Justin showed why he was our number-one pitcher. He was able to get Washington out on just seven pitches. Coach Diamond had them aggressive at the plate, and they hacked away at some balls they shouldn’t have. In the top of the second, I found myself at bat with the bases loaded and two outs. Moose grabbed me before I stepped up to the plate.
“Don’t try to kill it, just drive the ball. Oh, and wait for your pitch.”
Baseball was complicated, but Moose made it simple. I just grinned at him.
When I got into the box, I was zoned in. The first pitch was a low fastball.
“Strike one!” the umpire called.
I looked back at him and smiled.
“If you hadn’t noticed, I’m tall. My knees are way up here,” I said.
The catcher was shaking from trying not to laugh. The umpire must have trained with my mom, based on the look he gave me. I guess I shouldn’t joke with him.
The next three pitches were outside. I knew the kid pitching would have to throw me a strike, or he would walk in a run. He threw another outside pitch, but I swung at ball four to bail him out. I looked down to third and Coach Haskins just clapped and yelled for me to get a hit.
When the pitcher released the next pitch, I recognized it was a curveball. If it dropped like it had in the past, it would be low, but I wasn’t counting on the umpire to make the right call. Bless the baseball gods. The curve hung over the plate. The sound of the bat confirmed what I knew: I got all of it. I drove it into the left-center gap. All the runners had taken off on the sound of contact. Because there were two outs, they didn’t have to wait to see if the ball was caught or not. I drove in three runs and had a stand-up double.
The game ended with that score, 4–0.
Not a bad day for me: two for four with three RBIs. I found out I was credited with a stolen base. If a catcher makes a wild throw in an attempt to prevent a stolen base, and the runner is safe, the catcher isn’t charged with an error. He did get an error when the shortstop didn’t back up the second baseman, and the ball went into center field. The center fielder picked up another error when I was able to score. Alan explained the finer points of scoring on the way home on the bus.
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Mom and Dad took me out to dinner for my first win. At dinner, they told me what a success the day had been. It turned out that twenty-three thousand people had attended the game. We collected a bus and four large moving trucks full of items for the Homeless Coalition. Mom had Mr. Orange go rent them from the local U-Haul dealer.
Coach Diamond called Dad and told him they had raised eight times the amount of funds they’d set as a goal. Thanks to that, the Washington Booster Club loved me. The vast majority of the people who showed up said they came to see me because of the
Angel called and thanked me for the opportunity. She told me they were picking up the cost of travel and hotels. Originally, I’d told her there would be a thousand people there. Eve had never sung for that many people, so she was happy.
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Chapter 20 – All These Things I’ve Said Sunday March 13
The day I’d dreaded was finally here. I had to tell my two ex-best friends the truth of what had happened to them that caused our friendships to fall apart. Looking back, a lot of it was my fault. It was me who brought Brandon into our midst. I’d trusted my lawyers when they recommended him to be my PA and help with recruiting. I’d been too trusting and not looked into why he’d left Harvard.
Since then, I’d requested that Caryn make sure everyone had a background check. I even made them check into people and organizations we donated money to. I had a better understanding of Teddy Wesleyan now. As yet, I wasn’t paranoid that everyone was out to get money from me, but I wasn’t far from it. Before I went off the deep end, I was sure someone would give me a reality check.
I rolled over in my bed and heard a tail thumping. I looked down and saw Duke was next to my bed. That made me shake my head. Mom had bought him a fancy bed for his crate, and he’d rather lie on the bare floor.
I got up and looked out the window. It was snowing, which made it easy to skip running today. Flee, my quarterback friend from Miami, had posted on Facebook that it was in the mid-80s yesterday.
I walked out to the living room, stretched, and did my forms to get my blood pumping. As I stepped into the bathroom to take my shower, I felt good. I was ready to face whatever was to come.
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