The Technology of Baseball
Today, people value everything differently. Some people value moments higher than objects they own. Some people believe something is valuable only if it has a high price tag on it. Other people value the simplest things like getting up in the morning above the most expensive thing they own. Is there anything that everyone can agree on as the most valuable to them? Why is it so hard to determine the true value of something? Does everyone in the world have something that they value?
I’ve been sitting on the bench the whole game. My coach comes over to me at the end of the fifth inning and tells me he wants me to close out the game. I go to warm up while my team bats in the top of the sixth and that’s when I start to feel the pressure that I love so much. The pressure I feel whenever I go into a game to close it out.
It’s the bottom of the sixth and we’re ahead six to four. We need three outs to win the game. The first hitter comes up to the plate and I get him to fly out to right field on one pitch. One out. Now the second hitter comes up to the plate and he grounds out to second base.
My adrenaline is really starting to rush now, one more out and we win the game. There best hitter strides to the plate. He has gotten a hit every at bat during the game. I let my nerves get to me and I fall behind, two balls ad no strikes. I battle back and get the count to two balls and two strikes. I throw ball three. He asks for timeout and steps out of the box for a moment, then he gets back in and he’s ready for me to pitch. I get my sign from the catcher, he calls for a fastball. I wind up and throw the pitch. I throw it by him for strike three, we win the game!
I turn it on and I let it warm up. My laptop is on and ready to use. I go online to talk to my friends, read articles about current events, and do research for school. I turn on itunes and put on my favorite music. I love my laptop. It’s a Macbook that is a bright white.
I’ve never had a laptop before this, so I make sure to take good care of it. I enjoy having the laptop. It’s nice to be able to write papers and not have to stay in the same place, but I could just do the same things on my mom’s computer.
I like my laptop and I’m glad I have it, but I really could live without it. I enjoy having the ability to go and talk to my friends online, read about current events, and listening to music. My laptop is very valuable to me, but it isn’t priceless.
My memory of closing out that game allows me to travel back to that game in my mind and it reminds me of what it’s like to have pressure on you, and being able to thrive under it. The moments I remember most clearly about that game were when I first came into the game and how happy I was after I struck out the last batter and knew that I had just helped my team win the game. It reminds me of the butterflies I got in my stomach throughout the entire outing. There’s no other feeling quite like that it.
Some similarities between my laptop and my memory of closing out that game are that they are both things I love to do. I like them both because they both allow me to get my mind off everyday things. When I'm on my laptop talking to my friends and whenever I'm pitching, I don't think about anything else. They are different because I can put a price on my laptop, I can't put a price on my memory of closing out that game. If I had to place a price on my laptop, I would say it's worth about fifteen hundred dollars.
Everyone in the world has something they value. Some people value items higher, others value moments higher. The true value of something can almost not be determined because everyone has a different idea about how much a given item or moment is worth. There is probably nothing in the entire world that everyone values the same. Some people may say it’s worth more and some people say it’s worth less. It’s impossible to say that there’s something that everyone values because of what our society is like today, some people care more about material things, and other people care more about moments or something you can’t physically touch.
