Baseball Genius

by Tim Green

  “Yeah, uh, my dad has a diner.” Jalen’s tongue twisted up. There was so much to say.

  Cat leaned over to speak into the microphone. “Not just any diner. The Silver Liner Diner in Rockton, New York. And it wasn’t just any food. JY’s lucky meal was the stuffed calamari that comes from Jalen’s grandma back in Italy. Yager eats the lucky squid, and he goes four-for-four.”

  This caught the reporter’s attention, and she shifted it to Cat. “Wait, how do you know Yager?”

  “He’s our next-door neighbor.” Cat grinned up at her mom. “He came to my birthday party last week. Everyone knows he’s been in a slump, but that’s over now. You’ll see. He’s gonna tweet about it tonight. It’ll be hard to get a seat in the Silver Liner after this.”

  The woman reporter looked at her watch, then the cameraman. “If we feed this now, we could get it on the end of the ten o’clock news and scoop everyone. Thanks, kids. Let’s go.”

  “Wow,” Daniel said. “What just happened?”

  “Let the media frenzy begin.” Cat beamed.

  “I don’t know,” Jalen said.

  “You don’t know what?” Cat raised her eyebrows at him.

  Jalen watched the reporter disappear from the field. “I just got a feeling Yager’s not going to be very happy about it.”

  55

  JALEN FELL ASLEEP ON THE ride home.

  The day had done him in, and the joy of success and a dramatic Yankees win with him and Yager at the center of it all left him exhausted. When Cat’s mom slowed the Range Rover to exit the highway, he woke and looked around, blinking.

  Cat twisted around from her front seat and held her phone in his face. “I didn’t want to wake you, but look. He did it. Right after the game.”

  On the screen was one of the pictures Cat had taken of Yager with a big smile to go with his delicious-looking plate of calamari. Yager himself had tweeted:

  SLUMP OVER THX 2 #SILVERLINERDINER

  IN ROCKTON. #LUCKYCALAMARI

  HELPED ME GO 4 FOR 4!

  A jolt of excitement lit Jalen from the inside out. “Wow. He really did.”

  “He said he would.” Cat grinned all around. “A deal’s a deal. Next stop, a contract.”

  “Not yet.” Jalen scowled. Reality came crashing in on him. “I’ve got to do it again tomorrow night and Friday, too.”

  “You will!” Cat grabbed his knee and shook it. “You proved you can do it, and you’ll do it again. It’s as good as done, Jalen. Why the face?”

  Jalen looked at Daniel to see if he knew.

  Daniel pressed his lips tight, then said, “The whole reason for all of this was so Jalen could play with the Rockets, not get a contract with Yager.”

  “Yeah, but he can do both!” Cat’s face glowed with delight. “This is really happening!”

  Daniel wagged his head. “He can’t do both unless someone gets Coach Gamble on board. Jalen can’t even be late again if he wants to stay on the team. He sure can’t miss a practice.”

  “It’s true.” Jalen opened the window to get some air and had a fuzzy recollection of a story from his early childhood his dad would tell. “Gamble is the ogre under the bridge. I’m the goat.”

  “It was a troll,” Cat said. “ ‘Three Billy Goats Gruff.’ And the goats outsmarted him.”

  Cat’s mom cleared her throat. “What if James Yager spoke to him?”

  Jalen froze. His mind whirred with the possibilities. “He’d do that?”

  “Why wouldn’t he?” Cat’s mom said.

  “Ha-ha! See?” Cat clapped her hands and patted her mom’s shoulder.

  Just then they rounded the corner in the center of town.

  “What’s that?” Daniel pointed up ahead.

  In the white glow behind the train station, half a dozen red lights flashed madly, illuminating everything in a frantic, hellish glow. The Range Rover slowed, circling the station and crossing the tracks. Several spotlights lit the Silver Liner. Fire trucks and emergency vehicles surrounded it. A frenzy of firefighters glowed like aliens in their yellow coats and wide hats.

  Smoke and steam drifted up from the diner into the blackest of nights.

  56

  IT WAS LIKE THE END of the world.

  The end of everything.

  The lights were out and the diner was like a crow-eaten carcass, lifeless and empty. The damp, sickly scent of smoke filled their noses even inside the car. Cat let loose a small shriek.

  “Dad!” Jalen screamed, and launched himself from the SUV.

  He’d nearly reached the front of the diner when a firefighter swept him up and carried him back toward the trucks. “Oh, no. You can’t go in there.”

  Jalen kicked and flailed. “My dad! Where’s my dad?”

  Another firefighter caught hold of him as well, and together they pinned Jalen down on the bumper of the fire engine. Jalen suddenly went limp. Before him was the back end of an ambulance. A paramedic slammed the doors shut and ran around to the front of the ambulance.

  Before Jalen could speak, it was gone.

  57

  JALEN CLOSED HIS EYES, THINKING the worst. The cook’s words from the ballpark haunted him. Things could always be worse. And a restaurant fire just like what happened to Mr. Moses? The whole thing felt to Jalen like some horrible and impossible dream.

  Then he heard his name.

  “Jalen! Jalen!”

  Jalen opened his eyes and saw his father’s beautiful red face. Sweat gleamed on his bald head and his upper lip, and the edges of his glasses were foggy.

  The firefighters let go and his father hugged him. Jalen was shaking, and he realized his face was damp with tears. “Dad, you’re all right?”

  “I’m all right.” His father held him at arm’s length. “Nobody is hurt. Just the diner.”

  His dad looked and sighed, shaking his head. “I sent Greta and Jimmy home and then people started coming. They talked about the Yankees and James Yager and they wanted the lucky calamari. So I started to cook and I saw more people coming, and I tried to cook more calamari, and I left the stove ’cause I don’t want people to think I wasn’t there, and then a man he showed me you on the news and I watched, but then I went back to the stove and . . .”

  “Me on the news.” Jalen’s voice fell flat, and he looked at the smoking diner. “How bad is it, Dad?”

  His father turned and looked with him, keeping one arm around Jalen’s shoulders. “I dunno. Maybe it’s not so bad. I gotta get a new stove. That much is for sure.”

  Jalen suddenly panicked. “Do we have insurance?”

  “Yes, yes,” his father said. “Don’t you worry. I have insurance.”

  “But now people will come and they won’t be able to eat.” Jalen was thinking of the bank even as his friends surrounded him.

  Cat’s mom looked sadly at the diner. “Maybe we can help.”

  “Everyone can help!” Cat said.

  Jalen looked at Cat, because she didn’t sound sad, she sounded happy and excited.

  “We can turn this into a whole community thing.” Cat waved her arms. “We can get James Yager and the town—maybe even my cheapskate stepfather will kick in.”

  “Maybe the Yankees?” Daniel suggested.

  “Yes!” Cat pumped a fist. “The Yankees will want to help. They always do stuff like that. Everyone will, and it’ll be an even bigger story and it’ll be even better! We can have a grand reopening! Everyone will want to be a part of it.”

  Jalen felt a bubble of excitement building in his chest, only to feel it pop. He didn’t want it to pop, but it did because he was certain about one thing.

  “No, Cat,” he said. “Not everyone.”

  58

  BEFORE JALEN COULD GO INTO detail, James Yager appeared, looking exhausted and worried.

  After Cat’s mom explained everything, he put a hand on Jalen’s dad’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Fabio. I’d be happy to help.”

  Jalen brightened. “Thank you.”

  “Wel
l, you’re helping me, right?” Yager looked at him hard. “We have to help each other.”

  Jalen opened his mouth to bring up the subject of Coach Gamble, but his father spoke.

  “Thank you. It’ll be okay.” Jalen’s dad forced a smile. “It’ll be like a phoenix, the bird that rises from the ashes.”

  “I hope so.” Yager stared at the diner for a minute. “Well, I gotta get some rest. Victoria, you set it up with the kids. The tickets will be at the window. Same thing tomorrow, right?”

  Everyone nodded. Jalen opened his mouth for the second time to raise the subject of Coach Gamble, but two firefighters broke into their party, thrilled to recognize JY in their midst. Firefighters began to line up to take selfies, and Yager obliged, forcing tired smiles.

  The fire marshal took Jalen’s dad aside to try to explain what he’d need to do to make the diner safe before he could open again. Jalen tried to listen, knowing his dad didn’t always totally understand, even though he’d always pretend he did. When they’d finished, Yager had gone, and Jalen knew he’d have to deal with Coach Gamble himself in the morning.

  The trucks and Jalen’s friends didn’t disappear until after midnight. He and his dad walked home in silence. Before Jalen dropped into bed, his father said, “Everything’s gonna be all right, Jalen. I got you and you got me. The rest? We’ll see . . . we’ll just see.”

  Jalen tossed and turned, but he must have slept through the four o’clock train. When the five o’clock train woke him, though, he knew he couldn’t get back to sleep, so he went to the diner out of habit, walking the tracks in the faint morning light. From the back, he could see where the fire had burned through. The gaping hole exposed blackened ribs of wall studs, and the damp smell of smoky soot still clung to the air. He rounded the diner to the front, where broken windows smiled wickedly with jagged teeth of glass. A thick strand of yellow tape marked DANGER blocked the front door.

  The newspaper lay on the stoop as it always did, and Jalen looked around for the delivery person, wondering why he bothered. He sat on the steps to read with his back to the ruin. There was nothing about Jalen or the diner in the paper, just a Yankees box score and the story of Yager’s dramatic comeback to lead the team to victory. Jalen had that sense again that everything might have simply been a strange dream, and he wished more than ever for an iPhone or Internet at home so he could experience all the excitement on social media.

  He returned home and had a bowl of cereal, waiting until he heard the sound of the shower before he used his father’s old flip phone to call Coach Gamble.

  “Hello?” Coach Gamble sounded awake but grumpy.

  Jalen swallowed. “Uh, Coach?”

  “Who is this?”

  “Coach, it’s Jalen DeLuca.”

  “Pretty early, isn’t it?”

  “I know. Sorry.” Jalen took a breath and launched into his story, explaining that James Yager had invited him again to the Yankees game, because last night Jalen had been a kind of lucky charm. He spoke fast but never mentioned what he’d really done to help. His words pattered down on the coach’s ears like a rainstorm until, finally, he had nothing left to say.

  He could hear Coach Gamble breathing, but he had to ask, “Coach, are you there?”

  Coach Gamble snorted. “This doesn’t even make sense,” he said gruffly. “There’s no such thing as luck. I think you’ve heard me say that. Listen, I told you, you can get your money back and we all move on. If you can’t make it to practice tonight, that makes it easy.”

  “But Coach, I—”

  “Listen, kid. You’re making more of this than you should.” Coach Gamble’s voice turned soft but stayed firm. “You have no idea how hard it is to go to the next level. I mean, you’re a natural athlete. You’re fast, and you can jump, but even if you did train with us, baseball is about a lot more than being an athlete. A lot of it is mental. You should think about focusing on track. Maybe football.”

  Jalen heard the shower go off. He felt his whole future slipping away. He didn’t care what Coach Gamble said. Jalen had a dream, and he believed he could make it come true. One thing he knew for certain: it wouldn’t happen if he missed a summer of baseball. He’d never catch up.

  “Listen, Coach,” he blurted into the phone. “I shouldn’t have called. I’ll be there tonight. I can still be on the team if I’m there, right?”

  “If you’re there on time, yes.” Coach Gamble bristled with impatience. “The rules are the rules. I don’t go back on my rules, and you’ve got a spot on the team. Only you can end that, I already said.”

  “Okay, Coach. Sorry. See you tonight.” Jalen hung up and put the phone down on the table where his father had left it.

  “Jalen?” His father wandered in, wrapped in one towel and drying off with another. He sounded tired and sad. “How are you doing?”

  Jalen tried to brighten his face with a smile. “I’m fine, Dad. Okay. How are you?”

  “Is a sad day for me, Jalen.” His father’s eyes were red from either smoke or tears. “But who knows? Maybe everything is gonna be fine. We’ll see. . . .”

  59

  JALEN GOT READY FOR SCHOOL. He was afraid to ask his dad for the phone to call Yager, and he decided he’d let Cat send Yager a text informing him about the baseball practice he had to be at unless . . .

  Jalen kissed his dad good-bye and set his jaw as he walked down the winding gravel path toward the bus stop. Why should he take on the worry about Coach Gamble? If anyone could get him to make an exception to his almighty rules, it had to be James Yager. Jalen should have had Yager ask in the first place.

  When he rounded the bend to a spot where he could see the diner, Jalen noticed a big white Ford F-350 pickup truck parked right in front. As he got closer, he saw that the tape had been cut. The truck had a large green decal on the door that said GCS. Jalen knew he had time before the bus, so he climbed the steps, listening. Inside, except for broken glass, the dining area didn’t look so bad. There were some overturned chairs and two tables that needed to be cleared, but other than the smell, no one would have suspected a fire.

  Something clanked in the kitchen.

  Jalen crept toward the door, ready to jump, because he knew it swung both ways and whoever had the pickup truck might come through any second. When he heard the murmur of voices, he pushed through. The kitchen was a mess. Puddles still stood on the floor, and sunlight streamed through the big hole, exposing charred metal and wood. The stove looked like a bomb had gone off. Two men in dark-green caps with clipboards stared at him.

  They both wore jeans and work boots. The shorter one had a long, bushy mustache. He scowled at Jalen with dark eyes. “Hey, kid, this is a work zone. You shouldn’t be in here.”

  “I . . . it’s my dad’s place.”

  The man’s face softened. “Oh. Well, we’re here to help. When will he get here?”

  “He . . . I don’t know. Soon?”

  “Well, we got orders to get this fixed up.”

  “Can you?”

  The shorter man laughed, and the big one looked at Jalen curiously. “That’s what we do. Our owner knows James Yager, you know, the Yankees second baseman?”

  “Yes,” Jalen said.

  “Yeah, well, we got the word to get this place fixed up fast.” The man nudged a burnt pan on the floor with his toe.

  “How fast?” Jalen looked around at the mess. “I mean . . .”

  The shorter man looked around too and chuckled. “Well, it’s still here, so I don’t know”—he looked at his partner—“a day or two?”

  The big man nodded, and Jalen felt his heart leap. “Really? The stove?”

  “We got stoves. Stoves are easy. We patch up this wall here, clean up the mess, get some fans going. Electrical will need rewiring. But kid”—the man smiled broadly—“we’re Greenland Construction. We build practically every fast-food restaurant up and down the thruway. We got two hundred men in the Westchester office alone, and when our boss says get it done? Tr
ust me, it’ll get done.”

  Jalen was so excited, the diner getting repaired was all he talked about on the bus with Daniel. It wasn’t until they pulled up to the school, where Cat stood waiting for them, that he remembered Coach Gamble.

  “Hey, guys.” Cat wore a serious look. She listened to Jalen’s story about the Greenland Construction people before she said, “That’s great, but what about tonight? Did you talk to Coach Gamble? Are you all set?”

  Jalen looked at Daniel, who only shrugged. Kylie Wines, a tall, thin girl with fiery red hair, saw Jalen and pulled up short. “Jalen! I saw you on the news. I saw JY’s tweet. Everyone’s talking. Will you take a selfie with me?”

  Cat rolled her eyes. Jalen shrugged. “Sure.”

  Kylie took her picture, checked it, and jumped in the air before thanking Jalen and disappearing into the school. The rest of the kids streamed past the three of them, standing there in front of the entrance. Jalen noticed a few looks and pointed fingers, but no one else stopped for a photo.

  “So,” Cat said impatiently, “Coach Gamble? Are we set?”

  “I don’t know how to say this, exactly.” Jalen raised his hands.

  Cat scowled. “Just say it.”

  60

  “COACH GAMBLE SAID NO. YOU have to text Yager. He’s going to have to convince Coach Gamble.” Jalen started to move toward the school. “There, I said it.”

  Cat caught up to him. “Wait a minute, what do you mean, he said no?”

  “He said no, Cat. It doesn’t get any simpler, and I’m not going to get thrown off that team.” It was somehow easier for Jalen to speak as he walked. “That would defeat the purpose of this whole thing.”

  “But you’re a baseball genius.” Cat kept her voice low but filled with venom. “You could make a living doing this. You could make millions.”