Chapter 23: Baseball Tryouts

Monday March 1

When I went to school this morning I had an extra bounce in my step. I had a girl whom I loved, my movie obligations were done, for now, and best of all was baseball tryouts started today. I was excited about this season. We were finally going to get to play varsity ball.

The other thing I noticed was they had broken ground on the new Field House. They planned on having it done by the start of the coming school year, next August. I could hardly wait to be able to use it. Dad was also excited. He, Tom, Coach Hope and Mrs. Sullivan had worked hard to make this a reality. I was proud of them.

I found Jeff and Alan had waited on me in front of the school.

"Are you done?" asked Alan.

"I did some voice work this weekend. I also added some fight scenes on Sunday. They told me I was done until they were going to launch the movie. Then I might have to do promotional work," I said to fill them in.

"Did I see Harper with you on Facebook?" Jeff asked.

"She came out for the weekend," I said with a big smile.

Our Friday night Stryker experience had not gone unnoticed by our mothers. Saturday had involved some very direct discussions. I think Mrs. Mass was surprised when I didn't try to cover it up or sugarcoat it. She appreciated my honesty. Harper was a different story. She didn't want her mom to know we had sex. She was more than a little surprised her mother knew she had been sexually active with both Ray and me.

When I came back from working on Saturday, Harper and her mom had come to grips with her having me as a boyfriend, and everything that entailed. I think part of it was due to them shopping all day with my mom. The other part was due to Craig scoring us invites to another Chubby Feldman party. This one was much tamer. I actually got to see all of the house and grounds.

At the party Craig, Bree, Elizabeth and I all got a chance to talk about possible future movie deals for the Star Academy series. I filled them in on Janice's initial offer to me. Elizabeth had also been made an offer. Hers was much less. To me that was not surprising. One of the big studios had been hacked, and it came to light women made less than their male counterparts. We were split, at first, on how to proceed. The girls wanted us to negotiate the same pay for everyone. Craig, after he heard what Elizabeth was offered, thought he would be better off going it alone.

I had not decided what I should do, so I went looking for Kent. The other three were still arguing when I brought him back. He listened to all four of us. My biggest concern was I didn't want to take the time to make two more movies. The other three didn't understand my point of view, because this was their full-time job. Kent made a suggestion which surprised me. He suggested we try and get the studio to shoot the next two films at the same time.

I was glad Kent also insisted on all four of us negotiating together. I had read the books and the four of us were the core group. We also agreed Kent, through Craig's agent, would lead the negotiations. We all liked and trusted Kent to do what was best for our team. I think the girls were relieved that they would make more money.

Alan and Jeff filled me in on their weekend. They had double dated Saturday night. It sounded like they had a good time.

Moose gathered us all around to give us his opening speech of the season.

"Okay, settle down. I'm Moose. Just so we're clear, I answer to Coach or Moose. Either one is fine. Coach Diamond is going to work with the outfielders. Coach Herndon will work with the pitchers and catchers. The rest of the infield will be with me. The JV team will go with Coaches Haskins and Hope.

"I also want to clear something up for you freshmen and first year players. You will not be playing varsity ball. I don't believe in throwing anyone onto the varsity squad, before they have at least a year of high school ball under their belt. This is non-negotiable. The first one of you that has his momma or daddy call me about it will be running until they either drop or quit. I don't really care which.

"There will be two teams this year, varsity and JV. Normally, I try to put only first year players on JV. If you are cut from varsity I will consider. Did you hear that? I will consider letting you try out for JV. I use the JV team to give first year players a chance to learn. If I feel that you could develop I'll let you play JV ball. I know that sounds harsh, but it has worked for twenty-five years. Are there any questions before we get started?"

I remembered how pissed I had been when I heard that speech last year. I still thought that if you had the talent you should be able to play varsity ball. Just because you hadn't played under him yet didn't mean you should have to play junior varsity. I saw the Callahan twins raise their hands. I had a hard time telling which was which. Moose pointed at them.

"We played varsity last year at our old high school. Do we get a chance at playing varsity here?"

"No," was Moose's one word answer.

I needed to talk to them before they pissed him off. When we broke up I trotted over to them.

"Sorry about that, but you will never change his mind," I told them.

"But he said that he didn't believe in letting anyone play varsity unless they had a year of high school ball under their belts. We both started last year," one of them complained.

"I understand what you are saying. All I know is Moose is old school. I tried to get him to let me play last year. I felt I was better than their starting shortstop. Moose almost kicked me off the team for challenging him," I said and then looked around to make sure no one was listening in. "If you repeat this I will deny it. Once I knew that I wasn't going to make varsity I decided to just have fun. Looking back, I had a lot more fun playing JV ball than the varsity squad did. I would suggest you do the same. Just have fun and play ball."

"That's easy for you to say. You get to play varsity," the other one said.

"I don't have any guarantees I'll play varsity ball," I said.

They both laughed at me and then went to where the JV was going to work out. I smiled when I thought of what Coach Hope had in store for them. I was sure he would run their asses off before long.

"Tim, David, get your butts over here!" Moose bellowed.

Shit, we had only been at practice for like ten minutes and Tim and I were getting yelled at.

"We are going to change things up this year. I want you to take them to the track and run steps. I think you know how to do that, don't you?" he asked.

I nodded and Tim looked at me and sighed. I thought we had gotten away from having to do this now we were trying out for varsity. We got everybody and jogged over to the track. Coach Haskins smiled as we came up and joined the JV.

"Okay, Dawson and Foresee. Get them started," Coach Hope ordered us.

We escorted the team to the starting line. Tim and I broke them into groups of five. Tim took the first group out and they ran one hundred yards and then began walking the next one hundred. I sent the next group when they were half way done. I kept them spaced out until I joined the last group. By now they knew what to do. The next step was two hundred yards of running and one hundred of walking. The final step was a four hundred yard run and walk one hundred. When we completed the first set of steps Coach Hope told us to go again.

I winked at him because I knew none of us would quit this year. Coach Hope used the running to weed out players. We had all had Cassidy abuse us since the first of the year. Running steps was nothing compared to her workouts. He gave up after we had completed our fourth set.

We all laughed and played grab ass when we went back to Moose. He had an evil glint in his eye and we all quit smiling when we saw Cassidy waiting for us. She had finished doing her after school workout program. How she was able to do back-to-back sixty minutes of hell was beyond me. When we were done Moose sent us to the showers. I had to chuckle as we passed the JV. Coach Hope was running them through his version.

After our shower I took Jeff and Cassidy home with me for dinner. We had agreed to go to the dojo three times a week. Tonight was taco night. Jeff and I high fived each other, because we could polish off some tacos.

Before I ate, I had to deal with a problem. Duke was a complete spaz. I hadn't taken him today because I was going to practice and wasn't sure who would watch him. Normally Pam or one of the other cheerleaders played with him and wore him out. I was going to have to figure out how to take him to baseball practice. I sure hoped Moose would be on board with it.

After dinner we went to the dojo. Cassidy was not respecting I had kicked butt in Yellowknife in the bar fight.

"I'm a badass now!" I told her to see what kind of reaction I would get.

She looked at Jeff, who was staying out of it. She tilted her head and then came to a decision. I had started this as a joke to tweak Cassidy. I told her at lunch about my bar fight. She was mad at me for using what she taught me in a fight. I tried to explain Ben was getting his ass handed to him. She made some smart comment that pissed me off. So tonight I thought it was a good idea to act like a tough guy.

"Okay badass, let's see what you've got," she challenged me.

Shiggy stuck his head out of his office and hurried out about the time I tried to toss little Cassidy. Somehow she went from being tossed to having wrapped her thighs around my neck and face-planted me into the mat. I had started to black out from the choke hold she had me in when Shiggy made her let me go.

I staggered up and faced her. There are times when it is not a good idea to be sixteen and think you are indestructible. My mouth was going before my brain could slow it up.

"You got lucky," I said.

"David, shut the hell up," Jeff advised me.

Shiggy shrugged and motioned for us to begin. Cassidy did a flurry of attacks and then stopped. I got a smug look on my face. I had been able to counter all her moves. Then she pointed down. The heel of her right foot was almost touching my ball sack. I was glad Cassidy was my friend and hadn't finished her move. I would have been singing soprano.

"Still think you're a bad ass?" Cassidy asked.

"No, I am yours to mold," I said as I bowed to her.

One of the classes they had at the dojo was kick boxing. That meant they had both heavy and speed bags. The speed bag was six feet off the floor.

"Tonight we're going to work on a hook kick. We will use the speed bag so we can do it full force," she taught me. "Now get into your stance so I can show you basically what I want you to learn."

I turned to the side so my left leg was forward and I bounced on the balls of my feet.

"What I'm going to teach you can either be done with your trailing leg or your front leg," Cassidy said.

She then bounced up and used her front leg to catch me with her foot right behind my knee. I could see how she would cause me to get off balance.

"Notice how I did it with my front leg. I could do it with my back leg, but if you pop me in the chest I would be off balance," she said and demonstrated and showed me how to counter her move. "Think of this as an option play. You can either hook behind the knee or kick hard into the thigh. The third option it to go upstairs."

She did a little boxer bounce and then I felt her tap my thigh and her foot shot up and she touched my chin. I could see where if she had done this at full speed I would either be out cold or wondering what truck hit me. Shiggy decided to make his presence known.

"Very good, but use the flat of your foot. It will give you more range. If you are serious about taking them out, use your heel and aim for the temple."

Cassidy had Jeff get a pad and hold it at knee level and him crouch down under the speed bag. Cassidy did it at full speed. It sounded like she hit both at the same time. Smack, BAM! It sounded like a heavyweight had just crushed the speed bag.

I tried it at three-quarter speed to get the technique down. Cassidy and Shiggy were watching me and they both coached me up. The first time I tried it at full speed I was off balance and landed on Jeff.

"Sorry man," I apologized.

He just shoved me off of him and we laughed. One thing was obvious: I wasn't getting the power Cassidy had put into her kick. At least until Shiggy told me to kick to a point beyond the bag and the light bulb clicked on. It was the same thing I did in football. I hit them as if they were further up field so I drove through them. When I did it right, it sounded like a gun had gone off. BaPow!

Cassidy made me do it five times in a row before she called it a night.

Tuesday March 2

Duke tested my patience as we ran this morning. I noticed over the last couple of weeks he had seemed to have forgotten what he'd been taught. He tested his boundaries, more. Uncle John told me he would do this, so I was prepared. Instead of giving him his full leashes to check out every neighbor's yard, I shortened it, and brought him to heel. He didn't like it at all. I laughed out loud when he stopped and flopped on the ground and tried to push his collar off with his feet.

"What do you think you're doing?" I asked him.

Then I thought about what I wanted Duke to do and gave him a command.

"Sit!"

He still tried to get away, so I picked him up and put him on all fours. I then pushed his butt down and raised the leash to get him to sit. Uncle John told me when he threw a fit to break his concentration and then make him mind. Once he did mind, then I was to reward him. He loved to have his ears rubbed, so that was his reward.

"Good boy. Heel!" I commanded, and we began again.

Uncle John also told me I needed to go so far and then turn around and head in the other direction. This would teach Duke to pay attention to me. Pam and Mona had helped with his training, also. He had learned some valuable commands like: sit, heel, no bite and down. They also taught him to fetch. He thought it was a great game, and I was glad they had him worn out when they would bring him back.

While I taught him the basics, Mom had committed to take him to formal training classes so he could be used as a service dog. If she planned to take him into the hospital, she needed to be able to control him. Dad still worked with him also. Not that he was normally a bad dog. He was just young and full of energy. Uncle John said he would act like a teenager. I think he just took a jab at me.

Pam, Kim, Mona and Kelly had me cornered at lunch. They had requested I eat with them alone. I was such a 'stupid boy'.

"What do you mean you can't take one of us out Friday?" Kelly asked.

"I have a girlfriend, Harper. I think you have even met her couple of times," I said.

"What does you having a girlfriend have to do with you going out with us?" Mona asked.

"Seriously, David. When you went out with Peggy it never stopped you," Pam added.

They had me there. I could see where the difference between dating and a girlfriend could cause some confusion.

"Peggy and I were dating. We were not committed to each other. Harper is my girlfriend."

"Would it be easier if we all just came over Friday night and have our way with you," Kim helpfully suggested.

They had teased me since I made the announcement Monday. If I had not known they were teasing, I would have crawled up a wall. I got a big smile on my face thinking about all four of them being naked in my apartment. I was about to call their bluff until I looked at the little smile that came across their faces. They would be willing to go through with it. I groaned when I realized they were evil girls trying to break me.

"You four stay away from me," I ordered. "I might be able to resist you one-on-one, but when you gang up on me I want to do bad things. You have to stop!"

Gina selected that moment to come over to our table.

"I need to talk to David," she said.

Thank God. I got up to go with her when they all burst out laughing. I glanced down and it was obvious what had caused their merriment. Mr. Happy had tried to burst through my jeans. I will never understand women. Gina took an involuntary step back. I just glared at her and then she joined in. I was about to storm off, but Gina grabbed my hand and led me outside.

"I take it they are still testing your willpower."

"They upped the ante. They suggested we all get together on Friday."

"Slut," she accused me.

"Hey, I used to resemble that remark. Not anymore. I'm now in a committed relationship."

"You poor 'stupid boy, ' we all know you won't last," she said and then squeezed me hand. "You just aren't made to be a one woman man. I think it would be sad to see you trapped like that."

The sad part was I knew Gina meant every word of it. I didn't feel trapped being with Harper. I liked the idea of us being exclusive. I decided I wanted to change the conversation.

"Okay, I need to work on this a little bit. Now tell me why you rescued me."

"I wanted to let you know Kara is coming home for the day on Friday. She wanted to know if she could spend the night with you," Gina said with a straight face.

Oh Dear God! How could they do this to me? Wait a minute, was she teasing me?

"I call bullshit!" I exclaimed and then she started laughing. "Do you all think this is funny?"

"Oh, yes. This is the most fun we have had in a while. Wait 'till we send Lisa Felton after you."

I knew that wasn't happening. She still hadn't talked to me.

"So you wanted to get me alone so you could torment me?" I asked.

She just squeezed my hand and smiled at me. I saw Mike tossing a baseball to Tim out of the corner of my eye. He had seen us come out. I decided to get a little payback on Gina. She walked me to my thinking tree and began to sit down, but I pulled her back up and pressed her up against the tree.

"You win," I said as I looked deep into her eyes. "I'm weak and have all the base urges a horny teenage boy has."

I started to lean in to kiss her. I heard her suck in her breath and her eyes went wide. At the last moment I turned my head and went for her ear lobe. I sucked it between my lips and I heard her moan. I felt a tapping on my shoulder. I turned to see Mike giving me a curious look. I winked at him. He knew me well enough to know I was just teasing Gina. I blew a raspberry on the side of Gina's neck. She gave me a hard shove and squealed. She was surprised to see her boyfriend standing next to us with his hands on his hips. I decided to help.

"It's not what it looks like," I said in a panicked voice as I raised my hands and took a step back.

Gina blushed. Mike and I couldn't help it, we laughed. You could see the changes on her face from the look of being caught, to confusion, and finally all boys must die. Mike and I both took a step back when we saw the last one.

"You are supposed to be my boyfriend! Do not encourage this one," she said as Gina pointed at me. "And you!"

She huffed and stormed off. I looked at Mike and shrugged.

"You might want to go after her," I suggested.

"Are you sure?" Mike asked.

"I know it makes no sense, but it is worse if you don't," I assured him, "and find out why she needed to talk to me.

I snatched his glove out of his hand and he trotted off to find Gina. I put Mike's glove on and Tim tossed me the ball.

"What was that all about?"

"If I understood girls, I would be rich."

"I thought you were rich," Tim teased.

"Don't you get started. I have pictures of you," I threatened.

"What? What pictures?" Tim asked with a little more than touch of concern.

I just gave him an evil grin. He about wiped it off when he threw a high hard one at my head. It was a good thing I was an athlete, or I might not have caught it. I threw one at his nuts. Who knows how these games get started? Someday, someone would get hurt. By the end of lunch, we had a crowd to watch as Tim and I tried to kill each other. We laughed our heads off, and threw taunts as well as the baseball. I think it was a good thing the bell rang, or one of use would have eventually killed the other.

At tryouts, the coaching staff decided they were not going to weed us out through conditioning, so they went old school, and had us run baseball drills. Moose had the infielders break-up into groups of four. I (at shortstop) teamed up with Kelly (at third), Mike (at second) and Wolf (at first).

Moose would call out where the base runners were and then smash a grounder to see us handle the ball and then throw to the correct base. The four of us had practiced together at State. I guess Moose saw that after only hitting about ten balls.

"Get in here," Moose ordered us. When we were close enough where only we could hear him, he gave us our assignments. "I've seen enough. I heard you were working out together and it shows. I need to have some versatility on my roster. Kelly I want you to go practice center field. Wolf you go work on playing right field. Mike and David, I want you to go with the pitchers."

"I guess this means we made the team," Mike told me as we jogged over to his dad.

"Sounds like it," I answered. "What do you think your dad is going to think of my new pitching style?"

"I think if you can get batters out, my dad will be fine with it. He called Shiggy to find out what you and Bert were doing. Dad told me Shiggy has also talked to Moose. He is getting his background checks done and will be helping coach this year. Moose wants to develop a deeper rotation so we can go further in tournaments."

I could count on Mike to get the inside information since he lived with one of the coaches. We found Coach Herndon.

"Mike, go warm David up. I want to see him pitch," Coach told us.

Mike and I warmed up and did some long toss to loosen up my arm. When I took the mound, I threw Mike all my pitches at three-quarter speed. I hadn't pitched in six days, so I felt fresh.

"It all looks good. Throw me the four-seam fastball at full speed."

I uncorked it, and it felt good as I used my lower body to power the ball into Mike's glove. I heard the satisfying pop that told me I had done it right. Mike had a big grin on his face as he popped up behind the plate and jogged the ball out to me.

"Want to have some fun?" he asked conspiratorially.

"Of course, need you ask?"

"No, but this might piss my dad off," Mike warned me.

"He likes us, how mad could he get?"

Mike thought about it for a moment. Then he clued me into his plan. I wasn't convinced, but I owed Mike for dealing with Gina earlier today.

"Coach, I need your help," Mike told his dad as we jogged over to where he was evaluating pitchers.

"What's up Mike?" his dad answered.

"David says that he can strike anyone out with his new Kung Fu pitching style. I told him he couldn't strike my dad out," Mike said.

Oh, he was good. He had his dad eating out of his hands. I could see Coach Herndon puff up at his son's confidence in him.

"David, have you been talking smack, again?"

"Sir, it's not smack if I can back it up," I challenged him.

He gave me the look every parent gets when they decide they would make an example of you. I knew Mike's dad had played minor league ball. He had faced much better pitching then I could bring.

"Is that so?" he shot back.

I just nodded and tried not to smile. I had a flash of a conversation my mom had with her mom. I had made some smartass comment and grandma looked at my mom and told her paybacks were hell. The point she made was karma was a bitch and your children would get even with you someday. I wondered if my little monsters would be this bad.

"We will test this theory of yours. At the end of practice I'll send up three batters for you to face as everyone watches. If any of them gets a hit, you have to be the bat boy for the first game."

That got the team's attention. I started to wonder who Mike was setting up.

"But I want the best. Mike tells me you used to be able to hit, at one point, until you got old," I said as I threw down the gauntlet.

My mouth had quickly written checks my ass couldn't pay for. Even Mike looked shocked.

"Okay, tough guy! If you strike out three batters, you'll get a shot at me. If you strike me out, too, I will be your bag boy this season. If you lose, you do it for the team. You better think about how tough you think you are. Are you sure you want to do this?"

I looked around and everyone had a gleam in their eye. They all wanted a piece of me. If I could pull this off I would be King of the Hill for the rest of the year.

"Hell, yes! Bring it on!" I said to the cheers of the team.

The cheering got the attention of Moose. He jogged over to see what the commotion was. While Coach Herndon explained, Tim and Mike pulled me aside.

"Dude, what did you just do?" Mike asked.

"This was your plan," I shot back.

He just sputtered.

"Okay, Cap, you got us into this, we will help you win this challenge," Tim assured me.

I felt better that I knew Tim, as my normal catcher, would help me out. It would be easier with him behind the plate.

I wasn't surprised that Moose was all for this little exhibition. He wanted to knock me off my pedestal, also. Towards the end of practice, he sent Tim and me to the bullpen to get ready. He brought both the JV and Varsity together to have his after practice talk. Tomorrow would be the first round of cuts. He told them how it worked. There would be a list on his door in the morning and, if you were on the list, you should show up for practice.

He told the rest of our team my challenge. He asked for volunteers to bat against me. To a man they all raised their hands. I noticed Mike even volunteered. I might have to bean him if he got selected.

"Looks like they all want a shot at you," Tim said casually.

"Looks that way."

"How do you want to do this?"

"What do you mean?"

"You want to put them in the dirt?" he said with an evil grin.

"Nah, I'll just dazzle them with my bullshit."

"I would put them in the dirt," he suggested.

I just shook my head. I just might before we were done.

The coaches got together and decided who should bat against me. I was surprised when none of the guys I had worked out with at State were chosen. I guess they didn't want me to have any knowledge of who I would be up against. I also think they didn't want my buddies to help me. It turned out Coach Haskins had some ideas. He selected Bryan and Brock Callahan. He also picked Nick Rake, one of my freshmen lunch mates from the first semester.

"Here are the rules. All the batter has to do is get the ball in play," Moose announced.

He let me throw a few warmup tosses, so I could get a feel of the mound. Coach Herndon had the three batters together in a huddle and was telling them what to look for. Coach Haskins had volunteered to call balls and strikes.

The first batter up was Nick. He didn't look happy. I understood why when he squared around to bunt. Coach Herndon thought he could get a quick win with this strategy. I took Tim's advice. I threw a high hard one right at Nick's chin. I damn near clipped him. I had let my anger get the better of me. I liked Nick.

Moose would have none of this.

"Dawson, these are your teammates!" he yelled at me. Then he turned on Nick. "You will swing away. No bunting!"

When Nick got back into the batter's box his body language said he was afraid. A fastball thrown at your head will do that to you. I think Tim saw it, too. He called for my new curve ball. Shiggy had taught me how to throw a big sweeping curve. My starting target was the batters head. As I snapped it off I saw Nick's knees buckle as he tried to get out of the way. The ball slapped into Tim's mitt without him having to move it.

"Steeriiick One!" Coach Haskins called out.

Nick didn't stand a chance. I threw two more curve balls and on the third one he finally stood his ground and took a cut at it. I think he was glad when he was done.

Up next was Bryan. He had played varsity ball on his high school team in New Jersey. I wouldn't get him out just by throwing curve balls. What I did know was Coach Haskins. His philosophy was to see a pitch first, then battle. His idea of a good at bat was to foul the ball off five times. He wanted to have the opposing pitcher throw as many pitches as possible to tire him out. I had seen him talking to the Callahan twins earlier. I would bet he told them to take the first pitch.

The twins were big boys. I also bet they would love for me to challenge them with a fastball right down the center. I would use my knowledge against them.

My first pitch was a four-seam fastball. Bryan hesitated, but it looked too good to pass up. The four-seam tends to rise up when thrown correctly. The combination of the rise and Bryan's hesitation had him miss badly.