Coach Nestled along the Massachusetts shore, lined with oaks that may have seen the arrival of the first Americans, there is a quaint baseball park, bordered only in the outfield by a thatched wooden fence and some pines. The Pawtucket Pawsox of the Cape Cod League call this unique sanctuary home. Today is a Friday evening. The sun slowly pulls the last traces of orange from the sky, and the sky scraping light towers illuminate a 6 foot 4 inch right-hand er, made only taller by the Georgia clay mound. Like most in the minor leagues he is a fighter and a worker. He is far from home and at the climax of a magical journey of a career.
Reaching local stardom at an early age, Aaron Knieper pitched in all of the big games. He pitched in all of the not-so-big games too. People could see the potential that this lanky kid from Saginaw, Michigan possessed. As he piled up innings in his youth, they only contributed to more to his experience but were slowly taking their toll on his meal ticket, his arm. Aaron was still careful about his health, but youth often disguises ignorance. As his body matured, it ceased to stretch in ways it had before, and his workload drastically increased upon being drafted by the Boston Red Sox out of college.
Now he was playing for a job. Then, one fateful day everything changed. It was his elbow. And there it all ended.
Most young athletes dream of becoming professionals, but those dreams almost always end at or before the college level. It is a major disappointment for those who are told that they are not good enough to play anymore, yet Aaron was. He had almost reached the show and it killed him inside. He wasn’t ready to let anyone tell him that his career in baseball was over. His stubborn pursuit of a dream, which had carried him this far, would now have to change with no hope of returning to professional baseball. He went back home and spent some much missed time with his mom and sister, for his father had passed away when he was young.
The Essay on Home Run Baseball Game One
'It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again. And it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings. And then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone.' ; A. Bartlett Giamatti, the former commissioner of Major League Baseball. From the lush, green grass to the smell of an old leather glove, ...
Most of time was spent relaxing in front of the television pondering what to do next. Aaron had never had a “real” job and did not even finish college. It was then that he decided to follow his passion, baseball. The baseball world is a close-knit community in which Aaron was a fairly big name. He had friends in high places. He first went to the man who was like a father to him.
Steve Jak sa was his high school and college baseball coach. Steve always knew Aaron as the kind of person who would work with his teammates on fundamentals and the mental approach to the game. He believed that with these attributes Aaron would make an excellent coach. Coach Knieper now needed a team.
He eventually found a team comprised mostly of 16 year-olds and coached them to the National Amateur Baseball Federation World Series one year later. He, as well as his players, was learning new things. Because he had found his new passion, he jumped on an opportunity to open a baseball school in Wixom. He had finally found a “real” job. Some days he finds himself dreaming of the old Cape Cod league. It’s now the ninth and the Pawsox are up by a couple.
He has retired the first two batters on infield ground balls and has the third down in the count 0-2. From the mound he looks out toward the ocean, gazing across it as Odysseus looked at the Mediterranean across the bow of his ship, not knowing what fate had planned. But somehow he had a secure feeling that someone is watching out for him and everything will turn out fine in the end. Then, with all of his effort, he and fate delivered his final pitch. Strike three.
