Odinlo 1

Michael Odinlo
Professor Jackie
English 115
10 September 2014
The Man on the Moon
My palms were sweaty and my hands were blistered full with callouses. The
sweat from my head was making my baseball hat was moist, which was starting to
irritate me. The sweat on my back felt cold as the wind blew, but it still was not
enough to make me cool down. My cleats were dug into the ground and I was
crouched waiting for the pitch. It was the bottom of the ninth bases loaded at the CIF
Championship game HMSA versus Animo game and I was playing center field. The
audience was standing and yelling for both sides, but in my mind it was completely
silent. The cleanup hitter was stepping up to the plate, he was a 62 Hispanic that
everyone called Red, because of his reddish hair. Just by one glance at Red you could
see that he was used to these types of situations, but so was my pitcher, Antonio.
Red took his batting stance and was ready to swing his signature glossy red metal
baseball bat. Antonio looked at the catcher, Sergio for the sign, nodded and entered
his pitch. Antonio brought his left foot up as high as he could and brought it back
down while pitching to get all the momentum he could. The ball was travelling at
least 90 miles per an hour, but in my mind it looked like it was travelling in slow
motion. Antonio has thrown the ball into the bottom right corner. Red swung his
glossy red bat and it looked like a streak of flame devouring the ball. The ball was
sent flying straight to center right field. Our right fielder, Amir, was late on his

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reaction so there was no way for him to get it, but I wasnt. I heard the clink sound
on the bat and from the pitch I already knew the balls course. My cleats were
digging into the turf and as I ran the ground below me was being lifted for each step
I took. I felt like I was running in slow motion. I could see everything I saw the ball
falling from the sky, the butterflies flying around on the grass, and I could even see
the little fruit flies in the air. My hat flew off, The ball was falling there was no way
for me to catch it unless I dove, I didnt want to lose, I couldnt lose. I dove for the
ball I placed my glove out, and tried to keep my eyes open. I looked liked a fish
swimming up water, my body was horizontal in the air like I was lying on air. I hit
the turf hard and slide at least a couple of feet. My arm was cut up and there was
blood on my face.
Before I share the results of what happened after I dove for the ball let me
share the events that led up to the game. The HMSA Aviators, the team I played on,
was barley created two years before my freshman year. The team had grown so
much in such a short amount of time. We managed to move up several divisions in
only five years. It made sense why everyone in the school from parents to staff to
students were so proud of the team. A couple of weeks before the final, the day we
won the semifinals match, the team was already celebrating like we had won the
finals. Everyone on the team really didnt expect to make it this far since our division
was full of such great baseball players who had been playing baseball since they
were children. Most of us on the team had all started playing baseball our freshman
year, but we got the hang of it by our senior year. For us to make it pass the
semifinals of a CIF tournament was a huge accomplish for all of us who had been

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working so hard to learn how to play baseball. Since our freshman year we never
really had that many people come watch our games because we attended a little
school. HMSA, our school, didnt own a baseball field for us to practice on or play our
games so we had to rent the park field. Most of the people that came to watch our
games were parents and relatives. At most we would get five students to come
watch our games. This turnout kept on happening even though we made it all the
way to the semifinals. The next day after the semifinal game, the win was announced
through the intercoms to everyone in the school that the baseball school was going
to be playing in the finals for a championship. I was in class at the time when they
announced the scores, and the reactions of the people around me were priceless. I
went to a very small school so the students and staff werent use to big things such
as a sports team actually winning a championship. Everyone frantically ran over to
Antonio and I to congratulate us on our win, but then they started saying things like
I cant wait to see the CIF trophy and the CIF championship rings. In my head I
immediately started thinking lets not get ahead of ourselves, we would have to play
Animo for the championship and theyre a huge high school. Huge high schools
always have the advantage in sports because their teams are always filled with so
many talented athletes for specific jobs. Through the next couple of weeks everyone
was constantly putting pressure on not only me, but my teammates as well. At first I
though us making it to the finals alone was an accomplishment in itself, but after
getting pressured for a couple of weeks I felt like I had to win or something terrible
would happen to me and those around me. The day before the game I explained the
pressure I was feeling to my teammates and they told me that they felt it too. The

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team didnt know how to go about it either, because we had never played in a
championship game either. The morning of the game after we watched some tape
we told our coach about the pressure we felt. Our coach couldnt believe that we
couldnt handle the pressure from our school when he has seen us been in a lot
more tougher positions than a finals game. Coach gave us a pep talk and reminded
us that this was just another game and if we went through the motions that we
practiced for years that there would be no problems, sometimes things happen in
your favor sometimes they dont.
I lifted my glove up and all I saw was Amir running at me at full speed, and
he jumped on me. My mind was blank, more and more people kept running at me,
but I didnt realize I had caught the ball yet; I couldnt hear anything at all. There
were bodies on top of bodies all piled up on me. The game was over we were the CIF
Champions of 2012.