Dougie Walsh had a knack for throwing strikes. As a youth baseball player, Dougie would spend countless hours during the cold New England Winters in his garage throwing baseballs at targets like empty milk cartons. Once the weather improved enough to go outside, Dougie drew a strike zone on his parent’s shed and pelted it daily with pitches. One day, Dougie saw a ratty old sock net and stand in the woods behind a Little League field and retrieved it for his pitching workouts. He placed it at home plate and threw baseball after baseball into the netting. Dougie’s friends from town knew he was a consistent strike thrower, so they would ask Dougie to throw them batting practice, and Dougie always said “yes.” At the county fair, Dougie always made a bee-line to the “How Fast is Your Pitch” stand and would just love throwing strikes and seeing how fast his pitches were.

One day, Dougie was walking home with his neighbor Amanda when suddenly, a burglar snatched Amanda’s purse. The burglar started to run away and Amanda screamed at Dougie to do something. Dougie reached into his backpack, grabbed a baseball, then threw a strike and knocked out the burglar. Amanda ran over and grabbed her purse, called 911, and the cops came to arrest the burglar. When the cops asked how the burglar was apprehended, Amanda told them of Dougie’s accuracy and bravery. The cops told their boss, who told the Mayor, who invited Dougie down to City Hall for a ceremony commemorating “Local Hero Day.” Dougie was given a citizen’s award for bravery. On the back of his medal, it read “that’s one way to catch a thief.” The crowd, which included members of the press as well as Dougie’s neighbor Amanda, stood up and cheered as Dougie was honored. Dougie raised his hands in the air and thanked the crowd.

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