Speaking of Frank … he organized a press conference to be held during the second half of lunch. Caryn had talked to the school, and I was able to do it in the pressroom in the Field House. It wasn’t nearly the zoo LA had been. We had four local TV stations and three newspapers.
Frank had a prepared statement for me which said that Mr. O’Connell had started it and I’d been attacked. There were a few follow-up questions, and it was over. I was becoming an old pro at this.
◊◊◊
After school, I practiced hitting, and we started throwing when I wasn’t helping one of the guys in the batting cage. It looked like all the skill players in football planned to play seven-on-seven football. That meant the linemen were playing baseball with me. We might not be the fastest team, but we would be strong.
Jim had gained fifteen pounds of muscle in the last two-and-a-half months of working out and was now up to 265 pounds. His six-five frame carried the weight well. The good news was it didn’t seem like he’d lost a step. The Callahan twins were also packing on the muscle. I’d talked both Johan and Milo Bauer into joining us as well. Johan was already strong, but he was becoming a beast. He’d played catcher in Little League, and we desperately needed a catcher since Tim wasn’t allowed to play any sports this spring because of his knee.
Moose had had me in to talk about preseason training, and I’d seen his initial lineup.
(Batting Order) Name – Position:
(8) Johan Bauer – Catcher
(4) Jim Ball – 1st Base / Right Field
(5) Brock Callahan – 2nd Base / Pitcher
(3) Bryan Callahan – Shortstop / Pitcher
(2) Yuri Antakov – 3rd Base / Catcher
(6) Milo Bauer – Right Field / 1st Base
(1) David Dawson – Center Field / Shortstop
(7) Nick Rake – Left Field / Infield
Bench:
Neil Presley – Outfield / First Base
Wayne Turk – Infield / Outfield
Ray Quinn – Infield / Outfield
Bert Nelson – Pitcher / Outfield
Justin Tune - Pitcher / Infield
“How come you have me penciled in to lead off?” I asked.
“Two reasons. The first is we don’t have anyone else with your speed. The second is we only play seven innings. I want to maximize your at-bats. If you bat leadoff, you’re guaranteed at least three at-bats a game. With you at cleanup, you’re only guaranteed two,” he said.
I wasn’t sure how that would work out—I felt I held more value as a cleanup hitter than a leadoff man. The mindset was completely different at that position in the batting order. The leadoff hitter’s job was to get on any way he could and then pick up bases. It was up to everyone else to drive him in. But I would leave it to Moose; he’d been doing this longer than I’d been alive. I trusted he knew what he was talking about.
◊◊◊
Before dojo practice, Shiggy took Cassidy, her dad, Fritz, and me to his office. He wanted to talk about my fight on the plane. He played the video for everyone before he spoke. Everyone but Fritz had already seen it.
“First of all, I don’t see how you could have avoided the confrontation,” Shiggy said.
“If I had anywhere to go, I would have run,” I admitted.
Hindsight being 20/20, that would have been the best option.
“I understand Mr. O’Connell is a professional boxer. From watching the video, it was apparent you had no chance going head-to-head with him. I think if he’d had any martial arts training at all, he would have been able to handle your hip-toss and get back into the fight.
“I’ll admit I hadn’t thought you had the killer instinct in you, but you demonstrated at the end of the fight that you do. The last fight you had in LA, you were acting like you were in a practice session,” Shiggy chastised.
“He and I’ve had a talk about that,” Cassidy said. “I’m not sure he should have stopped so soon. He trusted that when he got off, the man would keep his word.”
“I agree,” Fritz said. “O’Connell was a much superior puncher, but I suspect if he’d tried anything funny, David had figured out that he had other skills that would have protected him.”
“As I kept pounding him, I saw the fight go out of his eyes. I believe he came to his senses and realized he’d messed up,” I said.
“I think you got lucky,” Coach Hope said to add his opinion. “You must always remember that there are people out there who are much better fighters than you are. That first punch to the ribs could have staggered you enough to allow him to crowd you and use his superior punching ability. The way it is, he marked you up pretty good.”
“The question is, what are we going to do about it? If David had the room, he could have used his kicks, but he needs to learn to fight in a confined space. We need to teach David to be a better puncher and how to defend himself when someone has the power that guy had,” Shiggy said.
“I used to box when I was in the Corps. I can work with him on that,” Coach Hope said. “We’ll just have to get the right gear.”
