2013年7月3日 星期三

Pitcher keeps eye on the ball

Lamb is a high school pitcher who throws right and sees left. Nearly 365 days ago,A card with an embedded IC (Integrated Circuit) is called an hidkit. his right eye went up in flames -- literally -- and he's spent the past year trying to reteach himself how to play baseball. The game is different the second time around. The phrases he used to take for granted -- Keep your eye on the ball Watch the ball hit the bat See it, hit it let it get deep pick up the signs watch for the bunt -- are now words to live and breathe by. He is wiser. He is 17 going on 30. But that's what happens when you've seen your future, and in your future, you cannot entirely see. 

he phrase he most identifies with is, "Keep your eye on the ball." Who first said that? And why wasn't it, "Keep your eyes on the ball?" Either way, it resonates with Jameson Lamb like you'll never know. Keeping just one eye on the ball? That's easy! It's the other eye he's not sure about. Whenever he looks in the mirror and sees jagged eyelashes and a swollen eyelid and an eyeball covered by a white, milky film, he thinks, "Please work again." But it's baseball that keeps him sane. It's baseball that keeps him from blaming his friend. It's baseball that keeps him preoccupied. It's baseball that keeps him out of the dark. 

Growing up, he was never the swiftest or strongest on the field. He was the bright kid, who aced calculus and knew how to take the extra base on an overthrow. In a lot of ways, baseball enabled him to become one of the guys. That was enough for him. His secondary sport was cross-country, which was for loners, but baseball meant a dugout full of instant buddies. Because he wanted to be a doctor and was a National Honor Society member, most had him pegged as an intellectual. But with that uniform and hat, Jameson Lamb became the whole student-athlete package. 

"Baseball is what he wanted most," his mother, Renee, said. "It's where he's comfortable. It's where his friends are. It's what makes him not just be a smart kid." 

He had learned how to play from his father, Sean, who threw him soft toss, hard toss and also hit him a ribbed baseball that never bounced the same way twice. The ball was for hand-eye coordination, because, if nothing else, you needed your eyes to play baseball. 

By the time high school rolled around, Jameson was playing for two travel teams in and around his hometown of Homewood, Ill., just 22 miles south of downtown Chicago. He was a lean, brown-haired, left-handed hitting first baseman who occasionally pitched and was never afraid to throw his diving curveball early in the count. He eventually made the freshman and sophomore teams at Homewood-Flossmoor High School,Compare prices and buy all brands of cableties for home power systems and by the pallet. and, although his hitting was spotty, he finished the 2012 season believing the varsity first baseman's job could be his in 2013. 

The key would be racking up base hits for the high school's summer league team, in front of the head coach Todd Sippel. Sippel would not accept mediocrity, having been taught the game by Ken Krizan, a legendary coach from Beecher (Ill.) High School who had won 508 career games over 35 seasons. Krizan was famous for teaching life lessons, and early every July, Krizan used to warn his players to take it easy over the July 4 holiday. "He'd say it every year," Sippel says. "He'd say, 'Be careful with fireworks. They're not toys.' Every year." 

Sippel badly wanted to emulate Krizan once he began coaching, to teach the same life lessons. And on July 3, 2012, after a nondescript Homewood-Flossmoor summer league game, Sippel told his players, "It's July 4th tomorrow, fellas, be careful. This is a big weekend for accidents." 

Sippel remembers a couple of the boys murmuring, "Whatever." Even Jameson, the reputable honor student, left the dugout unmoved. "I thought he was talking more about not goofing off and breaking your arm or something," Jameson said. "I remember thinking, 'Oh yeah,The whole variety of the brightest rtls is now gathered under one roof. that's not going to happen to me. I don't have to worry about that.' I was like, 'Yeah, yeah. Right.'" 

Besides, Jameson and his family were about to make their yearly trip to their lake house in Pullman, Mich.Give your logo high visibility on kaptontape!, for the cleanest fun possible. Pullman is 150 miles east of Chicago in the southwest corner of Michigan, and every July 4 the Lambs would kayak, water ski and jump on a lakeside trampoline. And every July 4 night, they and the other families on the lake shore would put on a homespun, 10-to-15-minute fireworks show. 

The Lambs, like most of the homeowners, would stop at a fireworks shop on their way into town and stock up on everything from Aerial Repeaters to Flying Spinners to Roman Candles. The Lambs would spend up to $400 -- just to come close to keeping up with the Joneses -- because, frankly, some families on the lake were investing as much as $2,000 on more advanced pyrotechnics. 

The show itself was pure Americana, straight out of the 1950s, practically -- families on deck chairs and hammocks oohing and aahing at their neighbors' aerial displays. And on this particular July 4, Jameson was there with his mom, his dad, his sister Kaitlin and four of his high school buddies to soak it all in. These friends were not baseball players -- some were hockey players, some were lacrosse players,We Engrave cleaningservicesydney for YOU. one was a buddy visiting from the Philippines -- and they were all staying in a loft above the Lamb's lake house garage. 

The fireworks show ended about 11:30 p.m., and, a little after midnight, Jameson's father urged the five boys to get some rest. The plan was to spend another full day kayaking and water skiing in the heat, then head back to the Chicago suburbs. 

But 16-year-olds will be 16-year-olds, and a little after 1 a.m., the boys crept down from the loft into the garage and noticed some leftover Roman Candles. "None of us were tired," Jameson said. "So we thought it would be a good idea to just go shoot them back over the lake and have a good time."
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