TOW #23: Baseball Is Injuring Too Many Kids

     As someone who has never been involved in a formal sporting organization, it became evident that truly understanding this author's argument was going to be hard. This author argued that although baseball is a beloved sport all around the world, it has became such an issue with children as many continue to get injured. I began to agree with him more as he used personal anecdotes and statistics in order to achieve his purpose. While trying to prove that parents are the root of this issue, he is able to create a little bit of guilt and shock towards his audience.
     The author introduces his son; a devoted baseball player that wishes to play "from sunrise to sunset," This child's opinion is shared by many people are possess the same characteristic: passionate. Although passion is a delicate word used for great love towards a subject, it can often get carried away. An example of how it can get carried is away is when it takes up all of an individual's time. It can become a huge distraction in someone's life that can eventually become a large issue. Following the introduction of his son, the author says that his son knows better than to play all the time. The author has warned his son of the dangers of baseball and his son realized that he does not want to increase his chances of becoming injured. This proves that parents have an influence over this problem. Parents can definitely change the opinion of their kid even though its based on the relationship between the parent and child.
     Also, the author develops trust through his use of statistics. He states that from 2007 to 2011, 57 percent of sports-related injuries were performed on 15-to-19 year olds. Does this specifically say that this was all baseball-related? No, but this does prove that teenagers can still get seriously injured. A lot of times, people think of young athletes as invincible and so do the athletes themselves. They often make risky play calls because they feel that they can get away with it just because they are young and can heal relatively quickly. This part of the argument is related to the fact that kids can still be seriously injured and that the stem of the problem is parents allowing their kids to play their sport all of the time. It opens up more opportunities for injuries.
     In conclusion, I believe that he achieved his purpose through these two devices. Although I have not been involved in the playing of a sport, I understood what he was saying and I can definitely see why the issues that he brought up are large problems.