First of all, since this is my first real blog of many to come, I feel that I should introduce myself.  My name is Nicole Petit and I am a PE major here at SUNY Cortland.  I come from a small town named Hartford, NY which is about 10 minutes from the border of Vermont.  I attended a school where the total number of kids, pre-k through 12, was 500.  I graduated with a fairly large class for that school, which consisted of 42 students.  I am a little hesitant to mention this, but (..since I’m being honest) my ten year class reunion was this year, which makes me a little older than the typical college student here.  I am third oldest in a family of nine children (yes..catholic..i can almost hear you thinking ;-) ).  My up-bringing was very rigid, seeing as my parents are very traditional in their ways.  I grew up in a home where we had no internet, radio, or video games of any sort in the house.  This is specifically why I know that this class will be a struggle for me.  It isn’t that I’m opposed to technology; it just makes me very nervous because it is so unfamiliar and foreign to me.  We did have a television, but didn’t have any cable.  We were allowed to watch one movie a week on either Friday or Saturday night and it had to be rated either G or PG.  If it was PG-13, my father had to screen it first.  It is not very difficult to figure out why I spent most of my childhood outside or reading. One can now see why I fell in love with sports.  It was something that I was allowed to do, and I loved it.  Before I continue with sports, a quick fun fact that many of you may find unbelievable is that there was only one bathroom in my house growing up.  This meant that two parents and eight children (number 9 didn’t come until later on) had to use one bathroom.  It was like boot camp- we were assigned time slots when we were able to use the bathroom.  We were each were given 15 minutes in the bathroom before my father would practically break down the door.  So…those of you who sometimes think that you may have had it rough as a child..just think of me!  So…back to sports…

My favorite sport in the whole world is baseball/softball and this is in large part due to my father.  From the time I could stand my father was teaching me how to throw a ball and how to swing a bat.  As a youngster, my father had been an excellent baseball player.  He was asked (right out of high school) to go down to Fort Lauderdale for Spring training with the Philadelphia Phillies.  He said that he did go for a few weeks but it just wasn’t how he wanted to spend the rest of his life.  Baseball back then was a completely different game then it is today.  The players barely got by with what they made from their salaries.  Players were just not treated that well by their managers.  It is because of my father that I have a great passion for the “old” game of baseball.  I grew up watching videos and dvds (the only ones we were allowed to watch whenever we wanted) of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Carl Yazstremski.  My father raised me on the Ted Williams approach to hitting, teaching me every aspect of hitting that he could.  I have read books and books on Ted Williams.  As a result of my father, I have to admit that I am a Boston Red Sox fan.  I know many of you are probably instantly be disappointed (I can only imagine the faces that you are making right now).  However (good news), I am not one of those obnoxious Red Sox fans- I just love the game of baseball in general and can appreciate good teams (even if it is the Yankees  Haha!).  I have to say, that as the game evolves and I grow older, I feel that true loyalty is lacking in baseball players today.  Whatever team offers them the most money, they will go play for.  I know that making a living is essential, but whatever happened to players like Cal Ripken Jr?  You could’ve offered him hundreds of millions of dollars and I’m positive he would’ve stayed with the Orioles.  Baseball players don’t have that sense of dedication and commitment anymore.  I am 100% positive that Cal Ripken’s record of 2,632 consecutive games is one record you will never see broken.  Nowadays, baseball players can’t survive without their days off.  Well…enough about baseball.  Growing up in a small school, there weren’t many options for sports to play.  We just had the basics- baseball/softball, soccer, basketball, and field hockey (which later switched to volleyball).  I realized at a young age that I was athletic and thus I was always outside playing some type of sport/activity.  My parents informed me that I could only choose two sports to play because there were simply too many of us children for them to be carting all of us around non-stop.  Thus, I chose to play softball and learn martial arts (because it went year round).  I had a lot of talent in softball, but was never allowed to play on any of the summer travel teams so I didn’t really get noticed.  I always made first team in our local newspaper but that was the extent of my recognition.  I also loved martial arts but had to stop taking it when the place I was doing it at closed down.  That was probably ten years ago and, to this day, I haven’t stopped looking for a place to take classes that is reasonably priced.  Please let me know if you know of any!!!!  Well…you now have a feel for who I am and why I love sports.  I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know a little bit about me!