Bill O'Reilly Summary and Analysis

Bill O'Reilly began playing sports at seven, choosing ice hockey in high school because space on the football team was reserved. Bill discouraged his father from coming to see him play because his father was an emotional man, who made playing spontaneously difficult for Bill. When Bill was eighteen, several scouts from the Mets came to talk to him. Bill went to try out for the team, but his pitches were not good enough, ending Bill's dream of being a professional ball player. Bill also learned that he was not a good enough football player for the professional teams. However, from his experiences with sports, Bill learned that he could push himself to prove how good he was.

Bill O'Reilly's story illustrates the theme of sports as a character builder because sports taught him how to push himself to...