13 year old Miguel Rodriguez has always been good at baseball. Ever since he played tee-ball back in the Dominican Republic.  When Miguel was about 5 him and his mother and his little sister moved to the United States because Miguel’s father had been arrested for drug trafficking for 20 years and Miguel's mom never wanted to see him again. They moved to a small apartment in Miami ,Florida and right away Miguel loved it there the people, the city, the culture and especially the baseball.  Miguel grew up watching a young Miguel Cabrera  play for his hometown team the Florida Marlins. He is Miguel's personal hero and he looks up to him even though he was then traded to the Tigers. He didn’t just admire his play on the field he admired what he did for the community and the Miggy 24 foundation.
Miguel continued to progress with his baseball skills and eventually became one of the best on his little league team.  He has always been one of the biggest and tallest on his team ever since he was young.  He had short black hair, a big frame, long legs and a cannon of an arm.   Miguel played third base and wore number 24 just like his idol.  His best friend Marcus was the shortstop for his team and they were one of the best teams in the state. 
“Miguel!” called his mom “You have a D in math if you don’t get that up I will not let you play in your game this weekend” she exclaimed to him.
“Mom it's the championship game. I have a test this Friday anyways I promise I’ll get it up.”  Miguel pleaded.  He was always a good kid and very nice but sometimes he put baseball before school work and that hurt him sometimes with his mother's strict policy for him to do well in school.  He knew she just wanted the best for him so he wouldn’t end up like his father.
The next day after school Miguel went to practice with Marcus and when they were walking they were talking about the Championship game,
“So do you think that we’re gonna win?” Marcus asked,
“I think we got a good shot”,
“We’re playing a pretty tough team though”.
When they arrived at practice their coach took Miguel aside and asked
“Miguel do you think that you will be playing this Saturday night?”,
“Yes coach I’ll definitely be there”,
“Good we need you. You are the leader of this team.”
Then they practiced and Miguel was playing amazing he was on the top of his game and he was just feeling it during batting practice.  He hit 3 home runs during that time.  The rest of practice they just did drills and at the end they just scrimmaged. 
When Miguel got home he went right to studying. He stayed up until two in the morning trying to get all of the equations memorized and trying to do all of the extra credit his teacher gave him so that he could pass the test with ease.  He overslept the next morning making him have to rush out of the house and dash to school on his rusty old bike that he has had since he was 9.
He Made a left down a side street which was a short cut. He was thinking to himself what if he was late for the test would he not be able to take it and not play in the championship the next day.  He could hear his head pounding like a drum and his heart racing faster than a car.
He looked at his watch and it was five minutes until school started and he was still 10 minutes away. Miguel knew that he had to go as fast as he could if he wanted to get to school on time.  He started to think about his goal and how much it meant for him to play the next day and in some miracle he started to go faster. He made it on time with a few seconds to spare but the next part was the hard part the test. 
His teacher was passing out the test and he was getting nervous and just told himself that he needed to calm down.  When he finally got the test he said to himself that he can do this and then he started writing.  When he finished he felt very good about how he did and the rest of the day he was very happy.

When Marcus got home from school that day he found his dad who had been drinking since 8 in the morning asleep on the coach and his mom nowhere to be found. He walked over to the fridge to see what he was going to eat for dinner that night.  He opened it to find a six pack of budweiser, a jar of ketchup, and an empty milk carton.  He decided to just go to bed and hope that his father would eventually wake up from his drunken state. 
When Marcus woke up the next morning he tried to shake his father awaker and he was unsuccessful as he just snored on.  He didn’t think that his mom was coming back either, his parents had been fighting for a while over his dad's drinking problem.  He decided to just leave and go to school.  After school he went to practice and during practice Miguel asked him
“How are things going at home man?”
“Honestly not great, Last night when I came home my dad was passed out on the couch my Mom was nowhere to be found and there was absolutely nothing for me to have for dinner”
“You know if you want to you can just stay over my house tonight it's not a problem for my mom at all”
“Really that would be great thank you so much!”
After practice they went back to miguel's and he told his mom that Marcus was sleeping over and she said that it was fine.  So they went up to Miguel's room to play video games and watch whatever game was on television. When they flipped on the television they saw that the Yankees were playing the Tigers and Marcus’s favorite player happened to be Derek Jeter.  They watched that whole game and during the game they started to talk about the championship the next day.
“How do you think you’re gonna do against their pitching?” Asked Marcus
“I don't know man, I heard that it is really good. Like Pedro Martinez good. But I think I’ll have a few hits how about you?”
“I’ve been kinda cold recently so I hope this is the game that finally get my fire started and I hope that I hit some bombs tomorrow”

They went to bed knowing that they needed to get a good night sleep for the game tomorrow. When they woke up they got breakfast and Miguel asked
“Do you wanna go to the field early to take some batting practice?”
“Definitely!” he replied.  They pulled their bikes out and started to make their way to the field. They found most of their team already there which was a great sight to see the rest of the team have as much energy for the game as Marcus and Miguel.  The joined in and right away they started to do great things on the field.
The game started a couple hours later. Even the local news showed up to put the game on television.  When the game started everyone was hyped and getting ready then Marcus sees the one person he thought he would never see again.
His mom showed up to his game and Marcus couldn’t be more happy. 
He knew that at that point he had to play his heart out.  They started the game off fast with their first baseman named Simon going yard in the first inning.  Miguel flew out to left and the center fielder grounded out to the shortstop .  The other team didn’t hesitate to come back they took the lead in the fourth inning with a score of 3-1.
In the bottom of the fifth inning Marcus hit a 2 run homer to tie up the game at 3-3.
With the game tied at 3-3 the coaches decided to roll the dice and Miguel was put into pitch for one inning because of how hard he threw. He let up zero runs and had 2 strikeouts.  Next up Miguel hit a homerun to win the game and at the end they carried the big man off the field on their shoulders.
After the game ended Marcus went over to his mom and she said
“Marcus I want you to come live with me in my new appartment,”
“Thank god I couldn’t stand having dad passed out on the couch all the time”,
They went home and both of the boys thought that life was great at the time being.