Language and the Creation of Social Reality
...t just anybody could understand and relate to like we did. We had to learn commands that meant something other than the ordinary definition that all people could read. An example of this is that as a left handed Castellanos (1) first up batter, my goal was to get to first base with out striking out or being thrown out. My typical commands from coach were a cross-over slap or a bunt in which coach would either cross his arms and place one hand on his cheek or he would hit his knuckles together with both hands closed. These commands had an internal definition to our team that to others who view it externally would think nothing more that him being bored or thinking or just having jitters with his hands. Other coaches would have completely different commands for their teams that we, as a similar type of team, could not understand internally. Another type of special language that we had as a team was the cheers we had for our team mates that were up to bat. We would make up our own cheers that as a team we could understand with the choice of words and sounds that we used. Although we were a team, the team was divided by the infielders and the outfielders and both sets had our own language that we could relate amongst our set of girls. For example, I was the starting centerfielder and had the control over the outfield and my job was to command the right and left fielder on what base to backup and how deep or close they should be playing. Every player was different, but a special type of language had to be created so that others who were not the outfielders could not relate to the same way we were. We all had two nicknames that our teammates gave us and our coach. Coach would use a name that he felt related to the type of people that we were and the girls would give each other nicknames that had an inside joke behind them that we shared as a team. An example of this is that coach had two nicknames for me. One nickname had to do with having both of my best friends on the team. We were inseparable and were Castellanos (2) always together which was why he called me Manny in relation with the three stooges, Manny, Moe, and Jack. One of my best friends was named Monica and he called her Moe and the other was named Mayra who was crazy about Jack in the Box french-fries which was why he called her Jack. The second nickname he had for me was Big “C” because my little sister was also on the team and he called her Little “C.” People that were not part of the team would call us by our names or they had their own nicknames for us, but these nicknames were a type of code that we had as a group. My team mates wou...