A specific paragraph in this book really stuck with me after I read it. This paragraph was a quote from umpire Mike Everitt, who spoke about the effects of working in the postseason.
“In these games you definitely have a different mentality… The regular season is a physical grind, but the postseason is a total mental grind. It’s such a confined, concentrated experience. You know it’s going to end, but the pressure is just so intense” (289-290).
This paragraph stuck with me mainly because it reminded me of the experience of final exams in school. With final exams, they seem to be like the postseason of the school year. During the regular school year, you’re learning many new things. All year, however, you are preparing for the final exams at the end of June. After the exams, the year is over, and you have summer vacation before you come back in September.
In baseball, you have the regular season, which are all the normal games. These are to prepare the teams for the postseason in October. October begins the postseason, which is much more competitive than the regular season. Once you have the postseason and the World Series, the teams have a break for the winter, and come April, they start all over again.
For umpires, the regular season, as stated, has its physical toll, but it’s not until the postseason that the real pressure begins. Teams also feel pressure in the postseason, but it seems to be worse for the umpires, who are in charge of keeping order. The umpires directly influence the outcomes of games, but they cannot be favorable to either team. This is similar to teachers, who influence students while teaching them, but cannot give them all the answers to everything.
I also enjoyed the wording of this paragraph because I felt like I could relate to it, as a student. While I understand that umpire pressure is worse, I feel like I can relate because I face many pressures as a student in high school, whether they be academic, social, or others.
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