“Oh good,
You make one mistake!
◊◊◊
For once, the seedings had held. St. Joe was number one, and we were number two. Since they joined our conference, they’d had the best baseball program. They actually fielded three teams during the year. When it came time for postseason play, they pulled together sort of their all-star team.
I judged St. Joe to be the better team, as far as skill set goes. I thought our only advantage was that we’d played as a team all year. That was important in certain situations. You knew what your teammate would do and acted accordingly.
Today, Brock Callahan was pitching. We all hoped he could do as well as his brother. We were having an unseasonably warm day. On the way to school, they said it was 78 degrees. When you were used to the mid-60s, that felt hot during warm-ups. I just leaned my head back and soaked in the sun. I understood why people fled the Midwest during the winter months for more balmy climes. In only a few weeks, I would be in Cuba, where it would be even warmer. It felt good to let the heat help loosen up my muscles.
“What’re you thinking?” Jim asked me to bring me back from my sun worship.
“That you’re going to be sweating your ass off in Alabama in a few weeks. When are you heading out?”
“In about a month. I’ve enrolled in summer school to get a couple of classes under my belt,” he said as he looked around. “I’m going to miss it here.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I can’t believe I only have one year left.”
“It’ll be over before you know it,” Jim said.
“You must be nervous. Everything will be new.”
“Suzanne said I’ll love it,” he said, referring to his older sister. “I’ve been talking to a few of the new recruits and getting to know them. It won’t be like I won’t know anyone.”
“Are you excited about going?” I asked.
He gave me a tight smile.
“My dad told me it was part of growing up. I’ve been in the same bedroom all my life. My mom and dad have been there for me. I miss my sister, but she seems happy at Northwestern. It’ll be fine.”
“We’ll miss you. My uncle tells me not to be in such a hurry to grow up. I agree with him. Go and enjoy the heck out of it. All too soon, you’ll have to grow up and get a nine-to-five. I don’t want you to look back and think you didn’t have some fun.”
Jim scoffed at me.
“Says the man who’s constantly working. When are you going to take your own advice?”
I shook my head. He was right. I missed the days when the highlight was going for a bike ride, going swimming, or playing video games. It had been at least three months since I logged onto my gaming account. I just didn’t seem to have the time.
“You know what the saddest part is about that? I have to plan downtime.”
“That’s hardly a surprise; your life is crazy. I hear people say they wished they were you, but I’ve watched you. I don’t think I have it in me to do what you do. What I do know is that watching you makes me work harder,” Jim said.
“I have no doubt you’ll work hard. Just don’t let it consume you.”
Coach Haskins called us in to let St. Joe have the field.
◊◊◊
Because St. Joe was the number one seed, they were technically the home team, even though the game was played on our field. We’d had to offer them almost half the tickets to the game for the High School Athletic Association to agree to this arrangement. Most Regional games were played on local high school baseball fields. Because of the number of people that attended our games, the HSAA wanted all the Regionals to be held at Lincoln. That was because we had the largest seating capacity of any high school in the state.
Next week, for Sectionals, all the games would be played on neutral sites. Somehow, our athletic director, working with the Booster Club, had arranged for our field to be a host site. State was another hosting stadium, as were two other universities. State would eventually host the championship final four.
Something I didn’t like about how our state did high school playoffs was it was one and done. To win state, you had to win eight straight games. In baseball, that was an almost unheard-of feat. That was why even the College World Series was a double-elimination system. The major leagues did have a play-in game, but then after that, they changed to a best-of-five or best-of-seven format.
There were three reasons our state did it this way. The first was it gave almost every team in the state a chance to participate. The second was we didn’t have enough days on the calendar to do a double-elimination tournament. Finally, they worried about young pitchers. In a playoff situation, your best pitcher might become overworked and more susceptible to injury.
My feeling was it put better teams at a disadvantage. One lousy outing, and you were gone. I expected that St. Joe would beat us in a best-of-five series with little trouble. The good news for us was we only had to win today to move on.
