Chapter 3: Keiko and Ohtani

Keiko wasn’t super looking forward to this summer. Hanging with her dad wasn’t that much fun. She didn’t have any friends out here, and there was hardly anything to do at Dad’s house. Not like at Mom’s.

On the other hand, they didn’t have big league games back home. Not that they would’ve gone anyway. Mom and Dad weren’t sports fans, certainly not of baseball. Although, Dad was starting to come around on all the stats and numbers. It was why they bothered playing the games when they had all those great numbers instead that seemed to puzzle him more.

Still, he was clearly trying to make summer at Dad’s house something she would look forward to. She hadn’t even asked to go to a game, he’d just surprised her with tickets. If he was trying to buy her love, well ... he certainly could do worse.

Maybe I can even weasel my way into a new iPhone by the end of the summer!

“Now, which team are we rooting for again?” Dad said, a familiar puzzled look on his face while they watched warmups. “The Bears?”

Keiko groaned. That had to have been the third time he’d made that mistake today. She was trying to be patient with the doddering old fool, but it was hard to be patient on such a gorgeous day. They were at a real-live baseball game for Pete’s sake! And she was stuck with somebody who didn’t know the difference between the Bears and the Cubs!

She couldn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. “Nooo, we’re not rooting for the Bears, or the Cubs!”

“I thought you said we were rooting for the team with the blue?”

Keiko stifled another groan. “We are!”

“But ... they both have blue!”

She was about to respond, but ... okay, he had a point there. “We’re rooting for the Dodgers?? Duhhh???” She tugged at the bright white jersey she was wearing that said Dodgers across the front in that incomparable cursive font. Okay, the Cubs had classy uniforms, too, she’d give them that. But still. In Keiko’s opinion, there was no beating the one she was wearing.

Her dad looked as if he’d finally understood something incredibly complicated and nodded.

Poor fellow. Going senile at age 42. Well, can’t be helped.

“Ohhhh right, right,” he continued, “because of Ohtani, right? We like him?”

“We LOVE him!” Keiko corrected. At least he finally got one right. And if he had to pick one, he picked the right one to remember.

“Because he can hit and he can throw!” her dad said confidently.