Winning=Ice Cream

One of my goals for this entry is to tell a story from my childhood with as much detail as I can remember and have the reader fully understand the story line.  Since it is a narrative I will try to make it as interesting as possible for my audience, my English classmates.  Also, so I don’t lose their interest, I will try to stay on subject throughout the entire story.

 

It’s the bottom of the last inning, there’s one out, the bases are loaded, we’re down by three runs and our undefeated season is on the line.  Luckily though, the second best hitter on our little league team is up and not me.  I was anxiously hoping that he would end the game right there with a grand slam and I wouldn’t have to deal with the pressure having the outcome of the game rest on my shoulders.  But that was not to be the case as he eventually struck out, bringing me to the plate with two outs and zero hope of winning.

I nervously shuffled out to the batters’ box and looked down towards our third base coach praying he would somehow enable me to get a hit.  Yet, all I received from him was a mere “Get in there Jon” and two claps of his hands.  “Thanks coach” I thought to myself as I tapped my bat on home plate and took my stance.  There were many thoughts running through my head as I stood facing the twelve-year-old giant that was about to hurl a baseball towards my small ten-year-old body.  My primary concern was for my own health and safety because the last thing I wanted to happen was to get hit with an object that was travelling as fast as a car on the highway.  This fear forced me to back away from the plate a few inches.  The pitcher then released the ball and when it got around half way to home plate I suddenly remembered something important, I had to swing!

As quickly as I could, I managed a pathetic looking swing that was atleast a second late.  The kids on the other team started to chuckle as my teammates in the dugout sighed and started to put their equipment away.  This only made me more nervous as I took my stance again and got ready for the next pitch.  “Don’t screw up, idiot,” I thought to myself as the pitcher started his windup.  I couldn’t get the thought of me striking out and letting down my entire team out of my head.  The second pitch came in and I swung as hard as I could at the ball but the outcome was no different than my first attempt.  “Strike Two!” yelled the umpire as if it was a countdown to my impending failure. 

I stepped away from the plate to take a few practice swings and saw someone in the stands eating an ice cream cone.  This triggered my memory that every time we won a game the coach would take us out for ice cream.  I had gotten the same thing all thirteen times we celebrated a victory that season, two scoops of cookie dough ice cream in a cup.  I began to imagine myself eating my favorite post-game snack.  I could almost taste the vanilla ice cream on my tongue and feel the cookie dough chunks, my favorite part of the ice cream, melt the longer they were in my mouth.  That imaginative thought of the ice cream gave me some much needed ambition and drive to get a hit and win the game.  I stepped back into the batters’ box with authority and took my stance for the third time as I got ready for the pitch.  Time seemed to slow down as the ball flew closer to the plate and I barely swung the bat and the ball exploded over the first baseman’s head and out into right field.  I began to run as fast as I could around the bases and ended up at third with a triple and realized the game was tied.  The next batter hit a single and I scored the winning run and got the game ball for being the MVP of the game.  Being recognized by my teammates and coaches as being most valuable was a great feeling but it wasn’t as good as the cookie dough ice cream I ate a short time later.

 

As I read back over my narrative I think I did include a good amount of details in the story and made it fairly interesting for the reader.  As far as staying on subject it wasn’t that hard because the story really flows and I think I did a good job of not getting sidetracked.