Discourse Community Analysis: The Baseball Community

Baseball truly is America’s greatest pastime. Baseball is an amazing sport and a game that can teach individuals so many incredible life changing lessons and qualities. Baseball builds unity and brings people of all ages and types together for the love and passion of the game. Young men and all humans can learn good leadership qualities and characteristics as well as good traits that will improve any and all people, which is exactly what it has done for me. Through my life I grew into and became a part of the baseball community and I want to share how I became a part of this amazing community. I am very thankful for the role baseball has played in my life and how it has helped me to grow and shape me into the person I have become. I have played sports my whole life and I enjoy many sports but for many reasons baseball is by far my favorite and it has been since I was a very young child. I believe that sports can teach and develop people young and old in many different aspects and for me baseball has played a very large roll in my life. It has helped me to build and create new relationships and improve relationships I already have. I have become a better human being and I have developed better life skills through baseball and those individuals who are a part of the baseball community.

By beginning to love and play baseball when I was very young, I was able to join this community easier than many others, especially those who may try to join at an older age. I have loved baseball for as long as I can remember and that was the start of my process and journey of becoming a part of this community. The first requirement for joining a discourse community is to share a common interest or goal and because I was born with this love I had already accomplished that. While I believe I was born into this community some may say it is something that happens over time. I knew I was going to play baseball throughout my life I was determined to become a part of this community. In order to join I knew I had to learn as much as I could about the game so began to play with my family and more specifically my dad. I started by learning the basics of the sport from my dad. He would explain all the rules while we watched whatever baseball game was on the tv. I would also pick up on little things as I watched and listened to the announcers and as I got old enough to join a league that exactly what I did. Even though I believe I was born and I grew up into this community others might protest and say when I joined a team is when I actually became a part of the community either way I was now a member of this community. After getting on a team I then had coaches continuing to teach me the skills of baseball more in depth as well as the skills of life. I continued to play and watch baseball to learn as much as I possibly could. As I grew and got older I learned more about the game and as I developed my skills within baseball, my love for baseball also grew and I continued to become more invested in the sport. The sport allowed me to make new relationships and friendships and strengthened old ones. To me it wasn’t just a game or just a sport, it was a larger part of my life it was at times the biggest part of my life. By participating and competing in this sport and as I strengthened my love for the sport and I over my lifetime have become a fond member of this community. Being apart of this game and the community around it has definitely changed my life and I am thankful for that.

This sport has taught me many leadership attributes as well as teaching me how to become an overall better human being. The game has taught me patience, hard work and how to develop a good work ethic. On every team I have ever been on I have always been told that I am a hard worker and how I have an incredible work ethic. That is something that I have been able to exercise and improve through baseball and through this community of friends. Developing this work ethic and becoming a even harder worker through baseball has given me something to be very proud of. I have worked hard to better myself as well as every team I have been on. I have worked hard to become the best I can and it has transferred to the rest of my life as well. I continually work hard to improve my life in every aspect so I can be the best I can be and accomplish my goals. Baseball and its community has also taught me patience. Baseball is a game of patience in so many ways. There are many times when the game is slower and you have to play with strategy and at times it is slower than other sports but then when it is fast things happen in split seconds. All the sudden the ball is pitched or hit, or the catch is made and these happen so fast. So during those slow times you have to be patient yet focused in order to take action during the fast paced parts of the game.

Some of my best memories have been while I was playing baseball. I have had so much fun and it has made me that man I am today. I am indebted to the game because of the things it and the community around it have taught me and provided for me so thank you baseball I truly will always love you.