My career had started out so well. After all, by the time I was 9, I was an All-American athlete. At least that’s what it said on the front of my baseball card.

Other kids were only good enough to be All Stars or Rookies. Not me, at 4-feet 7-inches and 90 pounds, I was an All-American second baseman for the Peosta Cubbies.

From there, it went down hill. My dreams came crashing down all around me. It happened to be the only baseball card of me ever made because the photographer never came back. I also came to understand that the only reason other kids were merely All Stars or Rookies was because they had a different photographer.

As a fifth-grader, I started losing 50-yard dashes and free-throw contests. I also realized that my 16-year old cousin had let me, as a 4-year-old, beat him in arm-wrestling. I wasn’t always picked first in a game of bom-bom at recess.

What happened to me in the middle of my glory years is still a mystery. I just must have peaked too early. It definitely wasn’t dating or my studies that interfered.

Why isn’t there a professional wiffle ball league? I was awesome. I think I hit over .600 one season. We could play in my back yard, and my mom could make us lemonade. Oh well, I guess it’ll never happen.

So where does this leave me? What else could I do? I had to become a sports journalist. I figure that if you can’t beat ’em, make fun of ’em.

This summer I began my quest to become a sports journalist. I had an internship at the Sports America Radio Network in Dyersville, Iowa, the home of the Field of Dreams. The network is a national sports talk show that started operating last September.

The internship was a great opportunity for me to carry out my dream of being a radio announcer. I served as an assistant producer for the show and had an amazing time doing it.

I was able to rub elbows with some of the biggest sports broadcasters of our time including Charlie Jones of NBC; Hall of Fame broadcaster Ray Scott; Irv Cross, formerly of CBS; and FOX’s Kevin Harlan.

Unfortunately for the ISU student body, the network has no affiliates in the Ames area. (Hint to KASI: Carry the show so I can listen to it and maybe your ratings will go up.)

The opportunity was the chance of a lifetime, and ranks fourth on my all-time biggest thrills list, trailing only: meeting Bob Uecker, getting Paul Molitor’s autograph, being able to legally enter Ames bars and being named the Daily’s men’s sports editor.

The internship taught me several things. Most importantly, I realized that this career path is the right one for me. I also learned that the terms “journalist” and “job security” should never be used in the same sentence.

Finally, I realized that I can now lie on the couch, watch hours and hours of sports, and tell everyone that I have to do it because it is part of my job.

So instead of becoming Peosta’s first professional ball player, I now aim to become the first person to make it as an announcer. Hold on a sec … the Brewers are on line one.

Drew Harris is a senior in journalism and political science from Peosta, Ia.