Coach Haskins wasn’t happy with my plan, but Moose overruled him.
“I’ve never ordered anyone to intentionally pitch at a batter, and we are not starting today. If the ball happens to get away from you, I’ll understand. After all, our JV is playing their ‘A’ squad. There are sure to be some nerves,” he said, looking the pitchers in the eye one at a time.
We were up first and Coach Haskins had moved Eve into leadoff. She’d been making a lot of contact and was one of the fastest players on our team. St. John’s players were jeering her.
“Hurry up and strike her out, Rusty. I want to get some batting practice in.”
“Yeah, Rusty, they’re so weak they have to play a girl.”
Eve went about her routine, ignoring them. She dug in and their first pitch was hard and right down the middle. Eve ripped it straight back and the ball grazed the pitcher, causing it to bounce into right-center field. St. John’s took their time, thinking she would stop at first. Coach Haskins waved her through and she raced to second. The play was close, but Eve beat the throw.
The pitcher was pissed. He glared at Eve because no girl should have touched his fastball.
“Shake it off, Rusty,” the shortstop told him.
Eve took a big lead to taunt him. Their pitcher spun to throw to second to pick her off and Eve took off to third. She was a goner until the second baseman overthrew third base and put the ball in our dugout. Eve trotted home for our first run.
Their pitcher lost his shit. He slammed his glove on the ground and screamed at his teammates. Their coach had to come out and threaten to pull him from the game to get him to settle down. He struck out the next three batters.
I was happy to see their shortstop was up first. He was the one that mouthed off about batting practice. Bert saw him digging in to crowd the plate. Lou called for a high fastball. Bert put it right at chin level. How he missed him, I don’t know, but I was glad. I called time.
“Dude, don’t go headhunting or someone’s going to get hurt. Just plunk them in the back or in the butt. It’ll leave a bruise, but they can still play.”
Bert gave me a grin.
“I was really just trying to get him to back up some. I was worried I’d hit him when I released the ball.”
I swatted his butt with my glove and went back to short. The second pitch got the job done. Bert put a changeup right in the middle of his back. Their player went to charge the mound but Lou tackled him. Bert was warned and their player went to first. I could tell he was determined to score.
The next batter came up and acted just as cocky. Bert went into the stretch and checked the sign. He glanced over to see where the runner was and made a weak throw to first base. The boy at first gave Bert a smug look as he got back standing up. This emboldened him to take a bigger lead. Bert had a plan.
He got into the stretch and checked the sign. He put his chin on his shoulder so he could see the runner. The runner had taken an extra stride and a half. I smiled, knowing what was coming. Bert surprisingly had one of the better moves on our team. It was a bang-bang play. I wasn’t sure if Bert got him, but the ump called him out.
Their shortstop saw it differently.
“You blind mother...” was all he got out before he was ejected.
Their coach was tossed a moment later. Moose was enjoying the heck out of this. He and the other coaches were trying not to laugh as the St. John’s bench went nuts. I was worried that we’d have a fight on our hands if Bert hit another batter. I called the infield in and we had a conference at the mound while the umpires straightened everything out.
“What do you guys think?” I asked. “I’m worried if we hit the next guy, they’re going to clear the bench and someone’ll get hurt.”
“Let’s pitch to the next guy. If they’re still cocky after that, you can always hit another one,” Wolf offered to Bert.
Moose came out to see what was going on.
“What are you boys up to?” he asked me.
“We’re trying to figure if we should just grab a hot dog or go out for pizza after the game.”
“I’ll tell you what. You beat these guys, and I’ll take you to that steakhouse we saw coming into town.”
We all agreed Moose had a good plan.
The next guy hit a dribbler to third base. Jake charged it and made a barehanded grab and the runner just beat the throw. Their next batter hit it to second base and I covered to take out the lead runner and had to jump to protect from being spiked as the runner went for me instead of the bag. I got off the throw and got the runner at first for a double play.
St. John’s had their second ejection. In high school baseball, they take player safety seriously. What their runner had done was a cheap shot, and really could have hurt me if I hadn’t seen it coming. Of course, they lost another coach, too.
Wolf was up first in the bottom of the second. The first pitch was right at Wolf’s head. He started to spin out of the way. Thank god he had a helmet on because he didn’t make it. You could hear the sickening crack as the ball hit his helmet on the back of the head. Wolf dropped as if he had been shot. I didn’t hesitate. I bolted straight for their pitcher. I had been at the end of our dugout and he didn’t see me coming. I ran right through him as I took him four inches off the ground and buried him into the infield.
I could tell he was out cold, so I just got up. Coach Hope wrapped me up so I wouldn’t get into any more trouble. The umpires got together and ejected their pitcher and me. Then they gave us a forfeit win. Wolf came to, but the training staff insisted he go to the hospital to be checked out. Their pitcher also went. I knew what he was feeling, and he’d be hurting for days.
Moose had us all gather around.
“That was not quite how I wanted to win. David, while I have to commend you for standing up for your teammates, I’m going to give you a three-game suspension. The rest of you, thank you for not starting a brawl.”
“When we saw David take off, we knew he’d take care of it,” Mike offered.
“So, do we get a steak dinner?” Jake asked.
Moose looked at us like we’d lost our minds but finally relented. We went to the hospital and picked up Wolf. He had a bad headache but seemed to be okay. They told us to watch him and take him to his doctor the next day.
Their pitcher was also okay. He came out before Wolf and found me in the waiting room. Cassidy eased up next to me in case there was trouble. I put my hand on her shoulder to make sure she let me handle it. She already had her quota of taking down boys this week.
“I hear you put me on my ass,” he started.
“Yes, I was just letting you know we weren’t pleased with the cheap shot.”
“I got the message loud and clear. I wanted to let you know that there’re no hard feelings. My dad had a few choice comments, and I see now I was out of line. That pitch was dangerous and I could have hurt your teammate. I’m also lucky you didn’t beat the crap out of me. Dad said you just got up and walked off and didn’t follow through,” he said, and then offered me his hand.
I shook it, and the tension in the room went down. His dad came up and shook my hand, also.
“Son, thank you. You could have really hurt Rusty, and to be honest he would have deserved most of it. St. John’s showed their ass today. I’m going to be talking to some people tomorrow. That is not how we need to be representing ourselves. I’ve seen it all season, and today was a wake-up call,” Rusty’s dad, Guy Fog, said.
“I think Rusty got my message, so there was no need to go further. Rusty, ice your ribs tonight. It’ll help speed up the healing.”
Wolf came out and Rusty told him he was sorry.
We destroyed the salad bar at the steakhouse as well as each getting the biggest steak we could find. Moose about choked when he saw the bill. The guys ponied up $10 each to help cover the cost. The coaches all split the remainder of the bill with him. I don’t think we were getting steak again anytime soon. But we all were happy campers leaving town.