by Tim Green
“WIN!”
On a 2–2 count, Jalen signaled a changeup to Damon. The Bandits’ shortstop swung big but hit a dribbler that ended up in the no-man’s-land between the catcher and third. He just beat the throw to first.
“That’s one!” Coach Allen shouted to his team. “One hit at a time, guys, and we got this! Next man up!”
“You know your Fanny won’t let you down, Coach.” Fanny peered in from the circle.
“Get ’em, Fanny.” Coach Allen bumped fists with Fanny and the big bruiser broke into a smile before turning toward the plate.
Fanny wasted no time in sending a worm burner through the 3–4 hole for a single.
“FANNY!” shouted the team.
The Lakeland right fielder scooped the grounder on the run and made the throw to third on a rope, cutting off Damon and sending him scurrying safely back to second. Jalen stood near Coach Allen, who called to Gertzy.
Gertzy paused outside the circle.
“Okay, Gertzy, your turn,” said Coach. “We don’t need you to kill it. Just get me a base hit and you’re the tying run.”
Gertzy glanced at Jalen, and he pretended not to see. Jalen sensed that before he’d joined the team, Coach Allen would have relied on Gertzy for the big hit. Now he had Jalen in the mix.
“Got it, Coach.” Gertzy bumped their coach’s fist and tramped toward the plate.
Coach Allen peered at the Lakeland dugout. “Oh boy.”
Jalen had a bad feeling by the look on his coach’s face, but not half as bad as when he turned and saw for himself.
64
THROWING SOME LEATHER-POPPING HEAT INTO a teammate’s glove at the far end of the dugout along the third base line was Biruk Royal, all five feet eleven and a half inches of him.
“What’s he doing?” Jalen asked, even though he knew.
“Warming up,” said Coach.
“But if they’re gonna put him in, why wouldn’t he pitch against Gertzy?”
Coach Allen rubbed his jaw. “Because if they can turn two off Gertzy—and they’ve got a force out at every base—then even if you hit your third home run, they’ll still have the lead going into the bottom of our order. They don’t want to use their big gun unless they have to. They want to get past us without cutting down the times he can pitch.”
“So they planned on using Biruk tomorrow and Monday in the championship,” Jalen said.
“I’m sure.” Coach Allen gave him a pat on the back. “Don’t worry. You can hit this kid. You can hit Jacob deGrom or Gerrit Cole if you just stay inside yourself and stay inside the ball. Right?”
“Yeah,” said Jalen, knowing that Coach was exaggerating but loving every word.
Jalen focused on the pitcher and signaled fastball to Gertzy. The throw was hot, but high and outside, and Gertzy let it go by. The Lakeland pitcher lost the strike zone. He walked Gertzy with four straight balls and the Lakeland coach approached the mound with Biruk Royal in tow.
Coach Allen reappeared. “Any hope on getting a read?”
Royal’s first warm-up pitch cracked like a firecracker.
“Not much.”
“Well, if anyone can hit this kid, it’s you.”
Daniel had been listening. “Yeah, Jalen. You heard Coach.”
“Thanks, Coach.” Jalen glanced at them both as another firecracker went off in the catcher’s glove.
“Remember, strong contact and don’t swing for the fences.” Coach Allen sounded barely hopeful.
“You got it, Coach.” He’d been here before, only last weekend, but not against the likes of Biruk Royal. He took in all he could, watching Biruk’s final warm-up, a downright filthy curveball. He’d have no idea what was coming until it left the pitcher’s hand.
If Biruk looked huge at the Campus Center when he threw a cupcake at ballistic speed, he looked ginormous atop the mound. Jalen stepped into the box without looking into the stands or back at Daniel or anything. He thought he heard Cat shouting from the dugout about how he could do it. He wondered how he could pick her voice out of the general roar, with both sides cheering.
A blur on the mound and the gunshot sound at his knees ripped him free from his mental swamp.
“Strike!” barked the ump. 0–1.
Jalen stepped back, kicking himself for letting the pitch pass without even a look. He took a deep breath and thought about the hundreds of swings he’d taken while visualizing this very moment.
He looked at Biruk and dug back into the box. The pitcher waved off the catcher’s signal, then nodded and went into his windup.
Jalen saw the red dot created by the spin of a curveball.
He swung hard and fast.
65
THE CURVEBALL WASN’T LIKE ANY curveball Jalen had ever seen from a batter’s viewpoint. It dipped like a hummingbird, not a baseball. He felt lucky just to get a piece of it before it slammed into the backstop. 0–2.
Jalen stepped out again. He felt a tremor race from his head to his toes. His visualization with the speed hitter hadn’t included a curveball this filthy.
“Biruk!” The shout came from behind Jalen, but he fought the urge to turn around.
Biruk, however, did look.
“Save it!”
Biruk nodded with a bashful smile at the advice that had to have come from his coach. Jalen knew exactly what it meant. He recalled Coach Allen’s speech about Lakeland’s arrogance, and it jolted him. He knew young players who could throw curves were supposed to use them sparingly, but for their coach to hint that Jalen didn’t deserve Biruk’s full arsenal of pitches was a slap in the face.
Anger burned away any doubt Jalen might have had. He stepped up to the plate, suspecting a garbage pitch and getting one. He let it go, setting up a 1–2 count. Another waste pitch came in high and outside. Jalen didn’t think Biruk could stomach throwing too many balls. He stayed in the box, expecting a rocket down the middle.
That was just what he got.
He swung fast and easy and his bat cracked. The ball soared over the fence in left-center and kept going.
The noise in his helmet’s ear holes was like the sound of a giant seashell.
The Bandits dugout exploded, with jumping, shouts, and cheers.
The Lakeland players couldn’t believe it.
“Grand slam.” Jalen chuckled to himself as he rounded the bases.
He threw himself into the mob at the entrance to the dugout, deafened by the howling and buffeted by back slaps.
Cat rushed to hug him, shouting, “You did it. You did it!”
“Guys, guys!” Coach Allen hollered. “I love it too, eight to seven, but it’s not over till it’s over. We just need one more good defensive hold, and they still have an at bat. So let’s bring this thing home. Let’s get some insurance runs.”
Jalen bumped Cat’s fist before taking a seat beside her.
She leaned close. “You know, I’ll be doing your first MLB contract before we graduate high school.”
Jalen laughed. “I know that’s not going to happen.”
“Why?” She nudged him gently in the ribs with her elbow.
“Because offering an MLB contract to a kid in school is illegal, smarty. Still, he’s some pitcher. That I know.”
“And that makes you some batter,” she said. “Look at that guy.”
Biruk Royal wasn’t shaken. He was visibly enraged and seemed to have grown even taller. Jalen knew he had to be furious with the Lakeland coach for taking away his curveball.
Jalen felt bad for Daniel, who went down swinging on three blinding fastballs. The next two batters were shown the same treatment. Coach Allen called them in before they took the field.
“Gertzy?” said Coach Allen. “Don’t try and be a hero. If your arm isn’t one hundred percent, you gotta let me know.”
“I got this, Coach.” Gertzy sounded strong and confident.
“Bring it in, guys.” Coach looked all around. “Now, we got them where we want them, but even though they’re com
ing into the bottom of their order, you guys have to stay laser focused and play your tails off if you want this game. They are not going to give it away. Now, put your hands in here!”
They did their “Win” chant and headed onto the field.
Jalen jogged to his spot and went through the warm-up with mindless precision. Word must have spread that a big upset was in the offing, because the sidelines were now jammed with people. Lakeland’s first batter approached the plate in an apparent hurry to get their own rally going. Gertzy wasn’t having it. He struck out that first batter on just four pitches.
Bandits’ spirits were high until the next batter sent one into short center for a man on first. He was the tying run. The next Lakeland player got a pitch so wild that Fanny jumped nearly out of his shoes to save it from getting by.
“Gertzy?” Coach Allen shouted.
“I’m okay, Coach!”
Jalen was glad Gertzy stayed on the mound. He believed his friend was the best chance they had. Gertzy rewarded them with two brilliant two-seam sinkers and two strikes. When he went back to his fastball, though, the batter sent one over Damon’s head for a single.
The tying run was now on second. The potential winning run was on first. And Lakeland was at the top of their order.
Jalen did the math in his head without thinking. If Lakeland got one more single and made one more out, Biruk Royal could get to bat and win the game with a grand slam of his own. They only needed two runs, but he’d get credit for four steaks on the scorecard. In the Bandits dugout, Coach Allen and Coach Miller were huddled together, obviously discussing a pitching change.
Jalen gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to see Gertzy get pulled. When his coaches separated and did nothing, he relaxed. Lakeland’s next batter stepped into the box. Gertzy threw some filth with a two-seamer that left the batter in a corkscrew. The entire Bandits team and their fans cheered him on.
Jalen wanted to yell to Gertzy to throw another sinker. In that instant he realized that he knew Gertzy was going to throw a fastball. He’d seen enough of his friend now to know. He also knew that a fastball was the wrong pitch to throw. Gertzy’s fastball had lost its pop.
Jalen opened his mouth to speak, but in that instant Gertzy began his windup.
Jalen was too late.
The pitch sailed across home plate, a flying meatball.
The Lakeland player smashed it.
Jalen sprang from his crouch and leaped into the air.
He went down hard, knocking the breath from his lungs. He knew he’d made the second out, but the runners were racing back to their bases. Damon had been either too slow to react or had shaded too close to third. Regardless, in an instant Jalen knew the runner would beat Damon to the base, so the only chance to turn two was a throw to first.
He cranked his body around and made the throw from the ground. The runner slid. Gunner stretched and snagged the ball in a cloud of dirt.
All eyes jumped toward the umpire.
66
FOR A DEFENDER IN BASEBALL, there are few sights more beautiful than an umpire’s profile with his fist extended out in front of him for that brief instant before he rips it back with the force it would take to tear a soda can in half. Jalen bounced to his feet with the same force, uncertain exactly how he’d gotten there. He wasn’t there long. Daniel jumped on his back before Gertzy knocked him over. Soon Jalen was at the bottom of a dog pile.
The Lakeland players and coaches wore the dumbfounded looks of total shock. As Jalen shook hands with the opposing team, he thought some were still in shock, some envious. A few simply avoided any eye contact at all. He thought he detected respect in the attitude of Lakeland’s coaches, but knew you never could be sure with grown-ups.
When Coach Allen gathered them in their dugout, he tried to fight back a gleeful grin but failed. “Guys, this was a big one. Really big. You weren’t born yet, but in 2003 the Yankees were a huge favorite over the Marlins in the World Series. They had three times the payroll, but the Marlins won, and that’s what this feels like it could be.
“Like the Yankees in game one, these guys thought all they had to do was show up and they’d win. Game two was different, though. The Yankees took the Marlins more seriously, and they won that one.”
Coach Allen turned to Coach Miller. “What am I trying to say?”
“They looked past us and got a butt kicking.” Coach Miller’s voice seemed to boom off the walls. “They won’t make that mistake next time. If there is a next time.”
“That’s right: if,” Coach Allen said forcefully. “If we flounder in this tournament now, then they’ll all say we just got lucky. But if we keep playing like this, and winning, and make it to the championship on Monday, and if these guys don’t lose again, then we’ll face them again. If that happens—and we win—then a lot of you guys are going to be on the recruiting lists for a boatload of big-time college programs.”
Silence hung in the air. Jalen looked all around him and saw that everyone, including the coaches, was pinning their hopes on his game.
67
“GUYS WITH FAMILY DOWN HERE should visit with them and celebrate!” Coach Allen said. “You’re also welcome to join the rest of us in the Pines Meeting Room on the second floor of the Legacy Hotel for pizza. We have a game tomorrow at nine, so Coach Miller and I will visit the dorm for bed check and lights-out at eleven.”
“I don’t enjoy long evening walks,” Coach Miller said, “so don’t disappoint me.… Be there!”
“Great win, guys,” Coach Allen said. “Now, bring it in…”
They gave their cheer and broke their huddle.
“Oh, guys! Wait up.”
They quickly regrouped in a semicircle in front of their coaches.
“I’m sure this has nothing to do with any of you, but there was an incident in the hotel with some vomit in a bag that burst at a player’s door and made a heck of a mess.” Coach looked around with a somber face. “Obviously, if whoever was involved is caught, they’ll be asked to leave. It better not have been anyone on this team. You’ve had a big win, and I want you to enjoy it, but just don’t do anything stupid.”
Jalen’s insides instantly froze. He scanned the team, noticing scowls on the faces of his fellow offenders.
Gertzy leaned into his ear and whispered, “Dude, be cool.”
Coach let them go, and the team filed out of the dugout to their waiting friends and family. Jalen invited Daniel to join him and Cat with their moms for Steak ’n Shake, but Daniel chose pizza with most of the team instead. He also invited Gertzy, but Gertzy’s parents were there too. That suited Jalen just fine, because he was still uncomfortable about his mom, or maybe it was George. Maybe both, he wasn’t sure.
The grown-ups were waiting for him and Cat outside the dugout. George rushed to greet Jalen first.
“Brilliant! Just blinding all around! Great batting and superior fielding.” George grabbed Jalen’s right hand in both of his and pumped it up and down.
Jalen’s cheeks heated like the inside of a toaster, and he glanced at Cat, who gave him two thumbs-up.
“Thank you,” Jalen said. “Hi, Mom.”
She wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek. “Honey, you are so good! Congratulations. So exciting. How do you feel?”
She held him at arm’s length now and her eyes sparkled with joy. Jalen was at a loss for words.
“I… I feel… great. Brilliant, I guess.” He looked around at them all and they laughed.
At Steak ’n Shake, George insisted that Jalen sit next to his mom in the booth while he took the chair on the end. Jalen had a double cheeseburger with fries and washed it all down with a cookies-and-cream shake.
“Fanny was right about this place,” he said, wiping his mouth. When he put his hands in his lap, his mom reached over, gave the closest one a squeeze, and held on to it. It felt like she never intended to let him go.
* * *
When Jalen’s phone buzzed in his pocket, he kne
w it had to be either Daniel or Gertzy. He wouldn’t have answered, except he was worried about the whole barf bag incident and being asked to leave. He was shocked to see that it wasn’t his friends calling, but his dad.
“Mom? Can you let me out? I need to use the bathroom.” Jalen left the table and answered his phone. “Hi. Hello.” Once he was out of hearing, he said, “Dad, are you all right?”
“Jalen! How you doing? How was your first game?”
Jalen entered the restroom and saw it was empty. He felt comfortable being loud. “We beat the number one team, Dad! I hit three home runs! One was a grand slam!”
“Is so exciting, Jalen! I can’t believe I gotta miss this.”
“It’s okay, Dad.” Jalen looked at himself in the mirror. “You’re a big businessman now. Where are you?”
“Atlanta. You never gonna believe the plans for my Silver Liner Diner here. What a location! Very, very nice neighborhood.”
Jalen’s throat got tight. “I’m proud of you, Dad.”
“I’m proud of you, Mr. Grand Slam.”
Jalen chuckled. “Well, I better go. I’m at dinner with Cat and her mom, and I stepped away from the table to talk.”
They said good-bye and hung up. Jalen told himself that he hadn’t lied, but the kid in the mirror looked guilty.
68
THE SUN HAD SET A little while ago but its lingering heat still seeped from the white paving stones in the central courtyard of the dormitory buildings. A flurry of insects swarmed in the bright white cones beneath the lights above. Jalen didn’t like bugs, but it didn’t seem fair that they were so naturally attracted to something that would kill them if they got too close.
George cleared his throat. “Why don’t I take Cat and her mom back to our hotel—it’s on the beach, you know—and you two can spend a few minutes together before Jalen’s bed check? I’ll come back and be waiting for you here. Lizzy, are you good with that?”