FLASHBACK

If you have read an earlier entry of mine titled, "Heart of the Falcon," you know that I played baseball in high school. In that entry I wrote about my four year experience playing high school baseball. I left out a funny story that occurred senior year and I would like to share that with you now:

During spring break my team went down to Florida to play against teams from all over the country. While we were eating in the cafeteria in between a double header, my teammate got a call from his girlfriend. She told him that there was a picture of me in the Staten Island Advance and i was "making a funny face." I didn't know what to think, so we got on the phone with one of our friends back home (and fellow classmate in Prof. Farley's Eng 1000) Luca Panarelli. Luca took a picture of the picture on his phone and sent it to us. The caption of the photo reads: "Steve McCann of Susan Wagner High School tossed a metal bat after striking out against Port Richmond High School last Friday." My teammates and coaches had a good laugh. It turns out the picture was used for an article about the possibility of banning the use of metal bats during high school baseball games. I guess throwing metal bats are more dangerous than throwing wood bats. (For the record, I am really not that type of player to throw the bat and helmet after I strike out. I was, however, very frustrated at this particular moment. It was opening day in our season and we had a very tough time scoring runs against who we all thought was an extremely hittable pitcher. I am a player who believes in good sportsmanship).

This story about banning metal bats kept appearing in the news and everytime it did, there I was throwing the metal bat. This picture appeared in the Staten Island Advance on three different occasions, once on the front page.

I did not even know there was a photographer present at the game, so it came as a complete shock to me when I saw the photo. My mother actually got the chance to speak to the photographer who took the picture. She is a dental assistant and he was a patient at the office in which my mother works. I wish I got the oppurtunity to speak with the man who made me a poster boy for the banning of metal bats.