Odinlo 1

Michael Odinlo
Professor Jackie
English 115
10 September 2014
Word Count: 1376
The Man on the Moon
My palms were sweaty and my hands were blistered full with callouses. The
sweat from my head was moistening my baseball hat, which was starting to irritate
me. The sweat on my back felt cold as the wind blew against it, but it still was not
enough to cool down. My cleats were dug into the ground and I was crouched
waiting for the pitch. It was the bottom of the ninth and bases were loaded at the CIF
Championship game, HMSA versus Animo game. 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 then 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 had thrown the ball into the bottom right corner, and Red swung
his glossy red bat. The bat looked like a streak of flame devouring the ball. The ball


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was sent flying straight to center right field. Our right fielder, Amir, was late on his
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. As I ran the ground below me was being lifted with 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 was blown off my head like a brown leaf off a
dying tree. The ball was falling and there was no way for me to catch it unless I dove,
I didnt want to lose; I couldnt lose. I placed my leather baseball glove out and dove
for the ball while trying to keep my eyes open. I looked liked a fish swimming up
water, my body was horizontal like I was lying on air.
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,
had been 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 players who had been playing baseball since they were
children. Most of us on the team 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 accomplishment for all of us who had been working so hard


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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.
In other Aviator related news, the baseball team had a semifinals match
against Washington yesterday at Alondra Park and won by an outstanding score of
8-2. The team will be playing in the finals two weeks from now, wish them luck
Aviators.
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
the win.
Wow, you guys actually won!
Great job guys.
Finally a sports team is doing good, keep up the good work guys.
Michael, you better win so we can get some parties going.
I was enjoying the compliments and attention that our classmates were
giving us until my friend Adam said,


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I cant wait to see that CIF trophy, and I for sure cant wait to wear that CIF
ring, you better not lose.
In my head I immediately thought lets not get ahead of ourselves. For the
finals 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 thought that 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 in the locker room I explained the pressure I was feeling to my
teammates and they told me that they felt it too. The 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 I told our coach about the
pressure we felt.
I told my coach, I feel like Im wearing a heavy coat from all this pressure the
team is getting to win, my body feels tense all over.
Our coach couldnt believe that we couldnt handle the pressure from our
school when he has seen us in tougher positions than a finals game. Coach gave us a
pep talk and reminded us that this was just another game.
Coach said, 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.


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The team headed out towards the field. As we stepped on the field and
headed to our dug out we looked over to our bleachers. The bleachers were packed
full will students from our school, parents, staff, and people from the school board.
The people in the bleachers were holding black posters with HMSA player names
and numbers written in white.
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. 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 caught the ball. I couldnt hear anything at
all. There were bodies on top of bodies all piled up on me. The umpire blew the
whistle, the game was over, and HMSA was now the CIF Champions of 2012.