Personal History of Baseball

During 3rd grade I made the autonomous decision to play baseball. Up until then I had never played organized sports as I had gone to a private school which scorned the notion of competition and my mother never thought that I'd be interested in playing team sports. Maybe she was worried I would get hurt physically and eventually emotionally. Up until this point I had never seen a live baseball game and I don't think I even watched a complete game on television but I knew what it was and I knew the goal was to hit the ball and run around the bases until you got home (I had seen "The Bad News Bears" and I had a small collection of baseball cards). I can honestly say I was not very athletic and I mainly joined to make friends. I'm fairly certain that I was the shortest player on the team unless that was this kid named Caleb; we were both short even for young kids. The team consisted boys and girls between the ages of 9-12. Since I wasn't one of the better players I was always pushed out to right field where balls were never hit.
My memories of that first year for some odd reason have nothing to do with me. I can't recall if I ever caught a ball, hit a ball or even threw a ball though I suppose I must have at very least threw the ball once. I can't recall what our record was either. What I do remember is that league rules dictated that the batting order would go in position number; the pitcher would bat first, the catcher second, the first baseman third etc. So when I played I batted last. I have more memories of other people's successes than anything I did which probably means I spent more time on the bench than in the field. I also recall our uniforms which was a blue, yellow and white polyester, V-neck shirt which read Astros; the hat was a cheap, sky blue front/white mesh cap with the letter A on the crown.
The most memorable point in the season for me however was an off field transaction when our coach Mr. Woods gave me a glove which event though it was well used was a significant upgrade from the tiny plastic one that had somehow made it's way into my life. Even with my limited memory of that season it got into my blood and made me want to play the sport for as long as I could which was until Sophomore year in High School when I failed to make the JV squad.