Why I Love Baseball

Cubs fans (I hope),

Thanks you for reading my inaugural blog entry for In From the Bullpen. You are probably wondering two things: who is this kid and why is he writing his first blog post instead of a final essay that is worth over a third of his grade?

To answer the first question, like Dan and Will I am a fellow sophomore at Notre Dame. From what I've gathered, my baseball career was pretty similar to theirs. From about age 10 I was a pure pitcher - I literally could not play any other position because I was not mobile and could not hit at all. This was acceptable so long as I threw hard, which I did until about 8th grade. I basically stopped growing freshman year, but I continued throwing nothing but heat and the occasional change-up. By sophomore year my neck was getting pretty sore from watching all the bombs I gave up, so I realized that I probably should learn to pitch and not just try to throw the ball past people. I became a true garbage pitcher, mixing in an average fastball between entirely too many slow curveballs for the rest of my high school career.

Now that I've told you a little about my life in baseball, why have I decided to blog today? As a good friend of mine Michael "Squints" Palledorous once said, "I've got a lot of things of my mind." Between finals, dealing with the fact college is almost half over, the Cubs sucking, and troubles with the sex that plays softball, I've had a lot on my plate recently. To be honest, it has really made me miss baseball.

Looking back, there is seriously no better feeling the world than standing on that mound and starring the guy in the batter's box in the eyes while thinking to yourself "heres my best, I dare you to hit it." It's a feeling that truly defies explanation. You would think that pitching is full of pressure, but for me there is nothing I feel more comfortable doing. The mound was a place where I could go and know that all of my problems, whatever I was dealing with in my life, would stay on the other side of the chalk. Sometimes what I did on that mound went well and other times it didn't. But even when I pitched terribly, I always wanted another opportunity to get back on the bump. It honestly sucks that other than a few times on the dorm team, I will never have that opportunity again. But life goes on. I'll find new things to do, probably golf some more. At times like this, though, I miss being on the mound and having nothing to think about but getting the guy out. Turns out the real world isn't always that simple.

Speaking of which, I should probably get working on that essay of mine. Thanks for reading my first post and good luck to everyone on finals