“You stink.”
“He’s a boy,” Julie told her sister.
I tickled them both and they ran screaming from me. Greg scooped up Elizabeth and tossed her to me.
“You torture this one and I’ll get the other one,” he said as he play-chased Julie.
I flipped her upside down and her shirt exposed her tummy. I gave her a raspberry.
“Let me down! I’m going to pee!” she squealed.
I set her down and she ran off. Julie had Greg down and was tickling him with Angie and Beth’s help.
Aunt Tanya came up and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
“Hey, Good-Looking. Someone grew up.”
“Yes, ma’am, it happens.”
“That it does. When do you play next?” she asked me.
“In about an hour or so, I would guess. Last time I checked, the second game on our next field is going fast. Are you going to stay and watch?”
“Elizabeth wouldn’t miss it. Julie wants to go to the mall with Angie and Beth.”
“Elizabeth can be our batgirl if she wants. That way you can do what you want this afternoon. I promise to bring her home in one piece.”
“That would make her trip. She idolizes you. She told me she wanted to be a photographer so she could take your pictures.”
I snorted.
“She has no idea how much work it is to make me look good.”
I GRABBED A CHICKEN sandwich and some potato salad and kicked back and relaxed until Jim came and told me we were warming up. I scooped up Elizabeth, threw her over my shoulder, and took her with me. She swatted my butt.
“Let me ride on your shoulders.”
I flipped her over, she got situated, and she stole my baseball cap.
“You want to hang out with me or go shopping with your sister?”
She got very serious.
“You’d let me hang out with you?”
“Of course I would.”
“But I don’t know how to play baseball.”
“That’s okay. I have a very important job for you if you think you can do it.”
“I’ll try my best, but sometimes I mess up.”
“You’ll do fine. If you do mess up, remember that I love you, and I’ll make sure it’s okay.”
She squeezed my head.
“David, can you call me El? All my friends do, and I’d like you to, too.”
“Sure.”
I found my team getting ready to warm up. I went up to Coaches Haskins and Hope.
“I would like to ask that we take on a batgirl. This is my cousin El, and she’s hanging out with me today.”
“El, have you ever been a batgirl before?” Coach Haskins asked her.
“No, sir, but I told David I would try my hardest. He said that if I messed up he’d help me fix it.”
“I think with that kind of attitude you’ll do just fine. What do you think, Coach Hope?”
“I think she has the job. David, why don’t you show her what to do?”
I explained to her that safety came first. When there was live action, she was to stay in the dugout. I showed her where the bats were and how we kept them separated so the players could find the right one. I told her when she was supposed to go get the bat and how to pick up our stuff after our at bat.
I took her over and introduced her to the home plate umpire. He showed her where he kept extra baseballs and that he might ask her to bring him some. He had a separate bucket for the used balls.
We were playing Washington. Ty came up to me.
“I see you have a new batgirl. Are you dating this one?”
“Funny. She’s my cousin. Why isn’t your little brother your batboy?”
“Good idea, but I don’t have time to show him what to do.”
“Introduce him to El and she’ll teach him.”
While I warmed up, El and Jeb, Ty’s middle brother, talked about how to do their job. El took Jeb to the umpire who patiently showed them what to do with the balls. I heard him reinforcing the safety rules. Turns out, Jeb was a little traitor. He decided to sit with El so they could talk. They were thick as thieves before the game even started.
Cassidy found a couple of Lincoln baseball caps for the kids. Ty about had a stroke when Jeb showed it off to him. Jeb laughed at him because he knew that Ty was all bark and no bite.
We got to be the home team because our bracket was the higher seed. We took the field first and Mike was pitching. It was a pitching duel until the third inning. In the top of the third, Mike made a mistake and gave up a two-run homer. They scored two more single runs and were up 4–0.
We had two on and two outs in the fourth when I came up to bat. Their pitcher promptly hit me square in the back. It hurt. I was contemplating kicking his ass when I saw him holding his arm. He was in as much pain as I was.
“Crap! I heard it pop!” he explained to his coach.
I went to grab my bat and found El and Jeb staring at me with big eyes.
“Are you okay, David?” Jeb asked.
“That looked like it hurt,” El said.
I almost said ‘no shit’ but caught myself.
“It does sting a little bit. I’ll be okay.”
Coach inserted Jim as a pinch hitter. He’d been hitting some huge shots in practice. Washington had the same problem we all had, not enough pitching. They had to run out their first baseman. He was big but had no breaking ball. Jim figured him out quickly and hit a grand slam that tied the game. We tagged on four more runs before they finally got an out. Washington went down in order in the top of the fifth. When it was time for us to bat again, their coach came out and forfeited the game. Their pitcher had tightened up during the time he was on the bench, and no one else wanted to try their hand at pitching.
This meant we were in the final four. I put Jeb and El on my shoulders and had them high-five the Washington players as we did the handshake. Ty rescued Jeb so they could go home.
WE WERE PLAYING ST. John’s ‘C’ squad. They had taken out our varsity squad in the first round. I found Rusty and his dad hanging around our bullpen. Coach had Bert penciled in to pitch, but he had no control in warm-ups.
“So guys, what can you tell me about your ‘C’ team?”
“They’ll eat this kid alive,” Rusty said.
“They’re a lot like you guys in that they’ll sit on the first pitch. This guy doesn’t have enough power and has no alternative pitches. They might score twenty on you,” Coach Fog offered.
“What about their pitcher? He any good?” I asked.
Rusty shrugged.
“He does some spot middle relief. You might put twenty on him,” Coach Fog told me.
I walked over and took the ball from Bert. He was relieved. After I threw about ten fastballs and had loosened up, I threw my new pitch, the two-seam fastball. Unlike the straight trajectory of the four-seam, this pitch had some movement on it. I threw four of them when I suddenly found Rusty and his dad standing next to me.
“You have a ‘tell’ when you throw that pitch,” Rusty said.
“Yeah, you hold your glove different,” Coach Fog told me.
I threw a couple of each and they showed me what I was doing. Sure enough, I was dropping my glove when I threw anything but the four-seam. They also showed me how to get more out of my legs. It made the motion easier and felt more natural. Before we knew it, it was game time. We were the home team again.
When I went to warm up, I only showed the four-seam pitch. I was also intentionally wild. Everyone expected to be seeing the worst pitcher in this game. Their first batter settled in and I threw my changeup as the first pitch. His eyes lit up, so I next threw the four-seam and blew it past him. He was ready for my third pitch, but I threw the two-seam. Well, I thought it was. I had inadvertently spread my fingers out a little bit and with more rotation. It became a split-fingered fastball. It was like the ball danced up to the plate and then fell off the table.
I struck out the side and we came up. We put two on them. The second inning was more of the first. They couldn’t touch my new pitch. Tim was doing a good job of mixing up my pitches. Well, really Coach Haskins was. He was signaling in the pitches to Tim.