What is the theme of “The Boy Who Didn't Want to Catch"? What is the lesson, the message?
How do you know? (direct words from the story)

The theme of the story is of courage and perseverance. The message is that you must give your all when reaching your goals, not for the prize but for the experience. We can see this idea from the lines: "David began to understand what was most important. It wasn’t just the results. It was how hard one worked to achieve those results."

Explanation: “The Boy Who Didn't Want to Catch" is a story about a respectful boy who loved playing baseball. When a member of the team gets injured, the boy is told to take his place. However, he didn't want to catch because he was afraid to be a failure to his team. When he spoke to Sammy, the injured teammate, he began to understand that is not about the final destination but about the journey, and thus his soul was relieved and he enjoyed the game, due to his courage and perseverance.

. a function is a relation in which each input has only one output. in the relation , y is a function of x, because for each input x (1, 2, 3, or 0), there is only one output y. x is not a function of y, because the input y = 3 has multiple outputs: x = 1 and x = 2.