An Accident Waiting to Happen | Teen Ink

An Accident Waiting to Happen

February 24, 2009
By Anonymous

We were undefeated. It was one of the biggest games of the season. Almost every team feared us because we had good pitching, hitting, and running. We were the best in the league.

It was the Wednesday after we got back from sixth grade camp. We had a softball game and I was ecstatic.

My mom dropped me off at field two an hour early to warm up. I glided into the dugout, dropped my bag to the ground, and ran out to left field to stretch. After stretching, my team jogged to the dugout to get their bats, helmets, mits, and batting gloves. They split us up into three groups. Some of us were throwing, some were hitting, and some were fielding.

The first inning went by fast, we were up 5-0 by the time it was over. The second inning was a little slower, but I got to pitch and I only let one runner on base. By the end of the second inning, it was 9-0. The third inning went even slower as the other team began to get mad and wanted to score. Our turn at bat, we got another five runs. At the beginning of the fourth inning, it was 14-3.

It was my turn at bat and there were runners on first and third. My coach gave me the bung sign, so I attempted to bung but I had to pull back because it was a ball. Next pitch, my coach gives me the bunt sign again, I miss, strike one. My coach doesn't give the bunt so, so I swing and I miss again, strike two. My coach gives me the come-on-lets-focus-now-look. I think to myself, I can do this, all it takes is one pitch. I step into the batters' box, my heart feels like it's about to rip out few my chest. The catcher gives the pitcher the sign. The pitcher takes a deep breath and steps onto the mound. She starts her wind up and then releases the ball. I start to shake as I get nervous, I take a step, and swing my bat around, as hard and as fast as I can. I make perfect contact with the ball and watch it as I sprint to first. My coach begins screaming go to second, as the center fielder is running for the ball, which was close to the fence, I go to second. As I round second, my coach tells me to go home and I hear the crowd start cheering. I round third hesitantly. He told me to go, so I trust him and I head for home plate. I was almost there, and getting ready to slide, when the pitcher gets the ball, turns and fires it to the catcher. The catcher takes a step forward, as I take a small jump to slide, her foot catches mine and then it felt like time had stopped as I fall to the ground, with my leg swinging around and my back landing on my other leg. I hit the ground, hard, and my hand lands on home plate. I could feel the dirt digging into my leg and the blood that was gushing out of my knees. I could see the white plate, that was now brown, and my coaches with bright smiles on their faces. I could hear the crowd going wild because they thought that I had hit a home run, but all of a sudden, I hear the umpire screech 'Out!'

I was so mad that I could have punched a hole in the wall, so mad that I felt smoke was coming from my ears, so mad that I began to cry. I wasn't crying because I was in a lot pain, I was crying because I was mad that I got out. I was clearly safe, but the umpire was from the other team, so I had to kind of expect that, especially because they were losing.

I tried standing up when the play was over, but all I did was fall right back down. My coaches sprinted over to where I was and they looked at my legs. By that time they were both covered in my sticky blood that had pebbles and dirt in them from sliding. They carried me off of the field and a parent on the team immediately went to get a first aid kit and ice as soon as she saw my leg.

My grandma came in to see if I was okay, but I told her that I wasn't. She told me that my mom had got hit in the head by a baseball about ten minutes ago.

My coaches and my grandma cleaned up my knee and they put bandages and wraps on it to keep it from bleeding and swelling. Then I had to get pulled from the game because I could barely walk. I was so mad because that was one of our biggest games and I was to get to pitch the last inning. I sat in the dugout for the rest of the game, icing my knee. My team won the game 17-8.

At the end of the game I wasn't able to shake hands with the other team because I could barely walk so I couldn't stand in line.

My grandma decided that she was going to take me and my mom to the emergency room because my mom could barely think straight and I could barely walk. She told the concession stand that she needed a golf cart so that I didn't have to walk as far. The golf cart came and picked me and my softball bag up, then we met my mom and my grandma at our car. My grandma had called my aunt to come and pick up her car.

We arrived at the emergency room, and there were many people in there. They said it would be a pretty long wait, but we didn't want to go to another place.

We went into this room right away to get checked in and to tell a doctor what had happened.

After that, we all sat out in the waiting room and it was one of the final weeks of American Idol, so we sat there watching that, while we were waiting to be helped, and I kept hearing doctors yelling about other patients. My mom was icing her head and I my knee.

By the time we had gotten into a room, it was 11:30. I had to unwrap my knee, which stung because the wrap that I had on there was sticking to my knee, so I was in a lot of pain. The nurse looked at my knee and felt it and moved it around, and decided that I was going to have a couple of x-rays. My mom got put in the room next to me, and she had to get a cat scan. We both went and got our stuff done then we met up when we got back to our rooms. I had to wait for my results, as well as my mom.

We went back to the waiting room for another half hour, then got called back again. They told my mom that she had a minor concussion, but they couldn't read my x-rays that well.

They put me on crutches and made an appointment for my mom to come back the next day.

My mom went back and she was fine. She just got some medication for in case she got a headache.

My mom made me an appointment to see my orthopedist that I had also seen the previous year for an ankle injury.

I went in and had some more x-rays, and he also moved my knee a little. He came to the conclusion that I was going to have to have a MRI. They made me and appointment for my MRI and an appointment to come back afterwards.

I came back and he said that I had torn my MCL, which is the cartilage on the inside of your knee. They planned for me to have surgery to get it fixed. I was really nervous.

I have had my surgery now, and it really wasn't that bad. I was just on crutches for a few more days, then I had physical therapy and I was fine. It just took some time for me to get back to my full self, but I made it.

That game that I played that night definitely turned out to be one of the biggest games of the season. It ended two seasons, my soccer season and my softball season. I was ready about a week after my surgery to go back to playing, but I'm glad that I waited because in the long run, it was the right choice to make sure I was completely better before starting up sports again.


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