Kind of a sports story

By Vince Alexander

            It happened more than 40 years ago. Still, I’ll never forget it. We were all sitting in the living room, and the telephone rang. It was a Little League coach. He called to tell my older brother that he was chosen to be a member of his baseball team. My mother had mixed feelings about the situation. She was happy for my brother, but she was wondering why I didn’t get a call.
            I was 9 years old at the time.
            “What about Vincent?” my mother said to the coach.
            The coach told my mother to wait because Vincent may get a call from a coach from another team. I didn’t get that call, but my mom’s words still burned in my memory:
            “What about Vincent?” she said.
            To this day, she’s the only person who calls me “Vincent.”
            I have since vowed that my mother will never have to vex about Vincent again. I tagged along to my brother’s first practice. The coach, Mr. Wynn, liked me. He told me that I could be his bat boy. I wouldn’t get a full uniform like the other players on the team, but I’d get to wear the team’s hat.
            That summer, I practiced hard with the team. During the team’s games, I lined up bats and helmets. I ran hard after every foul ball that went into the street or near the river behind the back stop.
            I knew the only reason I got cut was because I wasn’t prepared. I hung out with older kids, and I was always picked last in pick-up games because I was the youngest, and the baby of the bunch. So my mother wouldn’t have to worry about Vincent, I spent the summer practicing throwing, fielding grounders, catching fly balls, and hitting.
            The next summer, I was chosen by my brother’s team. I was 10, on a team with 9, 10, 11, and 12-year-olds. That year, I made the All-Star team, played center field and developed a reputation of having the strongest arm in the league. The word was, “Don’t run on Vince. Vince will throw you out!"
              Momma didn’t have to worry about Vincent again.

Note--As a teacher I try to model reading and writing by demonstrating my skills to my students. When I do this, I tell that if I can learn to do this--you can too. This story was inspired early one morning when I was teaching a lesson on memoir writing, hoping to get my students to share some of their memorable moments. The story was posted and read aloud on my Promethean board.