The ECHO, May 2023

SPORTS
Baseball’s new rules
By Max Winzelberg
Staff Writer
I have tried countless
times to get my friends to
go to a baseball game with
me, whether it be a UNC or
Durham Bulls game. Each
time they give me the same
response: ‘It’s so boring’ or ‘It’s
just so long.’
Both are fair complaints
as the average Major League
Baseball (MLB) game took
just over three hours in 2022.
As someone who cannot sit
and watch a soccer game
for 90 minutes, it would be
hypocritical to say I don’t
understand how baseball can
be boring.
However, this year the MLB
has made a few key changes
that have garnered generally
positive reviews.
The shifts, aimed at making
baseball faster and more action
packed, include a pitch timer,
defensive shift restrictions and
bigger bases.
Now, if a pitcher takes too
long to get into his windup, it
is an automatic ball. The same
rule applies for batters. If a
batter takes too long to get set,
it is an automatic strike.
These rules are undeniably
good for baseball. According
to Axios, youth baseball
participation peaked in the
1990s and ever since has been
decreasing at a rate of about 3
percent per year. Furthermore,
MLB TV ratings have also
been steadily decreasing for
the past half century. In an age
dominated by short, exciting
forms of media, a three-hour
baseball game isn’t the most
marketable.
The new changes should
only be the start for the MLB
as the league looks to compete
in an increasingly competitive
media landscape. Even with
the current changes, the MLB
is likely to have some of the
lowest engagement among
the youth. The league needs
to continue to explore changes
that bring out the excitement of
baseball without compromising
what makes it special. If they
are able to do so, it will ensure
the health of the game we all
love for generations to come.
How and why I ran the Tar Heel 10 Miler
By Linda Li
Staff Writer
One step, another step, I
was so close to the finish line.
People were cheering, yelling,
and screaming around me.
But I couldn’t hear anything, I
was breathing so hard and my
mind was zoning out. When I
crossed the finish line, joy and
satisfaction surrounded me. I
felt water running down my
face, but I couldn’t tell if it was
tears or sweat. That was when I
realized I did it, I finished the Tar
Heel 10 Miler!
Around three months ago
my dad encouraged me to sign
up for Tar Heel 10 Miler. He is
a semi-professional marathon
runner; he runs almost every
single day and has completed
all kinds of marathons around
the world.
He is my idol when it comes
to running, though I rarely run
with him the longest distance
I could run was only 5k. But
my dad encouraged me, saying
that the marathon gene is in my
blood, so if I practiced enough,
it would be a piece of cake for
me to complete the Tar Heel
10 Miler.
That was when my nightmare
started. From the second I signed
up, I was forced to participate in
his “training from hell.” I needed
to run at least three times a
week. Sometimes I had to wake
up at 5 a.m. to run or run after
an exhausting school day. But
either way, every single part of
my muscles hurt.
My training plan was to start
running from 5k and increase
by one kilometer every day.
At least one interval per week
means running as fast as I can,
then walking for a little and
running again until I am close
to passing out.
The training plan went “well”
for a couple of months until one
day when I was running in Bolin
Creek, I accidentally stepped
on a sycamore fruit and twisted
my ankle. (I swear it was an
accident.)
I was forced to stop the
training plan. Deep down I was
relieved that I could finally wake
up as late as I wanted and my
body wouldn’t feel like someone
punched me a million times. I
happily went back to my lazy
life without training. Or did I?
As the time came closer to the
competition, I felt more anxious
and guilty for not training. Was
my lazy lifestyle the life I wanted
to live in? Or did I enjoy waking
up early and being productive?
I can’t give an answer yet,
but I started running again. It
was only two weeks before the
competition. I started doubting
myself, thinking I was too slow
or that 10 miles
is too long. My
dad soon gave
me a solution
to that. By the
time it was
only a week
before the
actual date,
my dad and his
running friends
ran 12 miles with me together to
get used to the route. It helped
me feel more confident and
more prepared.
On April 21, the big day came
quietly. It was just a normal
Saturday for anyone else, but
that’s the day when I ran my
very first long distance running
competition.
After the 10 seconds
countdown and the gunshot,
over 5,000 people around me
started running together. It was
“That was when my
nightmare started.
From the second I
signed up, I was forced
to participate in his
‘training from hell.’”
a miracle scene seeing that many
people blocking Franklin St.
Even though my dad could
probably run much faster, he
was by my side and coaching
me, encouraging me, telling me
stories. With him by my side, I
felt so safe and confident.
With so many great runners
on my side and the audience
cheering aside the road, they
all motivated me. I felt tired
but kept running. Even at the
last mile when
there was an
extremely
steep hill, when
most people
just started
walking, my
dad and I never
stopped.
Then that
was it. After
looking forward to it for
months, in an hour and fortynine
minutes, I finished.
When my friends and my
family hugged and cheered for
me at the finish line, I knew all
the training was worth it.
If I go back to three months
ago, I could never imagine
myself running 10 miles. But
now, here I am. I can finally call
myself a runner and I know for
sure that running is a part of my
life now.
Senior Assassins 2023 drives seniors to extremes
By Ananya Cox & Jane Kim
Staff Writers
“Unintentionally, I was a rat. I
was the reason why two people
got out. [There’s] nothing I can
do about it, but it’s something
I am going to have to live with
from now on.”
This sentiment, from
Senior Assassins participant
Arjun Deshmukh, reflects the
emotional intensity the game
has generated among many
East seniors.
The rules are simple. Once
you receive your target through
an ominous email, try to tag
them with a spoon of your
choice to get them disqualified
from the game. In return, you
now have to hunt down your
former target’s target and so on,
until you (hopefully) are the last
one standing.
The fun began April 18
and has continued well into
May. You may have seen
seniors chasing each other
throughout the student parking
lot or waiting to ambush their
friends outside trailers. “Run
for it!” was a common phrase
in the first few days of action,
followed by sprints through
traffic or school grounds.
In the beginning, momentum
was fast, with seniors waking
up at six in the morning to
stake out targets’ houses and
participants getting out by the
double digits.
“I had a really rough time
with Senior Assassins. I got out
[the] first day. It happened by
me trying to run after someone
else, but I can’t run, so I just
got caught, and someone who
had a torn ACL outran me,”
Sofia Georgallis said. “I was
really sad for a couple hours,
but honestly, I [didn’t] want
to be on edge anymore. I’m
kind of happy that I got out,
even though it was really
embarrassing.”
As time went on, many of
the assassinations became
borderline cruel. Hopes were
crushed, friendships were
strained and tensions were high.
“It hurt, oh my god, I let my
guard down for one second,
and then immediately [got]
tagged,” Sabrina Shelby said,
after getting tagged by a friend.
“The whole day I was on edge,
and then the second I [think]
I’m safe, I get tagged in my car.
Such bull----.”
After the first two days when
almost half of all participants
were eliminated from the
pool by cutthroat competitors,
seniors began to step up their
games. This included staking
out in front of homes in the
morning, in cars after school,
and memorizing class schedules.
As of now, a little over a month
into the competition, there are
a half dozen seniors left, an
exponential shrink leaving just
one to walk away with the over-
$200 prize.
Seniors have Lenore Bronson
and Dillon McCafferty to thank
for organizing this end-ofthe-year
event and running
the Instagram account @
echseniorassassin23 to keep
students updated on the status of
their peers and the lengths they
were willing to go to in order
to get a step closer to victory.
When Bronson heard from
student body president Julianne
Reynolds earlier in the year that
student council was planning
on running the event and
beginning it during the last
week of school, she spoke
with friends and offered to
both run the competition and
to hold it sooner, anticipating
that competition would take
weeks. Now toward the end
of the event, Bronson reflects
positively.
“Generally, I feel like it’s been
really fun and unproblematic…
[as] kind of [a] nice distraction
toward the end of the school
year,” Bronson said. “The
Instagram has been a lot to
manage…but I feel like it’s
really fun and people have
been really interactive with it,
and I feel like that’s the whole
point of Senior Assassins, is that
everyone is…involved.”
This feeling was shared
by other Senior Assassins
participants, regardless of
original issues of the game
restarting.
“I do think that it was really
well organized, they did a
great job of collecting all the
money, and information was
very clear,” Shelby said. “I
mean, there was one mistake,
and then it was immediately
fixed!”
In a school trying to raise
Courtesy of
@echseniorassassin23
school spirit, East seniors
organized some fun and chaos
to take some stress away from
thoughts of the future.
“Overall, it was really fun and
a good experience,” Georgallis
said. “It was really funny to see
everyone running around the
school in ski masks.”