Louisville When I think of an American symbol, the first thing that I think of is the baseball bat which is manufactured in Louisville, Kentucky. The sport of baseball is known as America’s pastime and has become a symbol for this country. Plenty of other countries have adopted the sport, but Louisville, Kentucky remains the oldest manufacturer. These are more than just bats, they symbolize a culture of people coming together for a game whose roots can be tied closely to American history. In my own experience with baseball as a child, I remember the scent, the sound, and the scene. I will never forget the breaking bats and runners rounding the bases. I still remember my first Louisville slugger. My first Louisville slugger was my first wooden bat, this set me apart from the other children who were still using aluminum bats. My father had told me that if I was going to play “big league ball” then I would have to get used to the feel of pine between my hands. For me, it is not just a bat it is a symbol of how taking the easy way out only may work for a short period of time. It reminds me that hard work pays off in the long run because after practicing thoroughly with a wooden bat I switched to aluminum and barely missed a pitch.
My first bat taught me a lesson about hard work. I can remember being outside everyday and practicing my hitting technique. Some people might say that my father pushed me to succeed in playing, but that wasn’t the case. To tell the truth, it was my first experience with something that I really enjoyed and wanted to work at. Without realizing it, I had become quite good at hitting because of my own enthusiasm for the sport. In this case, the bat represented the desire to become a better player and willingness to work towards that goal.
Through difficult times, baseball has pitted people against each other in a healthy rivalry and has united fans of a certain ball club with hopes of their team winning a pennant. Through a depression and many wars, baseball has never ceased to exist. Still today, we find ourselves rooting for and against teams in order for our hometown heroes to have life in the playoffs. We stand behind our teams whether we are cheering them on to win the last four of a seven game series or we are looking forward to next year. The game of baseball is one notion a person can count on to be steady in life.
The fact is that children look up to professional athletes and their ambitions become filled with playing a certain sport professionally and being just like that athlete. The baseball bat isn’t like a professional athlete, but it is something that fills children with ambitions of being a professional baseball player. The Slugger represents children having fun doing something that will help them in the future. It represents athletes struggling to play a sport that they have loved since they were young. The freedom of playing a pickup game on the street when you have an hour before dinner and just having the feelings of wanting more is portrayed. It represents the hopes of children everywhere that one day they could be on the same field that they grew up watching from the stands. It gives a child the chance to escape into an apparently perfect world of the game. Even in little league, children are taught disciplines that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. To this day I have found that gripping a Louisville slugger makes me feel empowered and able to accomplish any obstacle. It has something to do with the world I was caught up in as a child in which nothing bad could happen except to swing and miss.
I’m sure there are many people who have memories of their first bat. After the awkward stage of learning how to swing a bat, one is left with the feeling of a natural swing and stride that is unique to each person. No two people have exactly the same stance and swing which is a way to show how being different in any form doesn’t mean success