Diary of Jack Griffin | Aspiring MLB Catcher

[WWF80sKid]

Jack Griffin
Catcher
Bats: R
Catches: R
@JackTheCatcher

Ever since I was a kid, baseball was everything to me. I would go outside and I'd practice swinging my bat, throwing the ball, and sliding. Every kid loved to slide. What was better than getting all dirty?!

As I got older, that was all I knew. If I had a bad day, I'd go to the batting cages, or pass with a friend. When I had a girl dump me, I'd do the same. When I got in trouble with my parents I'd lock myself in my room and watch baseball on TV.

And now here I sit, graduation day. High school baseball is over, and although I'm only 18 years old I know that within the next few days, my phone is going to ring and I'm going to get the phone call that every aspiring Major League Baseball player wishes for. Don't get me wrong, I'm not cocky. But I've been the best damn catcher that Tipp City has ever seen. I don't let people steal bases. I throw them out. I don't let people slide into home when I have the ball. I tag their *** out. My high school coach has already spoken with many MLB recruiters. I'm good enough to not only take the next step, but to immediately leap that next step and go to the majors! But who is going to pick me up? Who is going to pay me to be their newest catcher?

My name is Jack Griffin. And this is my journey.

[WWF80sKid]

In junior high, I was still a pretty scrawny kid. Got made fun of a lot for liking professional wrestling, and keeping to myself. I played baseball, but went from position to position, not really feeling at home at any given place. I even dabbled in pitching, but immediately knew it wasn't for me.

In eighth grade I tried a catcher glove on, and I loved it. I'm not sure why, even to this day, but I loved that glove. An older kid told me, "if you like that glove, try on the mask". So I did. And loved it.

From then on, I knew what Position I wanted. But Shawn, a kid that was also in the eighth grade, was already a catcher. And had been since his little league days. No way I'd be able to take his catching job.

I decided to let the coach know how interested I was at catching anyway. Worst thing he'd say is no. Then I'd go home and play XBox. One of our pitchers, Jonathan, was a good friend of mine. I figure he may be able to put a word in for me. Coach took it into consideration, but I wasn't sure if he'd actually pull the trigger and let me try it out or not.

Eventually at one of our practices, he let me try it out. Jon was the pitcher, so I figured that was a factor. We had a kid on first, and he went to steal second. I popped to my feet, fired the ball to second, and he was out by a mile. I put the ball right where the second basemen needed it.

The coaches were quiet. "Let's try that again," one of them said, finally breaking the silence.

We went through the scenario a couple of times, even putting Pedro, our fastest player, on first base. No matter what, I threw them out. I could tell they were impressed. And I could tell Shawn didn't like the throws I was making. But I didn't care one bit.