The kid surprised me with a nasty curve. It must have broken two feet. His next pitch was a fastball that got up into my zone. It was all I could do to not overswing. I concentrated on doing everything correctly. I felt bad when the ball ended up in the hospitality tent, causing people to scramble to get out of the way.
By the top of the seventh, and final, inning, we were tied at 8–8. That was when it got interesting. Three girls jumped the fence and made a beeline for me. The first thought that came to mind was how fans could actually hurt someone. Back in the day, Brock Miller, the former Dodger All-Star shortstop, had been stabbed by a crazy fan and almost lost his life. The second thought was that I didn’t want to reward their bad behavior, or I would have to deal with this at every game. I waited until they were almost to me, then bolted toward our dugout. Two of them gave up because they were winded. The third was more determined.
The Lakeview coach ran out of their dugout, and he looked pissed.
“Young Lady! Get over here … Right … Now!”
From the look on her face, this had to be his daughter. Moose came out of the dugout and grabbed me.
“I’m sure your friends will tease you, but you did the right thing. Don’t let them get near you if you can help it. You never know what kind of whack job will want to take a shot at you.”
“Listen to your coach. I’m going to warn Lakeview about player safety. Wait here while I do that,” the umpire directed me.
When it was our turn to come up in the bottom of the seventh, it was over on the first pitch. Dan Ball, Jim’s cousin, was inserted to bat and hit a home run to win it 9–8.
Coach Haskins handed me a Sharpie and sent me to sign autographs. It wasn’t lost on the scouts and recruiters that I was doing it without an attitude. It was a pain in the butt, but part of baseball at the higher levels. I had Jim grab a small duffle bag I’d brought to the dugout. It held a big stack of my pre-signed Stryker photos. Most people were happy to get them, and it made the line move faster. Jim hung around and gave out pictures for me.
As we wandered back to the dugout, I started talking loud enough for the scouts and recruiters to hear.
“Let’s go to the hospitality tent and grab a few hot dogs,” I said to Jim.
He just smiled when the section behind home plate cleared out. Our next game wasn’t for a couple of hours.
◊◊◊
Bryan pitched the next game and was on from the start. We ended up winning 5–1. I hit two more home runs and had a stolen base. After I was done signing autographs, I decided to just skip my shower and go home. It had been a long day.
And I had guests waiting for me. Greg had called to collect on my pledge to trade Pam’s massages for babysitting. I came out of the shower to find Angie, Peggy, and Pam sitting on my bed.
“You think you can handle all of them?” Pam asked.
How hard could it be to watch five children under the age of three all at once? I had this.
Five hours later, I decided I might have underestimated what babysitting five little ones really meant. Even Duke looked exhausted, even more so than I felt.
When everyone came back, they found all the little ones sound asleep. If I weren’t a high-level athlete, they would have worn me out. I could see the disappointment on the girls’ faces when they found me rubbing Duke’s ears as his reward for helping keep track of all of them.
“They’re
“Yeah, no problems. They were all perfect little angels,” I said.
“Bullshit,” Greg said under his breath.
I kept a straight face so they couldn’t be sure if I were telling the truth or not.
“He owes me two more babysitting gigs,” Greg said.
They all smiled at that. If I were to watch all five again, I would either hire help or con someone into helping me. I didn’t know how they did it all the time. The upside was I loved all the little ones, and it really hadn’t been that bad.
◊◊◊ Sunday April 24
After my run, I walked into the kitchen and found Peggy looking worn out.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Coby’s waking up every couple of hours, and I’m not getting much sleep.”
“And you have finals coming up and your project. Do you need a break?”
“I wish, but I’ve got a job that puts a roof over David’s and my head. Don’t worry about it. I’m just feeling sorry for myself,” Peggy said.
“Tell you what, I’ll take them today, and you can catch up on your sleep and do whatever you want.”
“I know how much you bitch about people bringing crying babies to church,” she said.
“Think of it as payback time. Maybe they’ll both make a fuss,” I said, and then smiled. “I bet Grandma will be in heaven showing off her grandbabies.”
“I’m too young to be a grandma,” Mom said as she walked in.
“Keep telling yourself that,” Dad said, taking his life into his hands.
“What are you getting payback for?” Mom asked. Apparently, she only heard the last part of our conversation.
“We’re taking the little ones to church,” I said.
