From No-Hitter to Skim Board by Derek H.

In today’s world everyone is obsessed with material possessions. They forget about what is really important. They forget about those priceless moments in their lives that are important, but they don’t even realize it. They would rather have the newest clothes and video games.

It is the Fourth of July and my family and I are on our way to the fireworks at the middle school. When we get there my dad buys some raffle tickets. We had never won anything like a raffle before, but we all really wanted first prize. It was four tickets to three Red Sox games all against the Yankees and autographed baseballs.

Right before the fireworks started they announce the winners of the raffle. We didn’t get first prize, but we had much better luck than usual. We ended up with third prize which was four tickets to one Red Sox game at Fenway Park against the Orioles. These tickets turned out to be much better than first prize which was one by a friend of mine.

It is finally September first, the day of our Red Sox game. I’m sitting in section thirty, row five, seat nine. I have had better seats, but I wasn’t complaining because these weren’t bad and they were free. They were also the only thing we had ever won on a raffle so I am happy with them.

After a very short game it gets to the ninth inning very fast. As the Orioles come off the field I’m thinking about how good Clay Buchholz has pitched so far tonight. When he walks onto the field to pitch for the ninth inning 37,000 people give him a standing ovation. The Red Sox get two quick outs and that was when Nick Markakis came up to bat for the Orioles. The first pitch is thrown for strike one and I clap and yell as I feel the whole park shake. Again on strike two I feel the park vibrating under my feet. Then he throws a curveball for strike three and it felt like all of Fenway Park was going to come down. The whole team rushed onto the field and crowded around him.

I am on my way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I have been there a lot and it is one of my favorite places I have ever been. This was probably the fifth time I have gone. We stop at a huge shopping center on the way called South of the Border. My parents buy me a skim board because they got my brother a boogey board.

I used it a couple of times during the week on vacation. After I fell a lot I gave up because I didn’t want to embarrass myself even though I probably already did. I would use my brothers boogey board and he would use my skim board. I decided I would stick to body surfing which was something I wouldn’t embarrass myself doing.

Now the only place I use it is at Mitches Marina when I go on my friends boat. After fishing for a very long time we decided to go skim boarding. I fell off almost every time I tried, but I had fun anyway. After all of that embarrassment we finally went to eat.

Then we did things that I couldn’t embarrass myself at. We went tubing and did even more fishing. I almost got thrown off the tube every five seconds because my friends dad drives crazy. Somehow only one of my other friends fell off. Next we went cat fishing which was way more fun than normal fishing. You can just put your pole down and watch it, so you can do anything while cat fishing.

Not a lot of people get to see no-hitters, but a lot of people have skim boards. These things are both very important to me. Even though my skim board only cost twenty dollars, I will probably never sell it even for more than twenty. I couldn’t sell a no-hitter if I wanted to. The ticket stubs are worth a lot of money, but my dad is having them framed and put up on the wall next to our pool table.

I have some great memories with my skim board. The Buchholz no-hitter I saw is only a memory, but a very good one that I will never forget. This is why these things are so important to me as an athlete and as a Red Sox fan.