Stories to Remember

By Los Gatos High School New Tech Students

This creative, inspirational collection includes short stories of love, motivation, suspense, and action adventure. Stories such as, “Heaviness of Heart”, “The Love for the Game”, and “Blake and Dean Stand Up” portray characters relevant to young readers. "Stories to Remember" is a great combination of emotion and fantasy that will definitely interest young readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Los Gatos High School New Tech Students
• Release date: Jun 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311083975

Book preview

For the Love of the Game

Kyle Cullinane, Will Youngblood

Prologue: Reunited

Tim Young is at bat, Tommy John is on the mound, there are two outs in the ninth inning and the Diamondbacks have no hits. Can the rookie Tommy John do it, a perfect game"?

Chapter 1- Home Life (Arizona)

Our story begins when I met Tommy in fifth grade. He was a tall, strong boy who had a dream. We were instant best friends. We connected over our love for baseball. We lived in Arizona and we went everywhere together. We were on the same little league team, and we were in the same class. We both had the same dream to be on the Arizona Diamondbacks one day. Little did we know that one day this dream would come true, but only for one of us.

Chapter 2- High School Life

Tommy and I loved high school, but not because of the school part, it was all about baseball. We both loved the loudness of the crowd. It sounded as if there was a constant thunderstorm throughout each game. Year after year we were the stars together taking our team to four consecutive championships. As freshmen we made the J.V. team with ease starting every game that year. I had seven home runs in that first year, and Tommy threw a no hitter against our rivals. That first year set us on our course to be the best high school baseball players in the world. In our sophomore year we dominated, losing only one game the whole season. Tommy and I were unstoppable, my hitting and his pitching were a force that could not be stopped. In our Junior year, our first year being on the varsity team we were the obvious stars on the team, even though we were only Juniors. We started every game whether I played first, outfield, or catcher we won. All of our focus was now on sports, so our grades started to slip. We did not care though we were the stars after all; we thought that grades would not be able to hurt us. Tommy was our starting pitcher now on varsity throwing eighty-nine miles an hour with a nasty curve ball. Tommy’s pitches are invisible moving at a speed that is barely visible for the human eye to see. Tommy struck out sixty-seven people in our junior year, and he was now ranked in the state as one of the top pitchers of his age. Senior year, the best year of our life, it started with a no hitter the very first game Tommy threw seven straight innings where no one got on base from a hit. We were pumped nothing could stop us from winning our division not even our rivals the Falcons. We marched through the season no loses, no ties, no mercy. We noticed the last couple games that scouts were now watching us play. We thought we were going to go to the best baseball colleges there were, but only one thing could stop us, ourselves.

Chapter 3- Not Getting Into College

I have never had good grades and I never really cared about grades. To me school was evil, and it seemed to be the only thing I was not good at. I would have tried more in school if I knew it mattered this much. I did not make it. The colleges that were looking at me for a scholarship student decided that my grades were too poor to give me a scholarship.  Although Tommy had pretty good grades he was good enough to try out for the Diamondbacks straight out of high school. Tommy did get into a few colleges but he decided that he wanted to try out instead of going to college. I didn’t even bother applying for college. I knew my grades wouldn’t be accepted but I didn’t care, just like Tommy, I was good enough to try out for the Diamondbacks. We both had a shot to fulfill our lifelong dream and become major league baseball players.

Chapter 4- The Try Out

This day was the best and worst day of my life. Tommy and I were at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ tryout and everyone there was at our level of baseball, which is much different than when we were in high school. In high school we were the best, no one was at our level of play. The tryouts were a week long and the coaches evaluated me on my ability to field, throw, and hit. I was always an average fielder and I didn’t make any errors at the tryout but where I really stood out was with my hitting. I was the best hitter there. I showed this by hitting solid line drives and crushing the ball when I wanted to impress the scouts. They evaluated Tommy on his ability to field of the mound and of course pitch. Since this happened after the hitting part of the tryouts I could watch Tommy. He didn’t really look like himself but he was still very good. He made one error in the fielding portion, which shocked me; I had never seen him make an error before and for him to do that was very surprising. When he was pitching he was one of the standouts, but Arizona already had really good pitchers both in the majors and in the minors. I thought that Tommy would easily make the team though because he has always thrown heat on the mound, and the coaches there knew that. After the tryout Tommy wasn't very happy with himself do to his performance, but I calmed him down and convinced him that he would make it even though I didn’t know myself if he would. We went to the sandwich shop where Tommy worked and talked about the tryout, and how we were so close to accomplishing the one thing we set out to do in fifth grade. Making it into the major leagues.

Chapter 5- The Choice

I made the team! The news came as a surprise because it had been a month since the try out. I did not know what to do I was so happy. The first thing I thought of was to call Tommy. So I did, and I told him to meet me at the sandwich shop. I got there five minutes before him, and when he arrived I could tell he knew what I was going to say. How could he not? I had the largest smile on my face. I was on top of the world. I did not have to tell him the news, but I did anyway. His reaction was excitement then sorrow. I did not really understand at first, but then it clicked, he did not make it. He quickly changed his facial expression back to a smile, but I knew he felt terrible. Everything he has worked for has been for nothing, and he knew it. Practices started immediately, and everything changed where I lived, whom I hung out with, and my personality. I could not see it when it was actually happening, but I know now I lost myself in the greatness of it all. Most importantly I lost my best friend Tommy. I started to think I was too good for him, and we got in a fight. We have not talked for 6 months, and I felt terrible about it. I wished he was with me on the team that way we could still be friends, and nothing would have to change.

Chapter 6- The Crash

My lifestyle totally changed once I made the team. I started partying more and more and stopped caring about most things except for baseball. I was also doing really well on the baseball field. I was the best young hitter in baseball and I was on the verge of being called up to the majors! Sometimes before games I would think of Tommy and how I wished he was with me on the team, but I had to focus so I dismissed the thought. After my team won a big game I decided to throw a party and I invited Tommy. When he arrived at my house I realized how much I missed him. He was still working at the sandwich shop and played baseball for fun without any scouts or coaches. As the party dragged on, I kept drinking more and more while Tommy didn't drink at all and was enjoying being with me and the other guys on the baseball team, many of which beat him in