Ten Heavens, One Complex

Ten Heavens, One Complex
In this heaven you saw nothing but baseball field after baseball field. What once use to be a wide open field next to a body of water was taken over by ten baseball fields. Filled with, ambition and hope and high spirits and passion. The tournament- filled with young adults from California and Nevada, Oregon and Arizona, Washington and Utah, all go to this complex to do one thing: win. The desire and hunger drives teenagers for the championship. The ten fields combined are as big as 4 football fields. Each field has its own uniqueness.
The smells and sounds of Twin Creeks are the sounds you would hear at a normal pro sporting event, minus the venders walking down the isles selling food. As I walked around the complex I could here the sizzling of the meats on the barbeques, the pinging of the bats making solid connection, the rare crack of wood if a player was using a wood bat, the smack of an 80 mile per hour fast ball hitting the catchers glove, the cheering after a great play, the worry if a player was hurt, the umpire shouting ball or strike, the coaches protesting the call. When I went into the sports bar I could here orders being shouted, food getting order, and food being eaten. The taste of the food was decent for a sports complex. The buffalo wings were spicy with just enough kick, meaty enough to where you all need a few to be satisfied, and the sweet and sour taste of the fresh pink lemonade. This complex brought baseball fans of all ages to come for the great entertainment of watching baseball and the sports bar that is there as well.
The fields are an all dirt infield. Ninety foot base lines and a close backstop. The outfield is choppy. Bumps, divots, holes-these obstacles make it hard to judge a ball on the ground in the outfield. The fence is roughly twenty feet tall all around the field. On the fences are advertisements for an assortment of alcoholic beverages. Advertisements such as-Budweiser, the main sign, corona and captain Morgan, Miller lite and bud lite, jack daniels and Smirnoff. The fence itself is not only intimidating for the fielder, but for the hitter as well. Hitters psyche themselves out thinking they have to hit the ball farther than normal. At the same time they think its going to be easy to hit one out because its only 300 feet away so they swing to hard and look like fools. I have been on the negative end of that statement.
The games themselves are fought with intensity, determination and hard work. A quote I have seen and try to live by is hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. That’s what is going to put you to the next level and win these tournaments. I saw that attitude on the faces of my opponents. The players during the game shed blood sweat and tears. Blood for a collision, sweat for the determination and hard work, tears for the agony of defeat. Some play for the love of the game, others play to love the game. I go to these tournament and say: I want, I need, I have to win it all. Some of the time I am successful and other times I fail. Failure is a part of the game which you have to deal with. I love baseball for its excitement: I also like baseball for the little things that make it great.
The Twin Creeks facility as a whole has the desire to make money just like every other complex but what else they have is to have kids of all ages come and develop there skills and become great players. The way they are set up is only to help the kids grow and become better ball players. The players in the game all have the common desire to be great and win the game they are playing in. The umpires hold the players to a higher standard and want nothing but there best at all times. Travel ball baseball is part of the baseball culture no matter what level. Any player on any team at any level play to win the game. No one ever plays to lose the game otherwise there is no point in playing. Baseball at any level is related in different ways other than they are all playing baseball. If I sat down and watched a pro game I would see a clean game with not a lot of mistakes, but if I watched a game at twin creeks I would see more mistakes. Although they look different they are similar in many ways.
The desire to win in the pros is through there play, at Twin creeks its through the players yelling, Pros play a more up-tempo game, Twin creeks they go at there own pace. The pros have tremendous bat speed, the players at Twin Creeks have enough bat speed to get by. The pros win there games because they played a clean game, At Twin Creeks teams win because they just played better than the other team. These similarities may look completely different, but they are the same. They both achieve the same thing. Twin Creeks is heaven in the form of ten manicured fields. Its where kids go to harness there skills and find out what it takes to be a great ball player through there teammates, the games, and the interaction with other players from opposing teams. If I had one place I would want to play baseball, it would be Twin Creeks.

Big Nate B.