Ryan Sliger, Period 8, 3/24/22

 Ryan Sliger, Period 8, 3/24/2022

One goal I have for myself right now, is to become a better baseball player.  As of March 1st, my final season of baseball at Staten Island Tech began, and I am determined to make it the best one ever.  One major reason I have for this goal is to fill the role of Captain that I was assigned last year.   In most sports being a captain does not only display leadership, as it also represents skill that someone had for the game. My goal is to become better not only for myself but also to benefit the team.   I would love to be able to be one of the star players who helps tech pull off one of many upsets this season, hopefully even landing us a playoff spot.  Overall, my goal to improve in baseball is one that I believe I will be able to accomplish between team practice everyday, self guided practice at home, and watching and analyzing film.

One way that I have shown perseverance towards this goal is battling through injury.  During one of our scrimmage games last week (Friday, 3/18) I noticed that my tricep started hurting while I was pitching.  Not wanting to leave the burden of the base runners that I allowed to get on base with anybody else, I persevered through the injury and wound up striking out the last two batters to end the inning.  Although I showed a bit of perseverance in that very moment, where my perseverance shined was in the days that followed.  Waking up Saturday morning my tricep was in the same pain as it was before, and I knew that I still had to go to my game that morning.  Once I arrived at the field I realized the severity of my injury as I was barely able to throw a baseball 90 feet, something I was able to do easily every other day at practice.  But still, I had no problems swinging the bat or fielding ground balls, so I decided to play through the pain.  I wound up playing very well making no errors in the field despite the pain in my arm.  After this game, we had Sunday off, and I was able to ice my arm to ease the pain.  Now Tuesday two days later the pain had nearly vanished, but those two games I displayed immense perseverance.

The world around me has a major effect on my perception of my goal.  One way I see this in everyday life is by seeing my teammates' reactions to what I do successfully in baseball.  I try to do this by lifting the mood of the team when someone gets a hit because when the mood is happier people tend to play better because they are more relaxed.  This will help me achieve my goal because when one person succeeds in front of you you are more likely to do the same.  Overall, I try my best to lift team spirits in order to help both myself and the team play better.