The Story of Ben

Ben loved to play baseball. He was very good at it. But when he joined his new team some of the kids
were not very nice to him. One kid, whose name was Rick, laughed at him and called him slow poke. Rick
thought he was the best player on the whole team.

Their first game was today. Ben ate a good breakfast and went to the baseball field. It was packed.
Everyone rooted for their teams. Ben thought, “I feel sick. I hope I do well.” He began practicing with his
team. Rick came up and announced, “Guys, let me handle with the strikes.” Rick was the team’s pitcher.
He practiced really hard. He also started to practice with the team.

Suddenly, Rick was pounded by a baseball. He wasn’t paying attention so he wasn’t able to catch the ball
his partner threw to him. Rick landed with a thud. The coach cried out, “Move everyone, let’s see what
happened.” The coach checked Rick but Rick could not get up. He would not be able to play the game.
Everyone started to panic. “Who is going to be the pitcher now!” one boy said? “Yeah, we don’t have a
backup player.” another said. Then Ben thought, “Wait! I know how to pitch and I think I’m pretty good
at it. Maybe I can be the pitcher.” He secretly told the coach. At first the coach looked doubtful then
smiled because he knew Ben was the only one good enough and he would try his best. So Ben would be
the pitcher for his team.

Ben did really well as the pitcher. His team won their first game. Later, when Rick got better he
immediately went over to Ben and said, “Hey Ben, I’m sorry that I was mean to you. I should have
never done that because I also don’t want to be laughed at. Will you please forgive me?” Ben, without
hesitation said yes. Then Rick replied, “Gee, I had no clue how good you were. Do you want to be our
team’s pitcher?” Ben replied, “Sure!” And so from then on Ben was the new pitcher and Rick was the
first backup pitcher.

-Jonathan
Age 14