Essay about Literacy Narrative

Kyle Crifasi Richard English IV, 1B 31 August 2011 Literacy Narrative Typically, people think of reading when they see a novel or a short story, but I think of reading when I’m out on the baseball field. When I hear the word “reading”, unlike most people, I think of a green grassy baseball diamond at night, with the lights lighting it up, filled with fans in the stands. Believe it or not, I read all the time on the field. I read the ball coming off the bat when I’m playing in the field.
When I hear the “ding” of the metal bat and hard, rubber ball colliding, I know that there is a chance I could make a great play. I can see the ball getting bigger and bigger as in approaches me. I read the ball coming out of the pitcher’s hand, picking up the spin as soon as I can so I can know when and where to swing to make solid contact with the ball. I even read people’s body language when I’m pitching. I can tell a lot about the batter by how he’s standing and the facial expression on his face. Learning how to read all of these things took lots of practice and discipline.
Throughout the years, all of my coaches have stressed how important it is to react to what I see through my “readings”. I learned to read these things when I was just a little four foot tall, 60-pound kid. A bit after I started to learn how to read words on paper, I was learning to read on the field, too. I find the reading that I do on the field much more fun than reading a book or story. I believe that my love for baseball grew because I felt a connection with the type of reading it involved rather than the kind of reading done with books.

These readings are important to me so I can do my job and be the best player I can be on the field. When I’m at bat, I have to read the spin on the ball as it comes out of the pitcher’s hand as fast as I can so I can react with the perfect swing at the best time in the right location. If I don’t read it correctly or if a pitch fools me, I swing and miss. I’ll have to deal with striking out for the rest of the game until I get my next chance to show what I can do. When I’m in the outfield, my job is to catch anything that’s hit into my area.
I have to be able to read the ball right when it makes a connection with the opposing batter’s bat. I have to know how high its going, how hard its hit, which way it’s spinning, and which way the wind will blow it. If I read one of these things wrong, it could turn out to be bad for the team and embarrassing for me if I miss it. Coach Broussard would always tell me to look into the opposing batter’s eyes when I pitch. That intimidating look that a pitcher can give will really get in the batter’s head. He will be wondering hundreds of different thoughts before I throw the ball exactly where I want it.
I’m the one in control and he is just going through his mind trying to figure out, or guess, which pitch I’m about to throw him. After a couple pitches, when I have him right where I want him, I can play around with his mind even more. I can throw anything I want and I can even waste a couple bad pitches hoping he’ll swing and miss, just to make him look stupid. When I can read all of these things correctly, that’s when I can play the best and it’s because of my coaches and what they have taught me that have made me so great at “reading”.
Reading is important in my life not only on the field but in the classroom as well. Without learning how to truly read and write, I would not be able to accomplish anything in life. I remember when I first learned to read. I was about three years old and my mom would read books to me and I would follow along with her. She would read the books with the gold spines and they were always books that made me happy and I was always happy to read them.
I always enjoyed reading back then more than I do now. The books that I read now, I’m usually forced to read and they usually aren’t interesting to me. To me, reading means many things, not only the reading of text on a page but actions of others and myself as well. Most other people may not say that they will think of baseball games when thinking of how they read in real life, but I view the game of baseball that way and I like to share about how I can read in many different ways in life.
Reading books is definitely not one of my favorite hobbies to do, but every once in a while I will find a good book that will catch my interest for the next couple of months. My learning experience from reading on the field has taught me another meaning of literacy that I would not have realized if I had not thought about what reading really meant to me. I can now understand how I use reading in all different aspects of my life better, and not just in the classroom but throughout my everyday activities, like baseball. Words: 1000