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LOS ANGELES -- He took the field wearing generic baseball clothes -- white pants, navy shirt, navy cap -- looking like a guy in a commercial for a product that is not an official sponsor of Major League Baseball. He ran fast, especially for a 255-pound man with, as the press information helpfully included, 7.3 percent body fat. He threw the ball from the outfield about like an above-average high school player, and he caught fly balls with two hands, as you no doubt expected he would.This is Tim Tebow, in front of talent evaluators from 28 major league teams, standing alone on the USC baseball field with the sun beating down on him, trying to do something it would be all too easy to ridicule.The event was suffused with an unearned air of seriousness. More than 200 people -- scouts, media, helpers -- strode onto the outfield grass to watch him run a 60-yard dash. They stood in center field and down the left-field line while he fought his own feet and muscled his way through a series of throws from right field. They wrote stuff down. They thought about it. They said things like, Hes clearly very athletic, even though that wasnt ever the question.And afterward, his coach Chad Moeller testified to Tebows determination and commitment, as coaches have been doing for more than a decade, and marveled at the effort it takes to get the bat out of his hands when he has had enough for the day. At one point, to demonstrate his commitment to the cause, Tebow opened his hands to allow doubters to gaze upon his bat-callused palms.?Its probably best to leave that symbolism alone.The one thing everybody wanted to know can be condensed into one word: Why? Why would a 29-year-old football icon who hasnt played baseball since his junior year in high school put himself through this? Why would he enter the public forum and subject himself to the snide and withering comments of people who know how hard it is to play this game for money?In some form or another, he was asked those questions. As you might expect, he issued a passionate and fierce rendition of, Why not?The goal would be to have a career in the big leagues, he said. The pursuit of it is to give it all you can, be the best you can, be someone to pursue what I feel passionate about. People will say, What if you fail? What if you dont make it? Guess what? I dont have to live with regret. I did everything I could. I pushed it. I would rather be someone who can live with peace and no regret rather than being so scared I didnt make the effort.Once he got rolling, even the most skeptical among us was at least glancing at the cage, wondering if we should grab a bat and give it a try. Asked about the skeptics, those who question his motivation or suggest a thirst for publicity, those who decry the fact that 28 teams sent people to watch a 29-year-old guy who hasnt played since his junior year in high school when players with real talent cant get a look, Tebow said, Im thankful they dont get to make the choices for my life.He kept going. Its what he does. He didnt have to either, because he could have mouthed a few platitudes and it probably wouldnt have affected the decision of some team to put him in a minor league uniform for a few months, if only to sell a few million dollars worth of T-shirts.With Tebow, youre encouraged to distrust your eyes. Yeah, he looked like a tight end in the outfield, falling down at one point picking up a ball off the warning track. He couldnt pull a pitch from former big leaguers Chad Smith and David Aardsma. He two-hopped a throw from medium right to third base, and it was up the line, too.But then the man starts talking, and you wonder if maybe you were wrong. Maybe you were being too harsh. After all, he did hit a few batting-practice fastballs high into the trees beyond right field. Maybe this, this mixed bag of results at the end of several months of work, is just the first step toward this man proving everyone wrong. You come away thinking, Damn, does this guy ever try. And does he ever care. He is the most overtly trying-est and caring-est dude of his generation.If you fail, if you fall on your face, thats OK, he said. When did that become such a bad thing? When did pursuing what you love become a bad thing, regardless of the result?In January, Tebow was working out on the USC practice football field, next to the baseball field. After he finished his workouts with quarterback coach Tom House, Tebow would wander over to the baseball field, where a group of major and minor league players were getting ready for spring training.Ryan Rowland-Smith, a former Seattle Mariners reliever, was one of the players working out. They werent really interested in Tebow; they were there to get ready for spring training. It was serious business. But Tebow kept hanging around, picking up bats and wondering if he could take a few swings.I could tell he wanted to have a hit, Rowland-Smith said. He kept asking. You know, guys are trying to get their work in. They want to face good hitters to get ready. He just kept talking about the itch.Its impossible to know what was going on over on the football field with Tebow and House going through drills to improve Tebows delivery for roughly the millionth time. Quick release, elbow up -- whatever it was, you have to figure, in the quiet of January, those drills pushed Tebow closer to the realization that he would never again play quarterback in the NFL. And so he drifted over to the baseball field, with nothing more than high school credentials to his name, asking for a turn.And one day Rowland-Smith relented. Like a guy letting his little brother have a turn, he told Tebow to get in the batters box. He threw him a few fastballs at about 80 percent, and when Tebow squared one up, Rowland-Smith, a left-hander, broke off a curve.He missed it by three feet, Rowland-Smith said. He was serious, and so was I. I wanted to get my work in, so I threw a breaking ball. Not a great one, not a bad one. When I face hitters, 30 seconds into it I can tell the difference between a pro hitter and someone who isnt.He lets that hang there. Hes not making judgments, just telling a story. If he wasnt Tim Tebow, there wouldnt be people out there to watch him, Rowland-Smith says. But more power to him. People are drawn to him.Tebow might have given up on that curveball, but that doesnt mean he gave up. After all, Tebow never gives up. Thats why he went to camp with the Jets, and camp with the Patriots, and camp with the Eagles. Its why he enlisted Moeller to coach him and the powerhouse agents at CAA to represent him. Its why he didnt work out in private and then sign with an independent league team.Does he refuse to give up because he cant? Because hes addicted to the rush, to the adulation, to the idea that he can do precisely what all those believers believe he can, and all those detractors believe he cant? Thats the part of why even he cant answer, and its exactly why its hard to shake the image of the guy at USC on those January days, sensing on one field the end of something, and on the other the beginning of something else.New Balance Outlet Schweiz . That gave fans outside Joe Louis Arena another chance to ask for autographs from the 19-year-old whose stardom in the NHL has arrived earlier than most expected. New Balance Schuhe Günstig . At a Manhattan federal court hearing, attorney Jordan Siev said his law office has gotten more evidence nearly every day to support its lawsuit accusing MLB and Selig of going on a "witch hunt" to ruin Rodriguezs reputation and career. He said the defendants went "way over the line. http://www.newbalanceschweiz.com/ . Murray beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to clinch Britains opening-round victory against the United States on Sunday at Petco Park. "Im proud of the way Im playing just now, because I had to do a lot of work to get back to where I want to be," Murray said after celebrating with his teammates on the red clay court in a temporary stadium in left field of the downtown home of baseballs San Diego Padres. New Balance Schweiz Online . Their experience showed Tuesday as the No. 10 Badgers blunted a Saint Louis surge to win 63-57 and advance to face West Virginia in Wednesdays finals of the Cancun Challenge. New Balance Schuhe Kaufen . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period.Modesty is a lie. -- Maya Angelou ?She is a girly girl born with a beautiful pelvisLiving in New Orleans, two feet, two breasts,Eight children, curvaceous and cute, she turnsHeads everyday, social works to pay the bills,Whispers to God. Shes in her 40s when GodWhispers back, that bewildering, 3rd generation,Stage 2, pummeling, Black woman news. Its$5000 a month to stay alive. She loses Ta-tas,Job, car, house. The long scar on her chest runsHorizontal with the horizon. She sews her eyesDown its back. A hot air balloon lifts her throughChemotherapy, beyond despair, arriving in Biloxi.Somewhere along the road to 50 she overhearsThat the pelvis is what makes us human.Her mother hands over black on black sneakersWith an ancestral silver toe and hip silver swoosh.Her grandmother loans her a pair of loudLime green, South African, Balega socks.?Hit the road daughter. The girly girl knowsShe doesnt need breasts to walk, or breastsTo be a girly girl, with both hands she raisesHer blouse over her head. The sun paintsHer chest the same shade of girl that it didForty years before when she was just 8 and justAn unknown girl on a beach, topless, with breastsStill sleeping in the bones curl just below herClavicle. When a Black woman decides toWalk topless for 1034 miles things get aligned.Ears line up over shoulders. Shoulders overHips. Hips over knees. Her spine is soonShot out of a cannon just like the 1850 InsomniacHarriet, her nipples calibrating due north andFreedom instead of sleep. When a Black womanMakes up her mind to walk topless for 1034 miles,A film crew can change their mind but a daughtersWitnessing eyes are irreversible. MadelinesEight-year-old breasts are still in the deep sleepOf girlhood when they leave, just like Retro girlyGirl back on the beach. She sets sail from BiloxiOn April 30. Her ghost nipples spin as dualCompass. Five miles an hour, eight hours a day,For sixty days. Topless in the sun and the drivingRain. The Republics electronic Book of Faces hearsThe news and goes neon. 10,000,000 eyes dial in.The first of twelve police cars stop her. She smilesAnd holds a class in indecent exposure along the sideOf the road. There are no Toni Morrison benchesTo hold them so they stand. Resolution: Its notIllegal for her shirt to be off if her nipples are only Ghosts, following overhead but not really there.On the police car radio NPR is interviewingJohn Napier, paleontologist. The topic is walking.As the policemen finish up their Selfie with theTopless woman, who can still turn a head, theyDo not hear the paleontologist say, HumanWalking is unique. The body, step by step, teetersOn the edge of catastrophe. The mother-daughterTeam is back on the road. The girly girl has 100Ligaments in each of her feet. Her transverse archIs the major weight-bearing bridge in her body.Her Achilles is her most critical tendon, running fromHer calf muscle to the back of her heel, helping herPush off with her toes and propel her body towardSenators and marble halls and the back of MadelinesStroller. With each step she takes a new beauty shopIs under new Construction. This one will not beDesigned & Assembled by the Chairman of the BoardOf Ta-tas. She moves one foot in front of the other.Highway 29, Highway 1, The Jeff Davis highway,The Warren Abernathy road, the Blue Star highway,The monument to the signer of the Declaration ofIndependence in Georgia, the Indian mounds ofNorth Carolina. The topless girly girl keeps an eyeOut for the June Jordan Expressway. The Audre LordeHighway. The Gilda Radner overpass. The 7th of 12Police cars pulls up alongside Madelines stroller. InEach new jurisdiction the men and women in blueWant to have a word with her, want to survey theTopography of her chest, want answers shes patientlyAlready given seven times before, want to make sureThere is no indecent exposure taking place on theJeff Davis Highway north. Another class on the sameTopic is held. Over and again the girly girl explainsThat wanting to live is legal in every state.For 60 days the sneering breathtaking rocky roadExhaust of 18 wheelers coats her mouth. ThroughDust tar and fumes she passes Used Car Lots,Daydreaming of driving the rest of the way in aCanary yellow Mustang, convertible. There areStrip Malls, Mexican restaurants, neon motel signsAdvertising 20 dollar-a-Night Rooms, and 19Holy ghost praise houses leaning in with tambourine.The handmaidens of 40, 290 women take turnsRubbing her legs down every night. Mother andMadeline munch on 5 pounds of peaches, 4 poundsOf plums, they talk about school and family and howDifferent the rain feels when you cannot run from it.The mother-daughter train stops to read historicalMarkers from Biloxi to Washington DC. The womanWho has been known to turn a head wants MadelineTo know how the world was made and how it canBe made differently. She doees not drink enough water.ddddddddddddIts April, Its May, Its June. The pavement meltsBeneath their feet. The asphalt doesnt care that sheDoesnt have breasts, doesnt care that Madeline is8, the blisters, callus feet, the inside of her palms growStones, are bloody. She keeps pushing Madelines tinySleeping breasts on up the road. Its a tar beach voyage.And Madeline will not be next. The ghosts of 40,290Dead women whisper that they have voted to take theirTops off too. Solidarity forever. Mother and daughterEat Little Debbie pies and suck on firecracker popsiclesUntil their lips are red, white, and blue. StrangersFollowing them on the Republics electronic Book of FacesPull up alongside for Selfies. They deposit small tubsOf watermelon, a box of KFC, a foil bag of Chick-fil-A,Another woman drops off a homemade plate made fromHer own dinner pots. The gravel on the road hitchhikesA ride inside their shoes. The pommeling rain turns theJeff Davis highway into a sliding mud pit of summerQuicksand. The girly girls breastplate, complete withHorizon scar, has been staring back at the sun and theRain for 45 uncommon days. What does the world seeWhen a Black woman accustomed to being a womanAnd turning heads takes off her top and walks 1034Miles across America up a highway named for thePresident of the Confederacy? A woman teeteringOn the edge of catastrophe? A girly girl with herMissing ghost nipples now turned tuning forks turnedToward freedom? She is a woman they cannot arrestFor not having what they believe she should haveIn order to be called a woman? The burning summerRain sizzles on the hot asphalt. The sun bakes theirTwo backs into a portrait of two thirsty MarigoldsClimbing. A truck door swings open by mistake hittingThe girly girl as it passes. Pitch and roll girly girl. GetUp. A woman who has refused her own catastropheIs walking across America with her daughter. PoliceCar no. 12 arrives. Madeline is asleep. Why dontThey talk to each other on their blue-way radios?Cant someone dispatch the update? A Black womanWalking topless across America is not illegal. The girlyGirls pelvis evolved 1.9 million years ago.This noble Soldered saddle of bones is what makes us stand upright.Helps us change direction, spin, swivel, adjust, reach,Reconfigure, when we find we need to march on andNot crumble. The long column of our human bodyRequires the marvel of the pelvis to conduct whenAll else fails. The missing Ta-tas are not what matter.The pelvis matters. The dead women of the ChorusOf Breast Cancer matter. God finding the girly girlOn the beach and whispering Go Topless in her earMatters. Her mind is 1034 miles away on the marbleSteps of Congress waiting for the rest of her to arrive.Dear Senator ______, you dont know me but my pelvis is 1.9 million years old and 60, 290 women with pelvises just like mine received a new breast cancer diagnosis in 2015 and 40, 290 died of the disease. I would like a minute of your time. I did not fly here. My testimony was not subpoenaed. I am not the kind of woman to bare all but I have walked topless to show what I will not hide.When her breasts were cut away she decidedTo travel light. She packed nothing of excess.Only essentials. Firecracker popsicles. Peaches.Intact Pelvis. Sweet Oil of Madeline. Three changesOf clothing. A cell phone. A Stroller. And herDaily Dear God. Her prayers fueled by the powerOf electrolytes and the salt and pepper kindnessStrangers. In the blazing summer sun the sweetGeorgia peaches go down easy in the warmthOf mother and daughter mouths. You can stillBe alive without your breasts. Im still beautiful.The girly girl proclaims. Certainly, no less a woman.The woman who can still turn a head is showingThe world what a womans body looks like whenWar has been declared. The look of more thanCatastrophe. How the curve of the human spineWill absorb the sad shock of news it did not wantTo hear. The magic of Bipedal locomotion + strongKnees when we stand it up then hold out our armsAnd say Walk. The breast-less body in full sail,Moving the wheels of the determined mind. Theorchestra of the pelvis singing from the HymnalOf Courage, page 24. What it means to be womanAnd opening a new beauty shop without permit,License, or permission. The birthday sunrise of theGirly girl arrives. Its June 30th. She pushes MadelinesStroller past Quantico, the Pentagon, the 14th StreetBridge. The steps of the Capitol see her. MadelineStands up. Senator, thank you for seeing me.Popsicle? Peach? What say you about a cure?Nikky Finney has written four books of poetry, including Head Off & Split, for which she won the 2011 National Book Award. She wrote this original piece for the 2016 espnW Women + Sports Summit. ' ' '