This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we return to our American stories.

Up next, we'll hear from our regular contributor in Iowa, Roger Wrench. He's here to share

with us some memories about his time in competitive sports, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Take it

away, Roger. I think it was around fifth or sixth grade when my interest in sports began,

and that interest would grow into a lifelong love.

Before that, I was a chubby, clumsy kid, not very fast or strong.

And in the summer between sixth and seventh grade, I shot up six inches to six feet tall, thinned out, and got pretty strong and coordinated.

I went to Grace Lutheran School and we had a great sports program and a network of

Lutheran schools in Kansas City and Eastern Kansas. I played flag football and basketball, and I was the star center on our team.

I also liked baseball. In the summer

after seventh grade, my mom signed me up for Little League. At our first practice, I didn't

recognize a single face. Not only was I the new kid, but the rest of them had played together

for years. The coaches had coached them since they were little.

I was a rookie on a team of experienced stars.

The next summer I played in a different league on a team with friends from my school,

and I had the opportunity to shine as one of our two starting pitchers. I had never pitched before, but I had this wicked curve ball that couldn't be hit.

It moved about a foot, and as the batters would see it coming at them, they'd back up off the plate, afraid to get hit.

Then it would curve back over the plate, off and for a strike, and I got dozens of strikeouts that summer.

And it felt great to be a star again and be able to show what I could do.

In ninth grade, things changed as I went to public school for the first time.

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