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Alex Reynolds
Ms. Hamby
English 1101 Section 19/28
October 6, 2014

Life of a College Baseball Player

The discourse community that I have chosen is The Charlotte Baseball team. Most people
view college baseball players as cocky, not very intelligent jocks who only care about their
baseball and thats it. This however is the farthest from the truth. People may also assume that
we get certain benefits from our university and this is also not true. As an athlete, you are treated
the same as any other college student enrolled at the university. In fact, we are held to a higher
standard than a normal student. People may assume that we are not fully committed to our
academics and that is not true. We are required to get six study hall hours each week. If we do
not complete these hours we are suspended one game from our athletic season. The Charlotte
Baseball Team is a team of thirty eight guys that come together every day to achieve the same
goal, and that is to win baseball games. We share a bond like brothers because we spend so much
time together we automatically gain relationships with each other in the process. We spend more
time with each other than we do any one else including our families and other friends. The only
way for someone to judge this community is for them to spend time with the baseball team. They
will soon observe that the baseball team is not what they once viewed them as.
Baseball is a worldwide sport that is played from all ages. The game is played with nine
players on each team. Each team will have a pitcher, catcher, four infielders, and three
outfielders. The field also has four bases. First, second, third, and home. The team not in the
field will be the team hitting in a certain order organized by the coach. The pitcher will throw a
small circular ball to the catcher and on the way in the batter will hit the ball into the field of

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play. These are where outs can occur. A ball caught in the air is considered an out. A ball caught
and thrown to first base before the hitter gets there is an out or if the runner is off the base and
tagged by a fielder with the ball is also an out. There are three outs per half inning. There are
nine innings played in this game. A run is scored when one of the base runners make it all the
way back home without getting out and before the team in the field gets three outs. The team
with the most runs scored at the end is the winning team. There is also a version of baseball that
females play and we call that softball. For most baseball players as I mentioned earlier probably
start playing at a very young age and could potentially play into their late thirties. Professional
baseball players are the highest paid athletes and it is a dream for most players to become a
professional player at some point. Baseball is a very popular sport and is loved by many people
in the United States.
Methodology
On October 6, 2014 I was able to sit down and Interview Brett Netzer who like me is a
freshman baseball player at Charlotte and plays outfield. I interviewed Brett in our baseball
locker room after practice and I was able to gather information from him based off the specific
questions I asked. I closely observed how he described the team to me and his pros and cons of
being a baseball player at Charlotte. When asked about the pros of being on the baseball team he
responded, Being a part of the baseball team is a privilege and it is something that I am proud of
personally. It is like being a part of a family because of the amount of time we spend together
and thats something I like about it. It also allows us to have school recognition and having the
opportunity to interact with all of the other athletes. When asked about the cons of being a
baseball player he said, : Not having hardly free time is the probably the biggest thing and

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having mandatory study hall hours to get done every single week, and being hungry all the time
because some days you dont have time to eat.
Brett also went in depth about how life as a baseball player here at Charlotte truly is.
Brett said, Life as a freshman baseball player is very busy and you have to know how to
manage your time wisely in order to keep up with your schoolwork. The other aspect is being a
part of the team and it is great to meet to new teammates and train together. I also gathered
information by paying close attention in practice how each of us interact with each other. If
someone is struggling or not doing so well in practice, nobody is putting him. People are always
encouraging people that mess up or have a bad at bat. The research process for me was fairly
easy for me to gather information because I am with these guys every day and I am a part of this
discourse community but I did come across some problems. At first, I was going to have two
interviews. I was going to interview one of the senior baseball players and one of the freshman
baseball players. It was extremely difficult to find someone to interview because some people
depending on the day, dont have 20 minutes to spare because of all things we are required to do
as a baseball player like study hall or other work they have to rush to get done. Finally, I got one
of my fellow freshman to sit down with me and take the interview. I had originally planned one
night to interview Matt Creech, who is a senior at his house. Some things happened and practice
ran late so unfortunately I was unable to get an interview from him. Another problem I had was
trying to make observations at practice. I was so focused on the practice that I would forget about
observing.

Analysis

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Every day we come together as a team to get better on the field. The moment we stepped
on campus we suddenly were dedicated to this program and what it is trying to accomplish.
Which is to win baseball games. The team is currently in off-season which means that were in a
period in which we do not play games. Our first game is in late February. We practice six days
out of the seven day week and also lift weights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of every
week. These lifting assignments last one hour and take place at 6am and 7am. At these lifting
sessions we will start off with a very heavy stretch which is the best way to prevent injury in the
weight room. Then we will do exercises like karaoke, toe touches, and light jogging to get loose.
Then, depending on the day, we will either do bench press and a variety of upper body exercises
or we will do squats and a variety of lower body exercises. At the end depending on the day we
will do a very heavy ab workout that will leave you sore the next day or we will do a grip
exercise where you have to grip a plate with one hand and it feels like your forearms are going to
pop out of your skin.
After lifting, we all have to go to class and report back to the locker room at around 2:30
every day for practice. Practice usually starts at 3:30pm but we are all required to get there thirty
to forty-five minutes early for early work which consists of hitting in the cages and or taking
ground balls on the field. At 3:30pm we will all line up on the field for stretching again. We
basically will go through the same stretch routine as we do in the weight room. After stretching
the position players will line up at home plate and the pitchers will start throwing to get their
arms loose. The position players will practice their base running techniques from each base as
the coaches give off constructive criticism to all the players. Once the position players are
finished with base running we move to the outfield throw and get our arms loose for infield work
while the pitchers move to the infield to do their daily drills. After position players get loose they

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all go to their primary positions. The outfielders will then take fly balls and balls off the wall and
relay them to the chosen bag. While the outfielders and middle infield guys are doing that, the
pitchers, catchers, and corner infield guys go over bunt coverages and softly hit ground balls
where the pitcher has to cover first base. After that the pitchers go off to the side while the
position players all work together to get twenty seven outs in a row. If one guy messes up we
have start back at one until we get all twenty seven. Once finished with that, we all set up for
batting practice and we separate into three different groups. One group will be again practicing
base running. Another group will be hitting on the field and the last group will be working on
their defensive skills. After everyone hits in that group we will switch into different groups until
everyone has gone at every station. This usually takes up around an hour of practice time to
complete. We then move to our last session of practice which is an inter squad scrimmage. This
is when we split up into two teams and play one another. We will usually play up to about five or
six innings a day depending on which pitchers are throwing and how many pitchers are throwing.
At the end we will all do a minor stretch again to prevent injury or soreness from the long
practice. Then we will all do our field duties, pack it up, and go to the locker room and probably
go to study hall right after that to gain the required study hall hours we need each week. Then we
wake up the next day and do it all over again. When we get free time, off the field we all like to
hang out and go places to eat or go over to one of the guys house and play FIFA or watch
football. These things I believe bring us closer as a team as well by learning every ones
personality and becoming closer as friends.
Conclusion
As you can see being a part of the Baseball team here at Charlotte is not an easy task. It
takes a lot of hard work and dedication to be on this team. You are held to a higher standard off

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the field and you are expected to get everything done involving your academics and show up to
practice every day ready to get better as an individual and as a team. People may assume things
about us baseball players but if they actually spent time with the team they would realize there is
so much more to us than that.