It all started with an unlikely hero and a written homework assignment. I was about six and in second grade when Mrs. Muse told our class to write what we wanted to be when we grew up. As long as I could remember all I wanted to be was a Major League Baseball player. I poured my heart into that assignment and thought I wrote something spectacular. I wrote that I was going to be a Major League Ball player. We were asked to read our homework in front of the class. After I read my report all I heard from Mrs. Muse was, “You will never make it to the Major Leagues. Do you know how many boys dream of that? Concentrate on something else.” She was telling me to forget my dream. I was crushed. How could she say this to me? I was determined to prove her wrong.I am forty-eight years old now and I can still feel the sting of those words. They never left me. And now I’m glad they didn’t. You see, I never gave up on the dream of playing in the Big Leagues. And at the age of twenty-two I did make it to the Major Leagues with the LA Dodgers as a pitcher. Granted, I was blessed with God-given talent in my right arm. But I knew a lot of people with talent to play the game who never made it. The one deciding factor for me was determination, and thanks to Mrs. Muse I was more determined than ever. When things were not going my way I would think of her and want so badly to prove her wrong.After the ‘88 World Series in which we won, I went back to my hometown and looked up Mrs. Muse, who was still alive. The reunion was sweet and I thanked her for letting a six year old boy with a dream realize that sometimes we all need a person in our life to give us that extra bit of a push in any direction. It may have been inside me all along, but I thought of Mrs. Muse’s words often. “You will never make it.” Well, Mrs. Muse, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. After 17 years years in Pro Baseball, 12 in the Big Leagues, I made it!