On a Friday afternoon in Milwaukee Wisconsin the Brewers were facing their rivals the Cincinnati Reds. Have you ever been in a game winning situation and you either fail or succeed. If you were faced with a nervous situation would you be afraid or would you back down or be strong and take one for the team.
As a boy Greg Buthwood always dreamed of playing baseball in the big leagues. He would watch his favorite team the Milwaukee Brewers whenever he had the chance trying to pick up some pointers from the professionals. He would practice every day after school with his dad Phil Buthwood at the local park across the street from their house. His dad was a minor league pitcher and got called up to pitch in the major leagues. He accepted, but that game he wasn’t focused on accuracy he went for speed. In the fourth inning he dislocated his shoulder and had to leave the game. Greg always went roaming around the school telling his friends that his dad pitched in the major leagues.
As Greg grew older he became better and better at baseball. It wasn’t at pitching though, but he was the best center fielder on his team. Next year he was going into high school and he wanted to make varsity baseball as a freshman. He would be the first one to ever do that at Salanio high school.
He is now in high school and next week is tryouts. He has been practicing day in and day out. On his way to tryouts his dad pulls over and goes into the trunk of his car. Greg is confused by what is happening right now. When his dad got in the car he pulls out a baseball glove and says, “Son this is my glove that I wore in the game in the major leagues. I have been waiting for this day to give this to you and I wish you the best of luck. All you need to do out there is try your best and remember all the things we have been working on the past seven years.”
When Greg stepped on the field it hit him. The other boys were taking batting practice and he got hit right in the knee. He went down on the ground but came right back up because he knew that he couldn’t look like a wimp to the coaches. Coach Tulahuber (The varsity baseball coach) called everybody into a line and split them up into groups. The groups weren’t anything specific just those boys went from station to station. Greg’s first station was outfield. Greg was excited out of his mind because outfield was his best position and he wanted to start off impressing the coaches. Outfielding station worked by one kid stood in front of the line and the coaches would hit them fly balls. Greg was up his heart was pounding like Michael Jordan dribbling a basketball. The coach hits the ball it’s a deep one he is sprinting for the ball. He is almost out of breath when he dives and snags the ball in his glove.
Everybody in his group and the coaches started cheering for him except for the head coach. He felt good about everybody cheering for him but on the inside he thought he didn’t impress the varsity coach. Until everybody stopped cheering the varsity coach said, “Hey kid that was a heck of a catch.” Greg was stoked on the inside but calm on the outside.
After the tryouts coach Tulahuber pulled Greg aside and said that he would be happy to have Greg on his team. Greg was so happy when he got home he told his dad all about it. His dad also was so happy because he wanted his son to follow on his footsteps. Except don’t blow you arm out the first start he gets.
So Greg and his baseball team was getting ready for the first game of the season. That night before the game Greg gets a E-mail from the coach saying that he is not going to play pitcher but he will play center field. Gregg didn’t mind as long as he got playing time.
They won their first game 12-5. Throughout the season they had a winning record of 15-4. So they went on to the finals against their rivals the Diamond Devils. It was 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth. Greg was up to bat with two men on. Second and third base. He took the first two pitches which unfortunately turned out to be strikes. So the pitcher pitched the final ball and Greg knew it was his pitch. He waited back on it and drove it long into center field. It was very high in the air almost looked like it was going to hit the ceiling. Then when the ball didn’t come down he ran all the way home for the win. The umpires didn’t know what to do about the call so since he ran home without anybody tagging him they counted it as a homerun and the game was over
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