Chapter 27 - Time Marches On

Chapter 27: Time Marches On

Spring was fast approaching. School had improved to a degree, without Chloe encouraging people, the negative comments being directed at me had died down. Although things didn’t go back to the way before the announcement of my age, I didn’t expect them too, but at least now I wasn’t hearing as many muted whispers as I passed.

Coach Jamison had also given up with his negative comments, not getting any reaction from me had stopped him from giving his little digs.

Although my ability to outperform any other freshman swimmer must have grated on his nerves.

Classes continued as usual, shop was slowly getting more interesting, though nowhere near advanced enough that I needed to really pay attention to the entire lesson, my own renovation work far exceeded what I was learning in class.

The jeep was nearing completion, it looked much better now than it had when it had been dropped off, the paintwork which the freshman had mainly worked on gleamed. Mr. Carter had told me he and the seniors had finally tried to start to overhaul the engine recently, it wasn’t running true yet, but it did run so things were heading in the right direction.

He also told me that the enthusiasm in class had never been so high, that could have been to the upcoming raffle for the ownership once the jeep was completed. But he also thought with a similar base project next year, student numbers were bound to increase.

As a break from all the recent hassles, one weekend, Dad decided on a day out for the two of us, we were going to go and watch a baseball game. It was the local college game, we headed that way a lot earlier than was needed, the game didn’t start till the afternoon, but we were up and out of the house right after breakfast.

When we got to the stadium I discovered the reason for our early start, there was an open day of coaching going on for kids, it was for those who weren’t in high school yet, although I was, I was able to attend due to my age.

Dad passed me off to the coaches, I had a blast, we did some field drills, practiced on the mound pitching at a catcher target at the plate. We played short and long throws, we shagged fly balls in the outfield that were popped up for us to chase.

Then came the best part, we headed for the batting practice nets, they had a mechanical machine, which pitched one ball after the other over the plate for us to swing at. We had just enough time for each participant to have a go, but it was great fun while it lasted. I hadn’t done any research on baseball, so I was just the same as any other kid there, all trying their hardest, but making many mistakes. It didn’t matter though, succeed or fail; it was all fun to attempt.

I had a chat with one of the coaches when my turn had finished. “The pitching machine really is good, that must help your team to improve its batting.”

He laughed, “It should but this one is pretty old, it no longer is capable of giving consistent ball speed or accuracy.” He explained. “We should really get a new one.”

That made me perk up, “What would happen to this one, if you were able to get a new one?” I asked, “It would be great for a school to have, they don’t require the speed or accuracy that your players do.”

“It has never been considered, we are still in discussion with the athletic director to try and get funding away from the football team to pay for one. Not only that, but we have many more important improvements than a pitching machine to spend any funding we do get.” He shook himself, realizing he was only talking to a kid, he moved off before he let any more secrets out.

Watching the game was also fun, we snacked on junk food, seeing the game played by the college students, showed how far we had to improve to only get to this level; it was a step down from professional players who were a lot better than even these players were.

I enjoyed the game, but the time spent with Dad was more important to me, we hadn’t spent as much time hanging out together this year as we had in the past. Even the work on my Harley had been intermittent, only occurring when Dad needed stress relief. He just enjoyed spending time at home now more than he ever did before, after learning about the nest egg he and mom had, he didn’t take work so seriously, so he no longer had the stress from work he used to get.

On the way home Dad brought up an idea he had just thought about.

“Jack you had problems this semester with the swim coach, mainly due to your ability to mimic the best styles of professionals, there will be baseball for freshman available to you this spring, why don’t you research baseball, like you have every other sport you have attempted, just go out and have fun playing the game instead.”

“Sounds interesting Dad, but I am not sure I could do it, today was fun, but knowing what I could do with some research would mean I would become dissatisfied with myself pretty quick, if I wasn’t doing the best I knew I was capable of.”

“Well think about it Jack, you had a lot of fun today just being a normal kid playing a game, trying to improve, not researching it and being awesome.” Dad suggested.

That was something to think about, but I had another idea bouncing around my head which I wanted to figure out first, before deciding on the spring baseball practice and games.

Then he gave me a suggestion of how to improve my rather anemic social standing at school that I hadn’t considered before then, “Jack perhaps you should consider joining in the tryouts for the freshman team, if you enjoy it like you did today, then you won’t have more issues with the coaching staff like you did at the beginning of swimming class, if you are offered a position, especially as it will be after school, not costing you your early mornings like swimming training.”