Strike one! Strike two! Strike three! The ball game was over. I struck out the opposing teams best player to win the Joe Graci tournament. My teammates were jumping on me as I am hugging my catcher and congratulating him on our win. After my team and I had calmed down, we shook hands, and both teams proceeded to the pitchers mound for my coach, Sonny Graci, to say a few words. Sonny then gave my other coach the beautiful championship trophy. Sonny had another trophy in his hand and it was an MVP award and as he said the name of the player, he started to cry. An eighty-year-old man was crying in front of us all. I had no words. He mustered up the strength to say that the MVP of the tournament is Charlie Pagani. I won MVP. It was the proudest moment of my…show more content… I realized why my coach and his wife were crying. The tournament is in his son’s name. His son died at the age of eighteen coming home from a baseball tournament in a car crash. That was the true meaning of this tournament. It was for other young kids to play baseball under Joe Graci’s name, a young man who died playing and loving the sport that I am so lucky to play. Sonny stated how proud he was of everyone for playing with respect and dignity in a tournament that meant so much to him. When I got off the field I saw my mother crying. I asked her, “What’s wrong?” and she said, “I’m proud of you.” I asked her why and she replied, “Because you hugged Mrs. Graci after you received your award.” Once she said that it all came to me. Sometimes the simplest of things have a deeper meaning. That “thing” that does not mean much to me might mean something as big as the world to someone else and that’s what this tournament was to Sonny and his wife. It made me realize how selfish one can be without the realization. Life can be simple, if I make it
