|
The first book I read this summer was a non-fiction piece written by Cal
Ripken Sr., called the Ripken Way. There are many ways in which mr. Ripken
posseses qualitites that are very human: he was a normal person, just like
anybody else, not just an extraordinary baseball player and manager; he was
married to a wife and had four children. He was a hard worker, and through out
the book he has an emphasis on working hard in life in order to be successful,
and lastly, he was a very unique person, in many ways. First, when most people
think of Cal Ripken, they think of one of the all time great baseball players,
and he was that. But, he was also just an ordinary person, with a normal life.
Like most other people, he was married to a wife, and also had four children. He
was just not a ball player, he was a dedicated husband and father that did the
best he could to raise his kids and teach them the correct way to do things, and
teach them the lessons in life.
He was a busy man, because of his baseball
carear, he had lots of time taken away from his family as both a baseball player
and as a manager. He took advantage of any time he got to spend time with his
children. An example of this was when he was managing, and ran baseball clinics.
He decided to take the difficult task of not only attending these baseball
clinics, but also taking his children so he could be with them. As busy as he
was, he took time out of his extremely busy life to get quality time with his
family, this took much sacrifice, but it's a human traight, like any other man,
not matter what he may be doing. Secondly, in the book, Cal explains how he
brought up his children and enstilled the correct values inisde them in order to
be successful (as well as instructing baseball players on how to improve their
game while simaltaniously teaching life lessons that apply both on and off the
baseball field). An example is his son, Cal Ripken jr., whom was brought up
around the sport of baseball, and that was a huge advantage, but, he wasn't
always the biggest athlete on the team. As a matter of fact, when he was a young
high school student, he had a poor batting average, a weak arm, lacked in some
basic skills, and wasn't too tall either. But, as he was raised by his father,
he learned propper and neccessary life values in order to suceed in whatever he
does. If his father taught him one thing, it would be to work hard and work at
whatever your weak at over and over again (correctly; the right way).
|
