The Battle Of A Lifetime (Final Draft)

So, last night I went to a baseball game. It started at 7:00 P.M. and lasted for three hours, and since we live an hour away from the ballpark, I went to bed very late. That meant that it didn't have time to finish my last player article (I have two that are almost done, but none ready for publication). Instead, while I work on my regular posts, I will publish a real assignment that I wrote in high school for my grammar class. 

JMJ AMDG 

Damien 

Grammar 9

Due Date 

Word Count: 1,702  

The Battle Of A Lifetime (Final Draft) 

Madison Posey was born in Alamo, California, on August 9, 1969, with a major disability. His left arm was much thinner than his right, and it had no hand. At the end of young Madison’s left arm was one small finger. His left arm was basically nonfunctional for his whole life. He had to overcome a lot of hindrances to make a statement and find success, but his courage and fortitude carried him up and above the others. Let us see how his story unfolds. 

Madison Posey, as we have already mentioned, was born in Alamo, California, around fifty years ago with a severe disability. His parents tried their hardest to give him a normal life, but the kids in his neighborhood made fun of him, calling him horrible names such as “Stumpy” and “Claw.” These names he minded, but he didn't get into fights or anything. He knew that he was special and that he could live a very successful life. He did well in school, but he wanted more than anything to be a great baseball pitcher. Everybody else played ball, so if he was good, he thought, he might prove them wrong when they said that he wasn’t special. Then he’d never be called names again. There was one small predicament that he had to face, however - how could you field and throw with just one hand? Madison would spend hours bouncing a racquetball against the wall of his parents’ garage, trying to field the ball with his right hand, put his glove in the crook of his left arm, and make the throw with his right hand. He did this for many years, moving closer and closer to the wall as he got faster, until he was as fast as greased lightning. His coach caught sight of Madison and saw a potential star in him. He made his school’s varsity team when he was still a freshman and earned the opening day start against the rival high school. The star on the opposing team, twelfth grader Big Bill Brown, said that he’d homer in every plate appearance against Posey. “He doesn't have any skills,'' he said before the game. Instead, Posey threw a no-hitter and struck out Big Bill Brown all three times he came up to the plate. After the third strikeout, he yelled at Brown, saying, “How about that for a homer? I didn’t even see it leave the park.” At this Brown threw his bat to the ground and his batting helmet against the dugout wall. Since Brown couldn’t keep his mouth shut, he also received a rigging in the locker room. Most thought that Posey’s no-hitter was a fluke and that the competition would pass him up in no time, but Madison, his parents, and the coach didn’t have any doubts about what this young pitching prodigy could do. 

When he reached twelfth grade, Posey was one of the finest high school players in the state. When he was not pitching, he would play in the outfield, and ended the season going 10-1 on the mound and batting .427 at the plate. Not bad for someone with only one hand to hold the bat. He graduated high school in 1986 and spent four years at Christendom College in Virginia, continuing to play baseball. In 1990 he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants right out of college, which brought him great joy. He lived only ten minutes away from Candlestick Park and loved watching the Giants. He was called up to the club in 1992 and became an instant fan favorite in the Big Leagues, winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award that season. This instant publicity made him cocky. For example, when his manager congratulated him for winning the Award, Posey replied, “I knew that I would win it since opening day.” He was one of the best pitchers in America - the best, he thought - so he could do anything and could strike out anyone. One day after the season he was invited to a press conference to discuss his fabulous rookie campaign. Okay, he wasn’t really invited - if one refuses to come to one of these, he gets fined heavily and receives a bad word from the press. At any rate, he went to the press conference. That very night, he experienced the shock of a lifetime - Big Bill Brown, the kid who had hated him the most, walked up to him and asked him rude questions that had to do with his few mistakes. Apparently he was still sore from the high school game, and he wanted to do all in his power to make life miserable for Posey. Well, Brown said some other things to him that were pretty mean and, frankly, unnecessary, which caused Posey to lose his temper. He pushed Big Bill Brown to the ground, calling him a “big smelly ape”, which made Posey look bad in front of the press. Brown tried to attack Posey but the reporters broke up the fight before it got out of hand (funny, the reporters usually don’t want to spoil a good story at any cost, but I guess times were different back then). When they both calmed down, Brown was still pretty upset, and he made a $10,000 bet with Posey that he’d be out of the Majors by the end of the 1993 season. Posey, not about to look like a chicken in front of his hometown San Francisco, accepted the bet with pleasure. For the next few months the San Francisco press was on fire. 

On opening day in 1993, Madison Posey was nervous. He was getting the start against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers. It didn’t help that Big Bill Brown was a big time Dodgers fan. It didn’t help that a reporter reminded him of the bet that he had accepted at the press conference. It didn’t help that, in his nervousness, he spilled grape juice all over his jersey and needed to get it dry cleaned, which made him late and made his manager a little squirrely. Posey struggled through the first couple of innings but pulled it together after that, reminding himself that it was just a game, and ended up winning. This calmed him down. He ended up finishing the season with a 2.55 ERA (earned run average, ER x 9 / IP) to go along with 18 victories. He finished third in the Cy Young Award voting. Posey ran into Brown at Dodger Stadium on the last day of the season, when he beat the Dodgers for the NL West Division Title. Big Bill held his head down when he heard Al Rosen (the Giants’ General Manager) praise Posey and offer him a large contract extension for the 1994 season. Even if he wasn’t getting paid any good money he wouldn’t have asked Big Bill for the $10,000. Posey figured that Brown was living tough enough and decided in his heart to forgive him and to apologize for pushing him if he ever got the opportunity. Fat chance, he thought, like that would ever happen. 

All in all, Posey had a pretty good career as a pitcher, to say the least. He retired at the close of the 2010 season at the age of 41. Posey had gone 251-173 (.592) on the mound with a 2.97 ERA, spending the entirety of his illustrious career with the Giants. In 2016, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on his second ballot. When he was about to make his speech, he noticed Big Bill Brown among the cheering crowd. He wasn’t screaming his name, as hundreds of others were, but simply clapping his hands with a small grin on his face. At this, Posey stammered and stuttered. He couldn’t make his speech. After he finally got something out, “Thanks...”, he immediately came down from the stand and ran up to Brown. He asked, “What are you doing here, Bill? I thought you hated me.” “That was then,” replied Bill, “This is now. I’m a changed man. I feel deep remorse over how I have treated you. You see, I became friends with somebody. He seemed to have deep internal peace. I asked him why he was so happy, and he said that he had the life of Christ in his soul. He told me all about Jesus Christ and I felt a deep hunger for truth. He also told me that Christ wanted us to love our neighbors as ourselves, which got me thinking about how I treated you. I was baptized into Catholicism last year and quickly made a confession. Now, before I forget, here’s your ten thousand bucks.” Posey refused the money, saying that he already had “a couple hundred of those at home” and they shook hands. Posey apologized for pushing him back in 1992, and Bill forgave him. To this day the story of Madison Posey, as much for his courage in the face of scorn as for his Hall of Fame pitching, is cherished in the hearts of men and women everywhere. The best part was that he was never called an unkind name since the press conference. 

What’s True And What Isn’t 

Madison Posey is a fictional character. The real 1992 NL Rookie of the Year was Eric Karros. His name comes from MLB players Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey, who both debuted in 2010 for the Giants and are on their way to stardom. He is based on Jim Abbott, who was born in 1967 with the same disability except for the fact that he has his left arm intact, not his right. Abbott threw a no-hitter in his first little league start, did field as described, and did make the Major Leagues as a pitcher. Abbott made his Big League debut in 1989 for the Anaheim Angels. While he was inspirational, not to mention good, he is not in the Hall of Fame. He retired from baseball in 1999. Today he is a motivational speaker. Everything else is fiction, just the imagination of the author going to work. 

The End