The Life of John, A Sluggers Story

[closer-a-rama]

It didn't seem that long ago that I was watching my last homerun sail over the fence at the state High School Championship game. It was a great feeling to give the coach a state championship after he had given 35 years to the school.

But right now all I can think about is the phone. and when it's going to ring. The 2002 season was exciting in the majors, with the Angels surprising everyone and taking the series. I hope that today will be my start towards surprising everyone.

Some people very politley describe me as a lumbering first base man. I swing a bat that's been compared to a tree trunk and I couldn't steal a base if the devil himself were chasing me. But for all of that I'm still one of the best baseball players to come out of this small upstate New York town since Jim Deshase pitched for the Astros in the 80's.

It seems like the whole town is either in or around my parents house as we wait for some clubs GM to call. Finally afte what seems like an eternity, but was only two rounds the phone rings...

...and it's Detroit. Oh dear God. I've been drafted by Detroit.

So it's off to Lakeland Florida; at least I'll get a good tan and be able to go to DisneyLand whenever I want. After a couple months of practice we have our first game and the coach informs me I'll be the starting first base man batting 9th. Here goes nothing.

We're playing the Fort Myers Miracle, the Twins Single A team and it's at home. There's actually a decent sized crowd on hand for the game, I guess they really love their Tigers down here!

I'm so nervous during the warm up throws that I toss the ball over the shortstops head and into left field. Fortunetly our starting pitcher Kevin McDowell has a great first inning only giving one single. The ball never comes close to me as one guy strikes out and the other two fly out. I jog into the dugout happy to have my first inning on the field behind me.

The Miricle's pithcer is cruising and I don't get up to bat until the bottom of the third. We're down 2-0 and i'm leading off, exactly the situation I was hoping for!

He misses inside on the first pitch and then comes back with a devestating slider on the outside corner. On the next pitch I'm thinking outside, he was thinking inside, before I can check my swing I've allready hit a weak fly ball to right field. Well, at least I didn't strike out.

After the miricles score again in the top of the fourth, we start a rally and have allready pushed across two runs when I step up to bat with 2 on and 2 out. I guess I won't get an inning to think over what happened last at bat.

Very undramatically, I get set down on three of the sickest fastballs I've ever seen. The third one freezes me and the bat never leaves my shoulder. Man that guy has to have vasoline under his cap or something. I sulk back to the dug out with my head down. Our catcher, a great guy named St. Pierre tosses me my glove and says "Heads up Rookie" but he is smiling and that cheers me up some. I trot out to first base and put the last at bat behind me.

The game ended up going into extra innings and we won 6-5. Unfortunetly I went 0-5 never getting the ball further than short right field. Ugh. Well, we all have to start somewhere and I played solide defense at first. I sure things'll get better at the plate, hey they can't get worse!

[dsvitak]

This is a very fine start to a story!

Please keep it up!