, he didn’t start to wonder if anything was wrong.  But when the phone rang and no answered it, he went upstairs and realized that the cars were still there, but everyone was gone.  When Ryan wakes up, he gets ready to go to school and heads downstairs for breakfast.  There is a note on the table from his mom saying where she was, so he wasn’t nervous yet.  But when he turned on the TV and saw the news of the disappearances, his stomach turned upside down because his parents had told him about this.  The phone then rang and it was someone who explained everything to him.  Including that his mom had been killed in an oil tanker accident from the driver disappearing, and they had found her body.  The four kids had been left behind.

I thought that this was a good book to read because every chapter ends with and exciting part that leads to the next chapter.  The pace is good because it doesn’t go through the important parts too fast or slow, but it does spend a good amount of time on the important parts.  It had good development of characters by spreading around their starting point and where they realize that they had made the biggest mistake of their lives.  The setting of the book was good because it was very descriptive in when everyone disappeared and things were burning down, smoke was everywhere, and the craziness of it was everywhere.  I also liked it because it was based on the book of Revelations and it mentioned praying for help a lot.

Baseball: The Best Sport

            Baseball is the best sport that was ever created.  Right now, football is “America’s sport,” but baseball definitely should be.  There are so many things about the game of baseball that make it the best.

            To start out with, baseball is one of the best sports to watch on TV.  You get settled in on the couches with your friends and/or family. Or just by yourself.  As the game starts, you cheer for your team.  It’s more fun when there are other people there who aren’t cheering for the team you are, but their favorite team.  The announcers on TV do a good job of getting the watchers interested.  They also start kind of a conversation on the air that can be humorous to listen to sometimes.  The two Twins commentators, I think, are the best around.  The two of them are good friends and joke around a lot.  They’re both very good at getting excited and getting you into the game as well as them.  Watching on TV also gives you the best view of the game: straight behind the center field wall.  You also get the advantage of instant replays on the insane or questionable plays.

            However, it’s even better to be at the game.  When you walk through the gates, you immediately get the great sensation of the smell, sight, and feel of the field.  The smell of hot dogs, other meat, and burning grills.  You can see out onto the nice green grass when you walk through the gates of the field.  The fans cheering and roaring every time the home team gets a hit or scores a run, but most of all, a home run.  Rain or shine, going to a baseball game is a fun and great experience to bring rain jackets and umbrellas along.  In the sun, it’s the great things I mentioned before.  Also at night games, the cool, brisk air, the bright green grass that reflects the stadium lights from above.  These lights see m to illuminate the players on the field.

            Baseball also is the best sport to play.  You get to go outside and play in the sunshine. Rain is fun, too.  It’s fun to play with your friends and teammates.  It can also be a satisfying feeling after you beat a team, knowing that that’s one team you’re better than.  Chewing sunflower seeds on the bench, and cheering your team on is a great part about baseball. 

            So as you can see, baseball is definitely the best sport ever created.  A special thanks to a guy named Abner Dubbleday, the creator of the best sport in the world.

The Best and Worst Summer

         It was a late summer day.  The weather was still nice and hot out.  The sky was clear and there was a slight breeze blowing through.  Dad had just mowed, and it smelled like freshly cut grass.  Our parents called my best buddy, Jay, and me, “JJ” because we had been best friends since we were about 1 year old.  We were now 9.  We were playing baseball in my backyard…

            “Alright, give me a one more good one,” shouted Jay, with his sweaty shirt.

            I threw him one right down the middle of the plate when, POW!  The ball went soaring over the garage.

            “Home run!” We both shouted.

            He trotted around the bases, and we decided to go in to the house for some lemonade and cookies.  But when we got to the door, we saw a moving van parked across the street.  Out stepped a boy about our age.  He had dark, short hair and he looked really nice.

            “Hi!” I yelled to him.

            He looked at me for a little bit, and then replied, “Hi.”  And he turned around to walk into his new home.

            “Wait! What’s your name?” I shouted to him.

            He turned to me, “Tony.”

            “Cool, I’m Jake and this is Jay.  Jay smiled to him.  “Well I guess we’ll see you around.”

            “Yeah,” answered Tony, and he walked into his house.

            Little did I know but this was going to be the best experience of my entire life.

            It was now May and 6^th grade was coming to a close.  All three of us couldn’t wait until it was over so we could get away from all the “little kids” in the elementary school.  We weren’t called “JJ” anymore because Tony moved here.  Now, we were just, “the kids.”   We did everything together.  We even brought each other on our families’ family vacations that we went on in the summer.  But this summer was going to be different because it was our last chance to do fun things before we had to be “cool” in the high school. 

            But one day, Jay and I were over at Tony’s house and his mom and dad told him they needed to talk to him about something very serious. 

“Tony, we know this is going to be hard for you to hear, but there is no easy way to put it,” said his mom.  “Your dad got a job in Florida—“,”NO!” Tony interrupted, his eyes starting to water.  “We can’t leave.  Dad is always forcing me to leave my friends just because of his job.”

“Tony, we have no choice,” his dad told him.

Tony then went and threw himself onto his bed.

So his mom left him and told us that we should probably just head back home for the night.

“I wonder what happened to Tony in there?” asked Jay.

“I don’t know but I’m guessing it wasn’t good.”

When my mom came to say good night to me, I told her about Tony.  She said the best thing I could do was to just pray about it.  So I did, but about half way through, I was sound asleep.

The next morning, Tony called.

“Hello?”

“Hi, this is Tony.”  He sounded tired, sad, and gloomy.

“I have something I have to tell you and Jay.  Can you two meet me at the fort in about 15 minutes?”

“Yeah sure, we’ll be right out there.”

“OK, bye,” Tony hung up.

I just thought for a little bit and then called Jay.

Our fort was in the middle of a grove about a mile away from our houses.  So we made our way out there and found Tony in the fort.

“Hey guys,” he said gloomily.

“What’s up?” I asked him.

“Well, I don’t know how to start, so I’ll just get right to it.” He took a deep breath and said, “I’m moving to Florida,” he explained as he looked at the ground.

“What!?” Jay and I answered.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought when I heard it from my mom.”

I was absolutely devastated. One of my two best friends was moving half way across the country.

Trying to brighten the spirits a little bit, I said, “Hey, why don’t we make a list of the things to do before you have to leave.  You know, kind of like a bucket list!”

“Hey, I like the sound of that!” Jay chimed in.

“Let’s do it,” Tony agreed.

I said, “OK, let’s start.”

Tony gave me his pocketknife to carve the list into a tree in our fort.

“Number one…”

“How about we go on a sailboat to the little island out there and just hang around on the beach and stuff,” Tony requested.

Jay excitedly replied, “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to see what’s out there.”

“OK, number…one: go…on…one…of…those…big…ships.” I said out loud as I carved it into the tree.

“Number two… let’s go to the shoreline and try swimming around for as long as we can.  The one who can stay under the water the longest wins,” Jay requested. 

“I don’t know,” Tony said, “that sounds kind of dangerous.”

“That’s the point of the things we’re doing this summer!” I added.

“Number three.”

“Let’s go to a Brewers game some time and sit in the first row,” Jay dreamed sarcastically. 

Tony and I both agreed with him.  So it was now number three.

“Number four…”

I said, “How about go camping in the woods by ourselves for a whole night.”

“OK,” they both said simultaneously.

So for number four, we were going camping.

“And then number five.  Let’s just start with five and go from there.”

Right away, Tony said, “Let’s go fishing in the river that’s in the woods.  We can go camping right by the river and go fishing from there.”

“Well…” Jay said.

Tony replied, “Come on…”

“OK.”

Now we were going fishing for the 5^th thing on our list.

School ended a couple of days after that and we were off to our list.

We got the chance to do the first thing almost right away.  There was a little sailboat waiting for us that our parents had paid for.  Just for us three and a captain dressed in a blue suit.  We were just messing around and hanging out in the bottom of the boat when the captain told us to come up top.  We went up there and he showed us around the command board and all the controls.  We went to the side of the boat to look over the edge at the water.  Tony wasn’t felling very well though when all of the sudden, he “lost his lunch,” maybe even breakfast.  So we decided that we should probably go home.

“Well, that was fun!” I said to Tony and Jay.

“Yeah, just ‘cause you didn’t throw up,” Tony told me.

“I had fun, but I feel sorry for you, Tony,” added Jay.

Tony smirked, “Gee thanks,” and grinned.

We got to number two in early July when the water was actually above freezing.  It was still freezing cold!  There were seagulls everywhere, one even came down and took a piece of my pizza.  The water felt good for a couple of seconds because it was like 95 degrees out. 

“My shoulder really hurt, am I sunburnt?” Jay asked as he took off his shirt.

“Oh yeah,” Tony and I said.

“It’s a good thing we brought drinks along, otherwise I would have thought about drinking the lake water because it was so clean and clear,” Tony said as he pulled out his water bottle.

We had an absolute blast!

Number three was in late July when we went to a Brewers game.  They were playing against the Twins.  It was an awesome, intense game.  We even caught a foul ball hit by Joe Mauer; too bad it wasn’t Prince Fielder, the Brewers best player.  Either way, we had lots of fun eating hot dogs and drinking pop.  The only bad part was that the Twins won 7-6 in 11 innings.

“Those two homers by Fielder were monster homers!” exclaimed Tony after the game.

I said, “Yeah, that was an awesome choice to put this on the list.”
            “Definitely,” Jay commented.

Number four was going to be a little harder to pull off.  We eventually set a date for August 3 and 4.  August 2 came and went.  For lunch on the 3rd, we had Tony’s mom make us “Tony’s” pizza for lunch.  After lunch, we gathered our stuff and headed for the forest to complete numbers four and five.  We got there, set up camp and went in our tent to go to sleep.  It was a cool night, crickets chirping, dew forming on the tent, and the feeling of cool, fresh air.  So we talked about some things just before we went to sleep.

“You know Tony, I’m so glad that you moved here,” I said to him.

“I know, me too.  Remember the first time we saw each other, we were so little,” Tony laughed as I laughed with him.

Jay said, “I’m also really glad we came up with this idea of doing these things before you’re gone.” 

“Well, good night.”
            “Good night.”
            “Good night,” we all said to each other.

I looked over at Tony and wondered what he’d be like in 10 years, who knows; maybe we would keep in touch.  At that, I fell asleep.

When I woke up, Tony and Jay were staring right at me.

“Whoa,” I yelled.

Tony and Jay just laughed.

“Ha ha, very funny,” I sarcastically remarked.

We then ate breakfast and decided to do number five on our list, go fishing.

So we got the boat, the fishing rods and lines ready and headed out.  We had gotten to where the fish would most likely be biting and anchored the little wooden boat.  I was on the left, Tony on the right, and Jay in the front.  I was pulling in fish by fish.  Jay had a couple, and Tony had about two or three.  Finally Tony decided to come over to my side to try and fish, but I told him not to.

“Tony, stay over there, the boat’s going to tip over.”

“No it won’t.”  And he came over.

Jay yelled, ”No!”

But it was too late. The boat was already upside down.  We all grabbed the boat and held on for dear life.

“Hang on, DON”T LET GO!!” I told them.

Tony started to slip and that was all it took.  He slipped off, also knocking off Jay from his grip.  The next thing I knew, they were both headed down the rushing river. 

“NO!!” I yelled.

All I heard were faint cries for help.

I rushed to get the boat back to the side and run back to our camp.  When I got there, I called my parents and they called 911.  So there was now a huge search going on for them.  I felt as sick as I had ever felt.

…On the sixth of August, my mom pulled me aside to tell me something.  I knew that I wasn’t going to want to hear it.

“Jake… they found your friends.”

“Are they OK?”

She sighed and then paused, “They’re gone.”

Struck to the deepest deep, my knees buckled and I fell to my knees on the floor.  I didn’t know what to say, they were my absolute best friends.  I just sat there, thinking, of really nothing except that they were actually gone. 

My mom sympathized, “I’m so sorry, I know how much they meant to you.”

It had all happened so fast.  One second, they were in the boat and we were having a good time fishing.  The next, they were out of sight down the river.  I just still couldn’t get over the fact that they were gone, forever.

I didn’t know what I was going to do for the rest of my childhood, junior high.  Oh my, how was I ever going to get through junior high without my two best friends?  High school would be the same way.  We still had our fort in the grove that I could go hang out at, but with nobody.  I had put the baseball, which we caught at the game in a display case on a table in the fort, only now it had a Prince Fielder autograph on it.  It had a note just from Prince Fielder himself: “In memory of Tony and Jay, the two best friends you could have.” Which was then followed with an autograph.

…So I was feeling all down and sad still, even about a year after.  I know, people say that you just have to move on, but it was so incredibly hard to just forget about it. 

But one day, I was in my backyard, on a hot summer day, hitting a baseball over my garage.  I hit one over the garage to go get it.  When I got around the garage, there was a moving van in front of the house across the street.  Out stepped a boy who looked about my age.  I remembered what my mom had said, ‘you should try to make some new friends; you’ll never make it through school with no friends.’ So…

“Hey,” I shouted.

“Hi,” he yelled back to me.

I said to him, “What’s your name?”
            He looked at me and said, “Jay.”

“Cool,” I paused, “I’m Jake.”

My Life as a Baseball

My life starts when I'm

Ripped

out of a box or a bag

I'm then handed to the umpire

with about 4 others

We all patiently wait our turn

When the time comes

I'm tossed to the pitcher

The pitcher puts dust on me with his hands

He grips me tightly

Finally, my time has come to 

Shine

The pitcher sets 

and delivers

I feel the air rush by me

As I head for the plate

The bat swings

SMACK

I sail through the air 

over the field and the players

And into a mob of fans

I fall into one lucky fans

hands

I spend the rest of my life 

in a case

and on a

shelf

My Family Is...

My family is a good football team
     Who works well together
Dad is the quarterback
     Making great decisions
     And running the show
Mom is the offensive line
     Protecting all of the "players"
     With all her might
Tanner is the wide receiver
     Streaking through the maze of the secondary
     Giving the quarterback a place to go with the ball
Elli is the tight end
     Helping the quarterback by deflecting defenders
     Or scurrying out for a pass
And I am the running back
     Accepting responsibility from the quarterback
     And completing the circle of our "team"