Give Me A Chance At Bat
jaybeacham 03 Jun 2015 | : blog
Give Me A Chance At Bat
I just watched an instructional video.
Are You Batting Lead-Off or Clean-Up?
by Bill DeWees
607 views
https://youtu.be/qFjMb5plr3o
He’s a voice guy and compares baseball lead off/cleanup hitters to the voice over business of today.
He says it’s better to consistently get on base than to be the guy to get the home runs.
Meaning to work consistently is better than to wait for the big fancy voice jobs.
Well I’d just like to get a chance to bat.
My problem may have started when I first went to Little League tryouts with a boy who’d played before.
There was a team in the field and the prospects got a chance at bat while the coaches looked them over.
Before I could get to bat someone said that I was to go with the team made up of the left over boys.
I protested and someone said,
“Ah let the kid hit.”
I swung at the first ball and ran to second base safe.
Then we went off in the back of a pickup to look for a field to practice in.
We didn’t find one that morning.
By the next week, my family’s farm operations took precedence to ball games and my Little League career
ended before it had begun.
During the next few years, besides work and school and scouts, I practiced ball whenever the chance afforded itself.
I watched movies about baseball greats. The Deans, Jackie Robinson, etc.
I waited for High School sports.
the following poem tells about all of that.
To Pitch The Ball ©
When young, I thought it fun to throw a little baseball,
My dream to be a Dizzy or a Daffy dean, did enthrall.
All times of day, I’d throw and catch by myself.
I’d throw and catch with others to;
In school yard or down in the street
Most days with others I would meet.
Though seldom would I get to pitch that ball.
Then Little League came: “Oh let the kid bat.”
But never did I get to throw from mound to catcher’s mitt.
To high school then and gym,
Maybe I’d get to show
How good, how fast, how accurate I could throw.
I hurt my knee and to a specialist had to go.
He said that running would be put
That swim exercise and leg weight lifting would be in.
The years have so very fast gone past,
And though balls now fly to mitt-to sky
They do not on me at all rely.
(Author’s note: There is a professional baseball pitcher named Jay Beacham but it isn’t me.)
(Poetry anthology on Kindle “Under Red Cliffs” @ https://lnkd.in/e582xnM )
(Also available in paper back @ http://jaybeacham.com/products-page-2/
Well so it has been for me in the voice over world of today.
I’d just like to get a chance to get to bat or pitch.
I won’t do immoral or illicit projects.
And it is always good to believe in something before promoting it.
That lends the aspect of truth to what the Voice Talent is saying.
But that said, I just want a chance to play.
