Junior Year Box Set

Last night, we’d pasted the Stripes 10–3. I struck out once and was walked four times. It was becoming obvious who the better players were. At this level, that was a relative term, because this was the best-of-the-best in our age group. Certain players seemed to rise to the occasion. I was happy to see that several of the players from Team Pride were among that group. From tonight’s lineup, it looked like Coach Kingwood was putting his best team on the field.

Batting Order / Name / Position

(1) Logan Greene – Second Base

(2) Mitch Underwood – Shortstop

(3) Dave Gordon – First Base

(4) David Dawson – Center Field

(5) Royce Greene – Third Base

(6) Jerry Peoples – Right Field

(7) Tristan Pratt – Left Field

(8) Patrick Welch – Catcher

(9) Mike Case – Designated Hitter

Shane Bays – Pitcher

Jerry, Mike, and Tristan were our young kids. Tristan especially showed a lot of potential. I’d spent a lot of time with Tristan and Jerry since they were my fellow outfielders. Besides being good baseball players, I found I liked them both quite a bit.

Tonight’s game would be played at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, a suburb of Houston. It’s home to the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. It’s not a development league like the A, AA, and AAA teams. Instead, it’s what’s called an ‘open’ classification of play, the highest level of professional baseball other than Major League Baseball. More than 40% of Atlantic League players had played in the majors. Atlantic League clubs paid players to win baseball games, not to apprentice in baseball’s developmental levels.

Before the game, we were given a tour of the facilities. I wished we had a field like this back home. In foul territory behind left field was a picnic area. Over the fence behind left field was a splash area where kids could run around and get wet. It was everything minor league baseball should be, i.e., family friendly.

They were doing something smart tonight. We were the first game of a doubleheader. Our game was free if you bought a ticket for the Sugar Land team’s game with the Long Island Ducks. After the game, they planned a fireworks display. At the beginning of our game, the stands weren’t very full, but by the time the game ended, nearly 7,500 fans were in attendance.

We were up first. We were facing Hagen Holmes, who had red hair and freckles. He’d told me Hagen was a family name, which originated from Agen, meaning ‘youthful one’ in Gaelic. I’d wanted to know if he had any sisters because I liked redheads.

The coaches had made a point later in the week to mix the teams together in practice, eating, and the like. I think they realized that the competition had gotten out of hand, and we would eventually be teammates with each other. About half the Stripes embraced the idea, while Rich and his group made it a point to stay away from everyone else.

In the first inning, I stood in the on-deck circle watching Dave become Hagen’s latest victim when I was accosted by the Skeeters’ mascot. He was a big green mosquito with a baseball cap and team jersey and reminded me of the Phillie Phanatic. The mascot had a giant piece of paper and an equally large black marker. He wanted my autograph, so I made a big show of signing it. That would have been fine, but he became upset when I didn’t want his autograph. It was actually quite funny. I was almost glad that Dave struck out because I wasn’t focused on baseball.

In the second inning, when I was getting ready to bat, the Skeeter was back. This time he was pouting and holding his nose at me. The fans got behind him and booed. I knew when I was beaten. I pantomimed that I was sorry and got on my knees to beg him to sign an autograph for me. That was when the music started. Someone must have Googled me.

AC/DC’s Thunderstruck began blaring out of the stadium’s speakers. I jumped up and began to do my Angus Young air-guitar routine. Skeeter had some serious rock-guitar moves. We should have saved this for the seventh inning stretch because tonight’s umpire was not amused with us delaying the game. Coach Kingwood rolled his eyes at the umpire when he ordered me into the batter’s box. Coach, at least, realized this was just part of minor league baseball. The goal was for the fans to have a good time.

Hagen had a split-finger fastball with just enough movement that it had our first three batters either topping the ball or missing altogether. It was one of my favorite pitches to throw, so I was familiar with it. Hagen was smart and kept it low in the strike zone. When the ball moved, it would drop down and out of the zone. More times than not, the umpire would call it a strike.