FitzPatrick,+Seamus


 * Winter/Spring 2011 Mr. Dunne **

** A Pre-Game Warm-up **

What do sports mean to you as an athlete and as a fan? Sports have been a huge part of my life both as an athlete and as a fan. As an athlete, I have played baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and hockey. No matter which sport it was, there was always a feeling of competition that is unlike anything else in the world. My best sport has always been baseball since I can remember and is the only sport that I still play and means the most to me. Sports have taught me to lose as a team and not blame an individual for a loss. As a fan, I find myself watching just about every Celtics and Patriots game as well as the Red Sox and Bruins, just not as much. Although baseball is my favorite sport to play I have trouble watching it, maybe because of the slow speed that makes it unique. I can say that I have attended at least one Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, and Revolution game. My early stages as a fan were mainly with the Red Sox, having attended countless games in my life. Being a sports fan has also been my main source of literature throughout my life. I am definitely not a big reader, but when I am free reading I can guarantee it is a sports novel or magazine.

What has been your with youth sports? Describe your best and worst experiences. As a youth I played baseball, basketball, football, soccer, and hockey. Baseball with out a doubt has been the most important to me and has accounted for my best and worst experiences. My worst experience was ending my 12-year-old Williamsport summer league team with a strikeout. There was so much pressure on me to keep the game alive that I couldn’t remain focused and got fooled by a curveball more than I ever have before. I had finished my swing long before the ball was in the catcher’s mit and knew what had happened before anyone else; it was like a pause in time. I would have never guessed he would throw a curveball but after it was over it appeared so obvious. I can remember just standing in the batter’s box while the other team celebrated at the pitcher’s mound and not knowing what to do. Immediately after shaking hands with the other team I grabbed my bag and walked out to the car with my head down, ignoring all the “it’ll be ok” and “don’t worry about it” encouragement the parents tried to give me as I walked off. My best experience came this past summer when I hit a 300-and-something foot triple in a playoff game and helped us get a come from behind victory and keep our season alive. Going into the 6th inning the score was 4-1. After that inning was over we had a 6-4 lead and shut them out in the top of the 7th to win. I had been struggling very much that season with hitting and that was exactly what I needed to get my confidence back up. That was the first time in a while I had been the hero in a sports game.

Do athletes make good role models? Identify one or two professional athletes to make your case. I think athletes make good role models because so much is expected of them and they must live up to those expectations at the very least and then set an example for all of the aspiring athletes. Nomar Garciaparra is a great role model because he was a superstar both on and off the field. Before his potential career ending groin injury, Nomar was an All-Star and fan favorite in Boston. If you looked in the crowd at one of his games at Fenway Park, the majority of Red Sox shirts around the stadium had number 5 on the back. He was a role model to me because I attended his camp when I was younger. During the summer when most every baseball player was focusing on themselves, Nomar was doing that and also taking time out of his day to run a camp and talk to us kids every day we were there. While most of the kids at the camp were just awestruck at the thought of meeting Nomar, I somehow fought off my A.D.D. to really listen to what he was saying about become a better player and a better person. Unlike most athletes with the amount of talent he had, he was extremely humble so I could relate to him and his lessons. I am really glad I listened to what he had to say instead of playing with my bat or glove like most of the other kids because that kind opportunity is very rare and if someone that famous and that good at what they do wants to give you advice, I would advise you to take it.

What sports/teams do you pay attention to the most? How much time do sports occupy in your life? How do you spend that time (attending, watching, reading, talking, participating)? As an athlete I pay attention to baseball the most because I continuously try to get better. As a fan I pay attention to the Celtics and Patriots the most both because the sport they play is fun to watch for me and I take a liking to many of the players on both teams. Sports occupy a great deal of time in my life. It would be very difficult to find a time in my life where sports were not of concern 24/7. I do all of the activities above: attending, watching, reading, talking, and participating. I would say nowadays I spend the majority of my time watching sports and talking about it with people. As school went on and my interest in reading went down due to the non-appealing required books, the amount of time spent reading sports novels and magazines declined. I find this unfortunate because I used to get extremely excited when a Sports Illustrated or ESPN magazine got delivered in the mail. My dad has since canceled the subscriptions to those magazines and I haven’t really thought of re-subscribing until now. With watching sports, I have found that now that I have a laptop I have trouble paying attention to games on TV, sometimes because I am talking about the game I am watching online instead of actually watching it. I discovered that watching a game with friends is much more fun and I am much more attentive if I can yell/talk about every play with someone who is there with me.

What sports-related issues would you be disappointed //not// to cover in this class? Why? I would be disappointed not to cover the steroid issue in baseball in this class. This is because it was the main topic in the news and everyone in America’s conversation around the time Jose Canseco released his book __Juice__ and when accused players were in court which could be seen on live TV. This was time where sports had taken over the news and every story wasn’t about a death or crime. The class is called Sports and Society and the steroid issue made sports a huge impact on society.