Chapter 6

The sports news on television was primarily about the start of the coming major league baseball season. The Tampa Bay Rays still had one week to go before they left their training facility in Port Charlotte, Florida, and came back north. The newspaper did a feature on the team which listed the players who were on the roster.

In looking at the Tamps Bay Ray’s roster, Ted noticed that Charles Rogan was on the roster. Charlie was a relief pitcher on the team with Ted and was either traded or exercised free agency for him to be with the Rays. Ted thought he would take a ride and see how Charlie and the team were doing.

The interstate highway drive down to Port Charlotte wasn’t bad and there was no problem with getting a ticket. The Rays were playing a practice game with the Orioles. The Rays were winning five to three in the seventh inning when Ted walked over to the bullpen and could see Charlie sitting there.

Ted shouted out, “Hey Charlie, you still dating that redhead?”

Charlie turned around and said, “No, I married her” and then he thought he recognized who shouted out.”

“TJ?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“I wasn’t sure about it being you since you don’t have a beard. We are staying at the Marriott. How about meeting me there after the game for a beer? It’s good to see you.”

Ted gave him a thumbs-up gesture.

Ted was sitting at a table nursing a beer when Charlie and two other players walked in. Besides Charlie, Ted was introduced to Danny Wainright and Pete Taylor both of who were young pitchers on the team. After hands were shaken, they sat at the table bringing each other up to date and telling stories about incidents that had happened in the past about players who were still in and out of the game. It felt good for Ted to be doing this since it was like the old days to be having this type of conversation. Danny and Pete were content to listen to these two old-timers reminiscing.

Feeling a little bit of a buzz because of the beer Ted said he was going to hit the road. He invited the three of them when they had an off day to go fishing with him out in the Gulf. All they needed was to purchase a fishing license and give him a call. Of course, he said doing this fishing depends on the weather.

Charlie in turn gave Ted his cellphone number, and said that if Ted ever needed any comp tickets for a game, all he needed to do was to give him a call.

On the drive back to his home Ted admitted to himself that he missed playing baseball but sooner or later his doing that he knew would have needed to come to an end. In a way, he quit playing baseball when he was at the top of his game which was unexpected but it was a class way to end it.

With his interest in the game now somewhat revitalized, he looked at the high school baseball schedule and decided to go to tomorrow’s game.

In walking from his car to the stands to watch the game he could see there was a good size crowd there to watch the game. In looking at where to take a seat he heard, “Hey Ted, why don’t you join us?” He looked to see who said that and recognized it was the fish and game officer who called out to him. Since it was more interesting in watching the game with someone you could discuss the game with, he took a seat next to the officer.

The officer introduced himself as Ken Bridges. Ken then introduced Ted to his wife Nancy and her sister Dana Asper. Dana was one good-looking lady about his age and he learned she was a high school teacher. The two ladies said they were aware of who Ted was and the help he had given Mark. This game they said was against their traditional rival who was tied with their team for first place. Mark was the starting pitcher so this should be an exciting game.

The game was interesting from Ted’s perspective for several reasons. One was that he heard the third baseman in his chatter telling the pitcher in code what he thought the type of batter at the plate was. This in turn was telling the pitcher and the catcher the pitches to throw. He also saw Mark pushing himself off the rubber which gave him considerable zip on his fastball. The batters for the home team he could see were trying to follow the ball when it was crossing the plate.

All this resulted in the home team winning the game five to one with Mark being the winning pitcher. Not only the players, but all the parents will be celebrating the victory said Ken. He said they and most of the players and their parents would be going over to Reddy’s for pizza and invited Ted to come along. Because Dana said she was going to be there Ted said he would attend.

It was a happy group at Reddy’s that celebrated the victory. Ted was a little surprised when Mark came up to him and thanked him for the tips. He also asked Ted if there was anything more he could do to improve.

“I thought you pitched a good game. My only suggestion would be at this time is to make sure to protect your arm. By that, I mean warm up slowly and don’t start throwing fastballs till your arm is fully warmed up. You should read the rule book as to what can be called a balk. After reading it if you have any questions, ask me to explain it better.”

With Dana saying she was single Ted concentrated his efforts on having a conversation with her. She said she had done some deep-sea fishing and enjoyed doing it. He wanted to ask her out on a date but he was in a situation with her sister and brother-in-law listening to the conversation that this was not the time to do it. He would give some further thought as to how to go about asking her out.

Ted was the first one to leave this celebration. He said it was nice meeting them and he probably would be seeing them at future games. He caught the attention of the waitress and paid the bill for the table with his credit card which included a good tip.

The following day, two interesting things happened. The first one pertained to Debbie when he phoned her asking her for a date. She turned him down saying she had become involved with a fellow and it could be serious. Ted told her she was a great gal and deserved to be happy. He wished her all the luck in the world and said it was nice knowing her.

The second interesting thing was a phone call he received from Dana. It started with her saying she had gotten Ted’s phone number from Wanda the realtor. That had Ted thinking Wanda knows everything about everybody. Dana said she was calling to thank Ted for paying the bill last night.