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Baseball Blues (A Story I Wrote) (NVGR)
ryanrab1 | 7:57 PM on 04.07.2008 25 comments


Just wanted to see what you all think.

“Ryan! Get over here,” my coach, Bill, deafly yelled at me.

Bill was a monstrous man; to an eleven year old child no taller than four feet, ten inches. He was as big as an elephant, and as tall as a giraffe. He had shamrock green eyes, and short straight hair that was as dark as the night sky. “I need you to win one for the team,” Bill told me, “You are after Jim, who is on deck, so get ready.”

I went over to the bat rack, to grab my bat. My bat was long, slender, black, and as shiny as a brand new car. As I grabbed the bat, I knew that I was going to win the game for my team. I looked out onto the freshly cut field, that had dew drops dripping from the short blades of grass, and I saw my teammate, Sean, who was up to bat; hit the ball into deep left field, and then he ran around the bases until he slid into third. With all the cries of joy in the dugout; it got as loud as a F14 Tomcat’s jet engines. We were only down by one run in the championship game, and we only had one measly out. I saw Sean get up from the slide; his red and white Philly’s uniform was now dirt brown. My teammate Jim went up to bat and I went on deck.

I put the shiny red, yet muddy, weights onto my bat and I started to take a few light swings. I stared at the umpire while I was swinging my bat. He was a short and plump man with a scowl on his face that could scare the dead. I guess he really didn’t like watching a bunch of eleven year old children play baseball. I turned around and looked at Jim just in time to see him strike out.

I was walking up to home plate, but as I came close to Jim I saw him holding back tears so I gave him a pat on the shoulder. He only said, “Thanks,” and then he kept on walking.
After that I walked up to home plate, which was covered in mud, and you could scarcely see it now. The plump umpire walked up to home plate, and dusted the plate off. Then he went back to where he was standing, and proclaimed to everyone sitting or playing, “Play ball!”

I took a few more swings, and then stepped into the batter’s box. I looked at the other team’s pitcher. He had on a green and white uniform, since he was on the Athletics team. He was staring at me intently; to where it almost looked like he would kill me just to win the game. He began his windup and then the ball left his hand, so it could not have been more than a second, and then I swung. “Strike one!” yelled the umpire.

I stepped out of the batter’s box, and took a few more practice swings. Then I stepped into the batter’s box once more, and I struck my bat onto the plate. I looked at the pitcher again, and he was still eyeballing me. He took a deep breath, and then he threw the ball as hard and as fast as he could. I reacted instantly and swung the bat. I had felt contact with the ball so I ran as fast as I could. I made it to first when the umpire yelled, “Foul ball.”
I was very depressed as I started to walk back to home plate. The ball had just been to the right of the line by about an inch. I stayed out of the batter’s box and took a few more swings. I looked over at Sean, who was still at third, and he mouthed to me, “You can do it!”

I stepped up to home plate, and looked at pitcher again. He still looked like he hated my guts. Then the catcher for the other team started chanting, “Hey batter batter … swing.”
I tried to ignore him, and I looked at the pitcher once more. He took another deep breath, and he hummed the ball towards home plate. I swung the bat with all my might, and then the umpire uttered those famous baseball words.



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20 comments | showing # 1 to 20

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ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
It never says anywhere in the rules that the post have to be about games. It's a blog I can write what I want.
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
It never says anywhere in the rules that the post have to be about games. It's a blog I can write what I want.
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
sorry about the double post
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
Well if you ever read the rules, it looks like you are breaking rule 1 and I'm following rule 2.

1. Don't haze or hate on new users (see Rule 5). Remember when you were new? Treat newcomers with the same respect we treated you. Please don't cause unneccesary drama -- Destructoid is a community, not a clique.

2. The Community Blogs are open to all user generated content with the exception of porn, homophobia, and racism; all of which will be removed immediately without consulting the poster beforehand. No questions asked. Expect a swift kick in the ass from our staff.
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
Oh look, you are also breaking rule 5.

5. Causing drama, being a negative douchebag, inciting spam wars in the comments and creating multiple accounts are also grounds for banning (etc).
Aerox's Destructoid Blog
Needs more cock guillotines
Pangloss's Destructoid Blog
9. Above all else: DON'T SUCK!

It says "Above all else" for a fuckin' reason.

Also, moar COCK GUILLOTINES
the GAMEGOBLIN's Destructoid Blog
At least add (NVGR) to the Blog title. It's common practice here at Destructoid to put NVGR to the title of the blog when it's not video game related. It helps.
Riser Glen's Destructoid Blog
I'm just popping in to say: Hey guys, I love you all.
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
Thank you "the GAMEGOBLIN' I wish somebody else could have been help full like you.
power-glove's Destructoid Blog
I would, also, suggest using an avatar. It helps identify you better as a member if the community. Put some info about yourself in your profile like what your favorite games are?, etc.
Seth338's Destructoid Blog
It may be okay to post non gaming stuff here, but your fiction will get a better reception on live journal or fanfiction.net. People will just ignore or flame you here.

Most forums have a writing board, why don't you look for a good forum?
vexed alex's Destructoid Blog
ಥ_ಥ

...Why?
Clockwork's Destructoid Blog
Needs more nudity.
Samit Sarkar's Destructoid Blog
Oh, stop hounding him, you bastards. He’s not spamming the c-blogs with fail.

ryanrab1, I’m one of the few outspoken sports fans on here (and wouldn’t you know it, baseball is my favorite sport). Plenty of people post stuff that isn’t videogame-related, so as long as you now know to put the NVGR tag on your posts, you should be fine.

As for the story itself, it was a good start, though I think you got wrapped up a bit too much in descriptive phrasing, which wasn’t always accurate or didn’t always make sense. (A jet fighter? Really? You could come up with a better simile than that, I think.) But if you don’t mind me asking, what grade level was this written for? (Or, what grade are you in?) Because that would make a huge difference in how people evaluate it. Keep up the writing!
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
Well I'm a Freshman, and for English II Honors
BluDesign's Destructoid Blog
@ryan

Or you could just ignore Reaprar like we all eventually do.

jk Reap, we love you.

Your story's okay, like Samit said, little heavy on the descriptiveness. You must read a lot of Stephen King. If so, I understand. You need to get past proper phrasing and work out sentences like you'd say to your friends or parents.

“You are after Jim, who is on deck, so get ready.”

rather, you'd say...

"Jim's on deck, you're next, so get ready.

You've already established order in your first part of the sentence, and then repeating yourself again in the second part. By mixing it up like above, you establish order, provide a narrative drive as to what's going to happen, and then wrap up by telling the reader what's about to happen to the main character.

The other thing that stands out as something you'd want to work on is:

"He began his windup and then the ball left his hand, so it could not have been more than a second, and then I swung."

I get what you're saying here, but it reads odd. You could probably pick out a dozen descriptive sentences to flesh out the "time elapsed" of the pitch.

Something like...

"He wound up, pitched, and in that single second that the ball left his hand I heard the crack of the catcher's mitt as I swung the bat across an empty home plate."

It's stuffing a bit more action than necessary into your "one second" of time elapsed, but it encapsulates the rapid sequence of events that elapsed in that one second.

It might be something that'd be best served to excise entirely because the story is about the batter and not about the pitcher at all. If you spend too much time humanizing and fleshing out every character in such a short time frame, we don't get much of a chance to connect with your central character.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled flaming...
BluDesign's Destructoid Blog
@ryan

Just remember, that no one's going to give you a better education in writing than writing yourself.

The rest comes out of your editor. It's their job to make your stuff palatable for publication.

Unless you're going into Journalism. Then get ready to be able to handle criticism no matter how good your writing is.

And yes, I know I just ended that sentence with a dangling participle.

:D
ryanrab1's Destructoid Blog
Thanks DVD for the feedback.
Char Aznable's Destructoid Blog
It's the Phillies, jackass.


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