Chapter 03

Mo’s First Baseball Teams

High School Team

The players gather for the first after-school baseball training session and the head coach tells them, “I’ve got three rules you all need to know up front. If one of these applies to you don’t bother me with asking for a change. First, no one gets on the Varsity team until I’ve seen them play a season on either the Junior Varsity or Freshman teams. The second flows from that, no Freshmen on the Varsity team. Only the best players will be on the Varsity team. So those who come under the first two rules should now move to the other diamond for the Junior Varsity coach to look you over. The rest of you can line up to show me how fast you run.” Mo joins the students moving to the other field, about a fifth of them. He knows he’s new to baseball so he sees no point in arguing with the coach about something the coach is probably right about, thus Mo just accepts the rule and he goes to where he needs to be.

The Junior Varsity coach has a different approach to the head coach in he appraises all of their skills first. He starts with the players listing their names and preferred positions in the field then they take turns fielding in different positions. He hits a ball to the position for the player to field it and throw it to a stated base. He runs all of the players through every position while his assistant makes notes on their play in that position. Then each player has a turn at batting both a solid hit and a bunt, and last is to pitch in turn. About the time he finishes running these players through he has several extra players to process due to the head coach’s winnowing of players. That’s how the first two hour training session goes. The head coach cuts players based on physical fitness levels while the J V coach evaluates their skill levels.

The second day is more of the same. The Varsity coach continues to cut players while the Junior Varsity coach evaluates the skills of the cut players. At one point in the session a player who was at the last camp with Mo approaches the coach and says, “Coach, when you get around to evaluating the batter’s ability to hit a ball hard you should put Walker on the mound with orders to pitch ’fat’ balls in the strike zone.”

The coach turns to him and asks, “Why’s that, Romano?”

“I was at a camp with him and he’s a very consistent pitcher.”

A little later Coach Henry puts Mo on the mound with instructions of, “I want to see how hard they can hit. So put the ball in the middle of the strike zone for them to pound it out of the park. Got it?” Mo nods and then sets about doing just that. Two balls dead centre of the zone per batter. They all know what he’s doing, but not all can hit that well. The ones that can hit really smash the ball while the rest do their best.

After the others have finished hitting the ball Coach Henry takes the mound to pitch at Mo who slams both balls over the fence. Coach has Mo stay in while he pitches a few more and Mo hits everything he can pitch. Not all get hit hard, but he gets wood on every trick pitch. Coach Henry walks up to Mo while saying, “Walker, you seem to be tracking every ball I pitch, but you can’t get hold of them all fully. Is that the case?”

Mo nods and replies, “Coach, I’ve played squash since I was a toddler. I’ve no trouble tracking this ball because it’s so big. However, when you put those fancy spin pitches in it’s a bit hard to get the bat to hit in the right spot to punch them out. The result is they spin off the bat to go foul instead of getting a solid hit. I think I’ll do better with a lot more practice. I first learnt to bat in a summer camp, so I need a lot of practice.”

Coach Henry walks off while thinking, He’s only been batting a few months and he’s already one of our best bats. I wonder how he’ll do with a lot more practice under his belt?

By the end of the fourth practice the three squads are sorted out and each coach is concentrating on turning his squad into a team. Mo is the best player for several fielding positions, but there are a few others who can do well in most positions while no one is even a quarter as good as Mo at shortstop, so that’s his fielding position. The only pitching the coach has the players do is a fast ball and a slider with the speed of the fast ball as his main selection tool for the pitchers. There are five players who pitch a fast ball faster than Mo so they’re the pitching line-up. Mo is the best hitter so he’s fourth in the batting line-up in the hope some of those before him will get on base so he can bat them in.

Local Amateur League

At the same time as the school baseball team starts to practice for the season the local amateur league teams also start their practice. The coach Mo was working with last year wants him on the team and recruits him. He puts Mo in left field and also uses him as a relief pitcher. This is due to reports from other team members who went to the last baseball camp Mo was at. The coach doesn’t think Mo has enough speed to be a first line pitcher, but his oddball deliveries can be useful for putting a batter off his pace and to get him out. Which is all they’ll need in some games.

The local team coach has a very different coaching style to the school coaches, which Mo finds interesting. Also, with learning two fielding positions there’s a lot for Mo to learn. However, he does manage to do it because he was taught the basics of every position at the camps. What the coaches are doing now is honing those skills and adjusting how they want him to play the positions to suit them. In a way, having different positions in each team makes it easier for Mo to learn them both instead of having the two coaches teaching him how to play the same position two different ways at the same time.

By the time the seasons start Mo is well-integrated into both of the teams he’s playing on and he’s really enjoying himself playing baseball.

Local Amateur League Season

There’s a number of local junior amateur league baseball teams in the Tampa area. All are sponsored by businesses or organisations in the area and all have a home field. Most local fields are the home field of a few of the clubs and many of the clubs have a number of teams due to them having teams in more than one age group or competition level within an age group. Most teams are of mixed genders too. For some logical reason lost in the mists of time the teams in the competition Mo plays in the teams in any one grade only play each other once during the regular season. This means each team has the most competition as possible in a season. By some miracle of scheduling they have half of their games on the field they use as their home field and half of the games are away. Part of this is due to some of the games being against clubs with the same home field, thus making the home team designation a little difficult.

For the first half of the season the regular pitchers are doing a good job and they’re all the team needs to keep their opposition in check to win games. By the time they’re three-quarters of the way through the season there are only two undefeated teams and this is the week they face each other. Both teams have already beaten all of the other good teams in the league and no one expects them to lose to any of the teams they’ve got left to play in the season. Whoever wins this game is going to be the competition winners because only the team in first place gets to play in the area play-offs to be able to go to the regional play-offs.

While the players get ready for what they think is the ’big’ game of the season Mo approaches the coach and says, “Coach, put me in to bat first.” Mo usually bats fourth so they can use his power to bat a run in.

The coach turn to Mo and asks, “Why change the order?”

“I’ve seen this team play a few times this year. They only have two good pitchers. Their lead pitcher is only good for around sixty pitches but that’s usually all they need for the first five innings and their relief pitcher is about the same, just not as fast. Both get tired real quick if they have to pitch more than fifteen balls in an inning. If I go out there and hit a lot of fouls I’ll take the shine off him so the rest of the team should be able to give us an easy lead. At worst, he’ll get replaced during our first time at bat and they’ll both be dead tired before we get halfway through the game.” Coach studies Mo for a moment before nodding his approval.

Mo’s team is up to bat first so he walks out and stands ready to bat. The pitcher frowns on seeing Mo ready to bat and he looks at his coach. It seems Mo wasn’t the only one to study the opposition in earlier games. This is the first time Mo’s team has not gone with the same batting order line-up, and it looks like the batting change has thrown out the other team’s planned pitching strategy.

The ball is pitched hard, fast, and inside. Mo gets his bat on it and it goes foul. The next ten pitches are the same. The pitching coach calls time and he walks out to talk to the pitcher. The next pitch is wide of the plate, but Mo gets to it and hits a foul. Several more wide pitches are fouled by Mo, each moving further from the plate than the last one.

Mo takes a breath and gets ready for the next pitch. While stepping into the box he notices the opposition coach give the catcher a signal and the catcher shakes his head. The coach repeats the signal then the catcher makes the same sign to the pitcher. The pitcher waves it off, but he gets it repeated. Whatever the coach has asked for isn’t liked by either player, so Mo is watching real close when the pitcher makes his pitch. The ball is fast, very high, and well inside. Mo drops to the ground and the ball goes through where he’d been standing. While getting up Mo sees the opposition coach has a grin and he’s giving the same sign again.

Thinking he knows what this pitch will be Mo moves up closer to the plate and at the front edge. Right when the pitcher releases the ball Mo makes his initial move instead of waiting to track its flight. He steps a bit back from the plate and forward. He swings the bat high, very high. He hits the ball and it goes foul, just missing the opposition coach by a few inches. Mo turns to look at the coach, and Mo raises one eyebrow. The coach is a little bit shaken and very shocked by Mo’s expression, but the coach thinks, No way could he have done that deliberately!

The umpire says to the catcher, “Better relieve him, it looks like he’s losing his control.”

Mo turns to the umpire and says, “He’s OK, Ump. Let’s play ball.” Both the umpire and catcher give Mo a funny look, but the umpire nods and he calls for them to play. Out of the corner of his eye Mo sees the coach send the same signal in again.

They get set with Mo up close again. The ball is pitched and he’s in motion as soon as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. This time he steps further forward to catch the ball a bit further back. He gets a solid hit, but the bat is angled back a lot. The ball goes foul, right into the chest of the opposition coach to wind him and knocking him down. The team’s trainer races to the coach at the same time the umpire pushes his mask up to say something.

Mo says, “Let it go, Ump. The kid’s only following his orders.”

The umpire turns to look at Mo and asks, “What do you mean?”

“Those last few pitches were all in response to a specific signal from the coach. Neither the catcher or the pitcher liked them when the sign came in. After the first one I figured the coach was telling him to hit me for a walk. So I gave the coach a warning and then I let him have what he wanted to give me. These two are just kids doing what their adult coach told them to do. So leave them be, please?”

The umpire turns to the catcher and asks, “Is that true?” The catcher isn’t happy, but he nods. The umpire turns back to Mo, “You tried to hit the coach?”

“The first was to go near him to warn him off. When he didn’t take the hint I let him have it!”

“If you can time it that well why so many foul hits?”

“Wearing the pitcher out for my team mates to hit him hard.”

“I should throw you out for what you did to the coach! Don’t do it again!” Mo nods, and the umpire goes over to check on the coach.

The catcher turns to Mo and asks, “You’ve had Brad’s number since you walked out, haven’t you?” Mo nods. “How?”

“I’ve played squash since I was a toddler. Those balls are smaller, a lot faster, and in very small playing area to sight them. A baseball is damned easy to pick up and track in comparison to a squash ball.” The catcher laughs as he nods his agreement with the statement.

The hurt coach is off to the hospital to get checked. They get ready for the next pitch, it’s fast and low over the plate. This is the twenty-fifth pitch of Mo’s at bat, the one he was told to hit when the count got there, so he does. The ball goes over the fence while he runs around the bases for a home run. He slaps hands with his team mates on his return.

When Mo sits on the bench his coach sits beside him and asks, “What was all the talking about out there, Mo?”

“Their coach sent in orders to hit me. I ducked the first and I sent the second to him as a warning. He didn’t take the warning. So I gave him the next ball to let him know I can get just as personal. The ump and the catcher know I did it deliberately, and why,” is Mo’s reply.

“Damn! OK! I’ll raise the issue at the next manager’s meeting. I don’t like the idea of targeting kids!”

“Neither do I. Nor did the catcher and the pitcher. But neither had the confidence to tell their adult coach to stick it. I do have the confidence to tell an adult off, so I did!” Both laugh while they watch the next batter make it to second base.

Mo’s team is up by five before their team is retired, and the pitcher just pitched his first fifty pitch inning! The relief coach of the other team will have to pitch a tired pitcher or replace him for their next inning.

The next inning sees the opposition’s other main pitcher up on the mound. The pitchers of both teams do well for the next four innings. The sixth inning opens with Mo’s team leading seven to three when Mo is next up to bat. He has two runners on base and he hits the first ball over the fence for a home run with two runs batted in. The pitcher is replaced and the other team’s number three pitcher gets to pitch in a game for the first time this season.

Mo’s coach takes it easy on the other team after that. The game ends with a ten to five win for Mo’s team. His strategy of wearing out the pitchers worked well. Mainly because the team they played didn’t have any pitching depth and relied on the two fastest pitchers in the league.

Local Amateur League Play-offs

The area play-offs are a simple round of games played on the same weekend. The top team in each league for each competition play each other once and the one with the most wins goes to the regional game. There are four competitions in each age and skill group, so only four teams to play three games in the area play-offs on the Saturday. If one team wins three games or only one team wins two games it’s over. If more than one team wins two games they play another round between those teams on Sunday. All the leagues play on the same weekend while using the least number of fields they can organise to use for the series.

Mo’s team wins their first two games, just like their third opponent. This is another ’all or nothing’ game since the winner of this game is off to the regional play-offs. Also, the team they’re facing is the strongest team in the area and this club has gone to the regional play-offs for many years. They’ve also won all of their games to date by a good margin. This is the first time two teams in the area have gone undefeated this far.

Having two undefeated teams in the strongest local junior league is getting a lot of attention on the day. So it’s no wonder there’s a large crowd to watch them play. Most expect Mo’s team to lose, but they still expect it to be a good game. The game is closer than anyone expects. Both teams have good pitchers and hitters, so it’s no surprise when the score is twelve to ten to the other team going into the seventh inning.

The top of the batting order is coming around again for both teams, but both sets of pitchers are tired at the start of the last inning. The other team is batting first and the last pitcher in the rotation for Mo’s team is worn out. He has the bases loaded and has given away one run when the opposition’s best hitter comes to the plate. Everyone expects to see him hit a home run. The pitcher is tired and they’ve got no one left to pitch. Then the coach remembers he does have one pitcher left. He calls time, tells a player to get ready, and he walks out of the dugout.

Coach walks to the umpire and tells him of the changes. The umpire alters the card and the coach walks toward the mound while signalling for Mo to come in. The new player walking toward left field slaps hands with Mo as he goes by, which lets the spectators know Mo is leaving the position. Mo reaches the coach who takes the ball off the pitcher while saying, “Jim, you’ve done well, but you don’t have the steam to finish it. Good job.” He hands the ball to Mo, “Do what you can.” Mo nods.

Sitting in the stands watching the game are the high school baseball coaches. The Junior Varsity and Varsity coaches both turn to look at each other because neither thought Mo was any good as a pitcher and he’s being brought in as a short relief pitcher in a very tight situation. The Junior Varsity coach says, “I know he can pitch and be consistent, but he has no real speed. The last pitcher was their last regular and he’s worn out, so Mo may be their last man who can pitch at all.” The other school coaches sitting with him nod their agreement of his assessment.

The umpire gives Mo a moment for a few warm up pitches which he takes, and then Mo has a word with the catcher. He says, “Luis, I’ll be putting every ball in the strike zone, but watch for it because it may be anywhere in the zone when it gets to you. I wish we’d had time to practice together before now, but that’s life and we’ll just have to do the best we can today.” Luis nods agreement with both the statement on the situation and the instructions, then they part to take their places.

The batter is up and ready. He knows the pitcher isn’t one of their regular pitchers, thus he can’t be that fast. But he’s never seen him pitch before either, so he has to wonder what Mo pitches like.

In the dugout one of the players who was at the last camp with Mo suddenly remembers watching him pitch at camp, grins, and calls to the man waiting in the ’On deck circle,’ the brother of the batter, and says, “Jack, I’ll bet you twenty bucks Mike strikes out in five pitches or less.”

The player addressed turns to look at the speaker, turns to look at his brother, the best batter in the league, shakes his head, and says, “I think you’re nuts to make the bet, but I’ll take your money, Ricky.” Both get out twenty dollars then they hand the money to their team’s catcher, John, to hold onto and to pay to the winner of the bet when it’s decided.

Mo stands at the mound, steps on the rubber, turns side on to the batter, and gets ready to pitch. When it’s clear the batter is ready he unleashes his first pitch. He doesn’t follow any of the usual pitching wind-ups to toss the pitch so many people don’t expect much of it. All can tell it’s slower than what the other fellow was pitching at the end, but all get a shock at the way the ball moves in flight near the end. It’s almost to the batter when it drops to move a little away from the batter.

Mike sees the ball drop and he swings low, but the ball isn’t as low as he expects when it moves out like a slider. He misses and spins around instead of hitting it over the fence, which is what he tried to do. Luis catches the ball just as the umpire says, “Strike one.”

Jack turns to look at Ricky while asking, “You’ve seen him pitch?”

Ricky nods, “Yep. At camp last summer. I saw him pitch hundreds of balls, and I still can’t tell what he’s going to do on any pitch.”

“Damn!” Both turn to watch the next pitch.

Up in the stands the Varsity coach asks, “Did you know he can pitch like that?” He gets a head shake of no in reply.

Mo gets ready, waits for the batter, then he pitches again. This ball looks to be the same so Mike swings to where the last one went. Except Mo catches him out when this one rises and slides inside for strike two. All of the spectators realise they’re seeing something different here today, but they can’t work out exactly what it is they’re seeing different. A moment for everyone to reset then Mo pitches again. This time Mike is set to wait until he knows if it’s going up or down. The ball drops and he swings, but the ball slides out and away a lot more while also dropping faster and further than he expects. Strike three and he’s gone. The first time he’s struck out in four years.