Chapter 70

Tami
The previous evening, David had talked his teammates into giving up their tickets for the game so that Tami could bring her dorm floor to watch her best friend play baseball. At one point during her first semester, the topic of David had come up. The majority of her dorm-mates hadn’t believed that she knew an Academy Award-winning actor. She had let them think what they wanted until they arrived at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond.

Before the game, the stupid boy had climbed into the stands when he spotted her. That had almost caused a riot as fans tried to get close to talk to him. Being David, he soon had them all settled down. Tami had been disappointed when he took the time to let them take pictures and get autographs.

Over spring break, David had shared with her that he’d stopped giving out autographs at games. His head of security had threatened that if David continued to do that, his security would begin following him around again.

Tami had grown up watching her friend play baseball. They’d been teammates when he began with Little League. She’d also seen him play in the Pan Am games. What she saw that evening showed that he hadn’t sat on his laurels and coasted.

It’s tough for one player to dominate a baseball game because of the number of players and the vast field. No one player can cover everything defensively.

David showed he was the exception.

One play stood out. In the bottom of the third, the Cardinal (referring to the color, not the bird) had a baserunner at second when their best hitter came to the plate. He’d worked his way to a two-and-two count when he hit a sharp grounder that evaded the shortstop and rolled into left field.

Instead of watching the ball, Tami had focused on David. He’d sprinted to left field to back up the play in case his teammate missed the ball. It appeared the left fielder would beat him to it, and David had taken a path behind him. Then Tami had been mystified when David called the left fielder off the play and made it himself.

From where she’d been sitting, it should have been a routine play where Stanford’s runners would have ended up at first and third. The left fielder would have thrown the ball in to the second baseman to prevent the runner at first from stealing an extra base.

David had charged forward and, with what looked like one continuous motion, fired the ball to home on a rope. David had noticed that the player heading to third hadn’t slowed down and had tried to pick up an easy score. If the left fielder had thrown to second, the man running home would have made it. Instead, David, with a better view of the field, had taken charge. His throw had gunned down the runner at the plate.

The hitter, seeing the ball go home, had decided to get cute and take second. The Trojans’ catcher had put the tag on his guy and then had thrown out the hitter for an unconventional double play.

Tami was one of only a handful of people in the stadium who could truly appreciate what David had done. Almost every outfielder would have had to slow down to gather the ball and then would have taken more time to collect themselves to throw home. If David had done that, the hitter would certainly have made it to second. The catcher would never have had the time to make his play and get the ball out of his glove to throw to second.

What David had done was give a master class on how to play the position. It had all come down to his footwork. The vast majority of players would’ve had to slow down because they’d have needed to get into a position to make the play and then throw the ball. David instead had timed it so that his right foot was just touching the ground when he retrieved the grounder. As he’d planted his foot to throw, the baseball was already in his hand, and he was releasing towards home.

Not only had he gotten the ball out of his hand faster than any outfielder she’d ever seen, but David had also thrown a perfect strike from over 200 feet away, enabling his catcher to handle it quickly. It was the combination of those two abilities that told Tami that David had a real shot at playing at the next level if he so desired.

After the game, David had had team obligations. He’d sent her a text to let her know that he would meet up with her for lunch at a sports bar.

Tami had assumed it would be just her and David for lunch. She’d just arrived when a bus adorned with USC’s logo pulled up, and the whole baseball team began to unload. She shook her head at the guys as they filed off the bus and acted like the boys had when she’d played Little League. They were joking around, knocking hats off each other, shoving, and generally acting rowdy.

The bar had just opened. That allowed the team to grab all the tables in the center of the room. When David spotted Tami, he said something to his coach and joined her at a table for two by the window. His teammates made smartass comments about his having a girl in every town, which he didn’t even acknowledge.

“Did you finally get your head out of your butt and start getting your grades in order?” David teased right out of the gate.

He gave Tami a smile that could light up the darkest of days. She saw he was in a playful mood, so she ignored his tease. Growing up, their group of friends had been nerds, and many a conversation had centered on who was the smartest. Of course, Tami was sure she was. David just wished he could keep up.

“How goes your quest for world domination on the football front?” she asked.

He rolled his eyes when she started a serious conversation right off the bat. Tami ignored the eye roll; she knew that his time was limited, so she wanted to get to the good stuff before he left.

“I had lunch yesterday with a sports reporter who might be useful. I’m not quite sure if I trust him yet. After the spring game, I went to a booster party and got a better idea of who the key people behind the scenes are. Two of them hold the most sway, and one of them I already know. He’s the head of the studio that made The Royal Palm,” David shared.

“Who’s the other one?”

“He got the current athletic director his job. I met him and his daughter; they own a large trucking company. He’s looking to retire soon and have her take over,” David shared, then added, “He and I have sent text messages back and forth. Nothing big, but I give him updates about my baseball games and how offseason workouts are going. I think he likes me.”

“What about the team?”

At that question, he threw her a face that told her it hadn’t gone to plan.

“I did have an interesting lunch with Matt Long’s girlfriend.”

“The quarterback’s girlfriend?” Tami asked.

“Yep. She asked if I would be interested in letting her and Matt move in with me over the summer in the townhouse. She tried to sweeten the deal by having her roommate, Milena, move in too.”

Tami chuckled at that. David would have to be serious with a girl before he let her live with him. Until that happened, he would want to be a free agent. Besides, she suspected that before the summer was out, Matt might go missing.

“I take it you said, ‘no.’ None of the girls told me of a change in living arrangements this summer,” she said and saw David cringe.

Tami just flipped him off, which made him grin. He had issues with her knowing everybody and having them tell her ‘everything that was happening in their lives.’ At least, that was how she described it. His take was she had a spy network that kept track of his every move. The truth probably fell somewhere in the middle.