Of course, my antics were the talk of the school. Poor Alan was about to explode. He was smart enough to know it wasn’t real, but he was a
I was happy to see several people had joined us. The one who made the most sense was Sun. She’d been homeless, and when she said she wanted to help, Brit had invited her to the meeting.
“Before we get started, I know you’ve probably seen the news. My little videos have caused quite a stir. On Saturday, we have our first baseball game at Washington. I’ve been asked to help raise funds. Should we ask people to bring things for our homeless cause? I mean, there will be a bus there for the baseball team anyway,” I said.
“The Homeless Coalition also serves the Washington area. I think that would be a good idea,” Brit said.
I left it to Brit and Sun to figure things out. The plan had been to try to fill up a bus the following Saturday when we had our first home game against Wesleyan.
Alan wanted to try out his app this week, and Wolf had his first picnic table built. It looked like everything was moving along nicely.
◊◊◊
As I walked to lunch, I received a text from Caryn. It seemed my dad had been caught at work and talked to a reporter. The link to the interview was attached.
“Do you have the Millennium Falcon hidden in a barn?”
Dad gave the guy a look he’d developed over the years that told either Greg or me that we were idiots. I admit it made me chuckle.
“We had an attempted break-in at the farm, so it had to be moved.”
Good call. We didn’t need people bothering my grandma.
“Sources say that this is just a publicity stunt. Is there any truth in that accusation?”
“Oh, no, it’s totally real,” Dad said as he started to laugh and walked away.
The reporter turned to the camera.
“I think we’ll have to leave it to our viewers to decide if this is a hoax or not.”
You could hear the cameraman laughing, and the reporter smirked. It must have been a slow news day if they were goofing off on fluff pieces like that.
◊◊◊
Lunch was chaos. Cassidy had to threaten me because I was on my last nerve with Alan and his questions. “Yes, I auditioned to be in
◊◊◊
At baseball practice, Coach Haskins showed me how to steal a base while Coach Herndon taught the pitchers the proper way to pitch out of the stretch.
“At first, I want you to go each time the pitcher releases the ball, to get used to breaking at the right time. We’re going to try two different running techniques. I don’t think either is better than the other. We’ll figure out which one works best for you,” Coach Haskins said.
“How will we do that?” I asked.
“We’ll time you and see which gets you to second base the fastest.”
“Usually, I just smile.”
Coach wasn’t impressed with my witty comment and made me run five laps around the field to ‘adjust my attitude.’ While I ran, he worked with some of the other players on base-stealing. When I came back, he made me wait my turn as he coached Brock.
“The two techniques to start your run are the directional step and the crossover. Let’s try the directional step first. Now watch how I have my feet,” Coach said and showed how he had his feet planted just a little wider than shoulder-width. “With the directional step, there’s typically a little hesitation step on the lead leg. That’s to turn your foot so the toe’s pointed to the base you want to steal.”
Coach demonstrated picking up his foot and turning it before he began his run.
“What the directional step does is allow you to shift weight towards the edge of your base of support so you can gain momentum quickly. It is added movement, but it can help create a better mechanical advantage for you to get up to speed faster.”
He had Brock try five runs to second so he felt comfortable doing it. He then timed him for the next five.
“The second is the crossover. You dig in the foot closest to the direction you want to go and then use that lead leg to push off while your trailing leg crosses the lead leg.”
Brock did this several times until he felt good, and then Coach timed him.
“If you’re facing a pitcher who has a weak move to first, what you can do is cheat your lead foot back a bit. That also applies if you have a catcher with a weak arm,” Coach said and then demonstrated.
His lead foot was now a couple of inches further back from his front foot.
“What this does is open your hips more, and there’s less body weight in your way as you turn and run,” Coach explained.
