Senior Year Box Set

The rest of the infield joined us on the mound.

“David should just drill him and get the next guy,” Wolf said loudly.

“You do, and he’s gone,” the umpire called from home.

We all held our smirks because we knew that would be in James Ryan’s mind now. He’d seen how hard I was throwing, and I could attest that it was no joke to get hit with a baseball.

“Special,” Moose said quietly.

We all nodded our agreement, and I stepped to the rubber as my guys took their position. We were going to pick off their baserunner and not give Ryan a chance to ruin our day.

I took my position on the mound and glanced over my shoulder to check the base runner. He had taken an average lead off first, nothing too crazy because he realized that he represented the tying run. I looked home and then made my pickoff move.

Wolf lunged to the side in an attempt to gather it in as the runner dove for the bag. Don, in right field, was totally confused because he couldn’t find where the ball had gone. Our dugout was up and pointing down the line. Don ran to where he thought they were pointing and couldn’t find it. The runner took all that in and decided to run to second to put himself into scoring position.

When he was a third of the way down the line, I bolted towards him. He came up short when I tagged him. I’d never taken the ball out of my glove. The whole stadium became quiet for a second before they saw the first-base umpire call the runner out when I showed him the ball. Our fans lost their minds when they realized we’d just won State.

The expression on Don’s face when he realized what we’d done was priceless.

This time, we went nuts in our celebration. We’d done it. We’d faced the impossible gauntlet and survived.

Winning my fourth state championship should have been old hat by now. But this one was the sweetest of the four. Both Moose and Coach Haskins planned to retire, and this had been Moose’s goal ever since he’d begun coaching baseball. What made this one so special was that it was unexpected.

Baseball is a funny game. On any given day, any team can beat the other team. All it takes is a poor hitting night or an odd bounce of a ball, and you lose. Winning all those games in a row … let’s just say I had some doubts we would pull it off. I always knew that my guys would fight to win, and we had a chance. It would have been foolish to believe we wouldn’t stumble at some point.

When they brought out the trophy, it was a monster. It would look good sitting in our trophy case in the field house. They gave us each a medal to wear around our necks to commemorate our win. Jeff had a photographer with him who took our team picture with the trophy for the paper the next day.

◊◊◊ Thursday May 11

Today I had finals in all my classes except Calculus, AP Physics, and AP Chemistry; I’d had those yesterday. I skipped running because I needed the time to review. Besides, my first test was in Strength and Conditioning, and I was afraid of what Joey might have planned for me.

I walked downstairs for breakfast and found Cassidy cooking.

“Morning, Sunshine,” I greeted her.

“Morning, Doofus.”

Someone was in a mood.

“When are you going to learn to cook something other than breakfast?” I asked.

“I know how to make ketchup spaghetti with hot dogs.”

My stomach rolled over as I thought about eating that.

“I figured once we get married, I’d cook breakfast, and you could make lunch and dinner,” Cassidy continued.

“You might want to consider learning to cook other meals,” Mom said as she came into the room.

Yep, mothers have super hearing.

“I hear you’re moving to LA a week before school starts. What do you plan to do for the summer?” I asked.

“I got hired at the place I’ve been volunteering. It’ll give me some practical experience, and I’ll make some extra money for college,” Cassidy said.

“Or I could hire you as my personal trainer, and you could come to help me film my movie this summer,” I offered.

“Sorry, I can’t. I already promised the vet clinic.”

I thought about her turning me down for a second and then was proud of my little ninja. She’d just shown she was a woman of her word, which was one of my life goals.

“Good answer,” I relented.

“Are you starting to realize that you’re leaving?” Mom asked.

“That’s probably it,” I admitted.

“Go help Peggy bring down the boys. Breakfast is ready,” Cassidy said.

My mom smiled because she didn’t have to be the one to tell me. I was going to miss this.

◊◊◊

When we arrived at school, Pam was out front waiting for me. She didn’t look happy.

“Cora and Devin’s divorce went through.”

I’d predicted from the get-go that Pam’s sister wasn’t right for Devin. Devin must have thrown in a parting gift of cash to get her to agree to a quickie divorce. My brother’s divorce wasn’t moving nearly as fast. Angie hadn’t convinced me to offer the same sort of sweetener.

“Why the sad face? You knew this was coming,” I said.

“I know, but …” Pam trailed off.

How many times had I heard the ‘I know, but’ response? If you knew … why add drama?