Hardball

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Bio: 16 year old high school student Essay: Gambling addict Connor O’Neil ends up deep in debt after he borrows money from almost every loan shop in town to fuel his addiction. In order to pay the mounds of money that he owes, he is requested to coach a little-league baseball team, the Kekambas. At first, Connor doesn’t start off right with the kids and doesn’t see the point of him being there. Even though Connor paid the kids no attention, they were somehow inspired by his presence. Later, He realizes that he must come to grips at what he wants in his life, and ultimately forms a special bond with the kids on the team. At the beginning of the movie, we see Connor O’Neil at his worst. The personality traits he has are reflective of an orange. One of the more positive traits is being able to take decisive action. This can been seen in beginning of the movie, where he is in James’ office, and he immediately decides to coach the Kekambas, after the promise of a steady income. Connor shows that he likes sports, by always watching or betting on basketball games, and baseball games. Another good trait is his ability to solve problems, as he did when there was a shortage in jerseys. He solved this problem by telling G-baby of the shortage, but still letting him stay on the team. He is very much a risk-taker, and loves to live for the moment. This can be proven, as he is constantly gambling in the beginning, even if he needs to borrow money to pay off his huge debts. Connor possesses many typical behaviours of an out-of-esteem orange, as well. First, he uses stimulants, such as drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and etc., when things don’t go his way, as seen in first couple of scenes. Second, he is physically aggressive, as shown in the quote, “no one can kick my ass better than I can”. Third he showed that he wanted to drop out of coaching the Kekambas by saying, “I’m bailing out”, when he found it uninteresting. Finally, he lied to Ms. Wilks, by saying he was a businessman, who just finished an errand in Canada. Even though Connor is wary of coaching at first, he begins to see the harsh reality of the kids’ lives and the nature of being brought up in such a tough neighborhood.

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