The Play

The sun had just come up and we were finishing up our breakfast, the chow hall was less than half full this Saturday morning, as most the students at Jobs Corps went home for the weekend. Gerald, Larry, and I was getting up to go empty our trays when Gerald spotted his teammate Ronald Poe who he by the way called Hoe, over by the food line. Hey Hoe what’s up baby, what are you doing when you finish your breakfast? I’m going up to the pool hall to hang out for a little bit, why what’s up? I just want to know where you can be found in case you are late again for the game. Fly Kidd you always getting on me about that, listen I’ll be on time ok Kidd. Alright Hoe, hey Hoe can you bring me a couple of those milks please. Sure Kidd. While Poe was getting his breakfast and the extra milk for Fly Kidd, which is the name they gave Gerald at his dome for excelling in everything he did and being cool about it, Larry and I exited the Chow Hall. The baseball game wasn’t to start until 11:00 A.M. this morning and we had three and a half hours before the game. The sun was already getting hot as it was July a summer month in San Marcus, Texas.

Gerald came out and joined us as we walked back toward Gerald’s dome. Jobs Corps was a facility of twelve campuses with three domes on each campus, and each dome had two bays, which each bay had twenty cubes that held four beds a cube. Each campus sits on a slightly elevated hill. Anyone want some milk Gerald asked us? No we both replied at the same time as we always did when Gerald would offer his extra milk. I know both of you had enough while you ate, but I offered anyway as always. So what will we do until the game Larry asked? Well I need to go to the gym and get in some training you’ll want to come with me and watch me train some? Larry and I looked at each other, because we joked a lot about the musk smelled in the gym when we go there, but we said yes anyway. Gerald’s dome was just up the road from the Chow Hall, so it took us just a few minutes to get there. As we approached Gerald’s dome we could see a few people standing outside hanging out, and as soon as they see Fly Kidd everyone start to greet him, hey Fly Kidd, what’s up with you, one guy was asking him? Fly Kidd you the man another one was saying. Who that you have with you Fly Kidd another asked? These are my cousins Fly Kidd said. Larry and Anthony, that’s Roy, Steve, and Little Tank. Larry and I said hello as we walked into the dome, Gerald resided on the North Bay in his dome, and it just so happens that Ronald Poe was a cube mate of Gerald. As we walked through the double doors, there is a small corridor that leads to the staff station and the Bays is left and right, south is left north is right. Gerald went into his locker and grab his gym bag his baseball uniform and locked his locker and said ready let’s go. As we pasted back by the staff station there were a staff member behind the desk dressed in casual clothes where as through the week the staff would wear staff uniforms. Hey what’s going on Gerald? What are you up to today? Must be something going on special for you to be here on a weekend the staff member said. And you know this Mr. Pollock, We have a playoff game today, so I’m here for this weekend Gerald replied. Are those some of your teammates there? No these are my relatives Anthony, Larry this is Mr. Pollock. Hi you doing sir we said. Hi there young men he said, so are you two as talented as this guy? Yes sir, but we do not show it as much. I see, well I hope you have good game Gerald Mr. Pollock said. Thank you sir Gerald said, and we were out the door.

At the gym there were only a few people there training. There were this one guy whose nickname was Herc the Hurter; he was a heavyweight fighter, where as Fly Kidd was a light feather weight fighter, the two was about a hundred pounds different in weight. Larry and I could tell that Herc really liked Fly Kidd, because when he seen him his face lit up, and he said Fly Kidd so excitedly. Herc and Fly Kidd jabbed at one another playfully. I’ll take you on any day Kidd Herc said. Yea and you’ll win too Herc, they laugh. So not many here today, I’m just going to go on the punching bag for a few minutes, I have an important game to play today so I don’t want to do too much and exhaust myself Fly Kidd said. Fly Kidd you get exhausted, I haven’t seen it yet; I’m going to step outside and smoke me a cigarette Larry said. Fly Kidd went into the dressing room, and I looked around the gym. It was a nice size gym, big enough to hold three sparring rings; an area where there were four punching bags; another area where it looked like the boxers would do exercise workouts, and then there was a room that said office. Larry came back in and Fly Kidd had emerged from the dressing room. Fly Kidd did some stretching and he started hitting the punching bag. Larry and I stood there watching, because we really never just stayed inside, because of the musk smell, but this time we watched Gerald as we called him do a workout on the punching bag, and let me tell you Fly Kidd went to work on that punching bag with so much speed, that Larry looked at me and I looked at him and we shooked out heads in approval together and said he is fast.

The Baseball Park was already filling up with people when we got there. Gerald had showered and changed into his uniform at the gym, he said to us Showtime I’ll see you two after the game and ran over where his team where gathering. I could see that his teammate and cube mate Ronald Poe had made it on time as well. The two teams did there stretching and warming up and the game started. The teams were of a campus, Gerald’s Campus was Campus 5 and the other team was Campus 8. Campus 5 batted first, Gerald was the third in batting order, the first batter struck out; the second batter had a single and Gerald got a walk on two strikes and four balls, Gerald was the best player on his team. The next batter was out on a pop fly to left field with no advances on base. The next batter was Ronald Poe; he had two strikes and a shot down the first base line for the third out of the inning. Campus 8 were the favorites to win the game and they started out that way; their fist batter had a double and the second batter hit a single shot down the third base line that got by Ronald Poe who plays third base, Gerald play shortstop. Gerald was saying something to the second baseman who may have been saying something about the ball getting by the third baseman. The next batter for campus 8 struck out and the next batter hit a shot between second and first base, that the right fielder came up to get and throw him out at first base, that advanced the runners to second and third. The next batter hit a pop fly to deep right field that advanced a run home and a man on third base. The score is 1 to 0 now with two men out and a runner on third base for Campus 8. The next batter had three foul balls before hitting a pop fly to center field for the third out of the inning for Campus 8. The fist inning was over. There was no scoring for three innings, until the fifth inning. With the score Campus 8, 1, and Campus 5, 0, Campus 5 coach called his players to huddle up for a pep talk, we could not here what he was saying, but after the team broke out of the huddle, the players all said 5 real load in one accord, and the first batter walked to the plate. Campus 8’s pitcher looked around at his players in the out field and gave a signal with his hands and rub thumb and forefinger across the tip of his cap, and the out field players came in close. The pitcher’s first pitch went in high and inside, the batter leaned back and did not swing, the umpire sounded off ball, the second pitch went low and inside and he swung at it, but missed; strike 1 the umpire sounded again, the pitch was a strike, Campus 5 coach called to the batter and gave him a sign, and the batter nodded his head as to indicate he understood what the sign meant, so when the next pitch came in he changed his grip on the bat and bunted the ball between the third baseman and the pitcher, neither could get to it in time to throw him out at first base, so now Campus 5 had a man on at first, the crowd roared in approval and the coach was giving the second batter a few more pointers before he went to the plate, but he hit a grounder to the third baseman who threw him out at first, now there’s a runner on second base with one out and Gerald at bat, the coach and the other teammates in the dugout was cheering him on, so was Larry and I, and others in the stands. You could here the fans shouting come on Fly Kidd; make something happen. Fly Kidd let the first pitch go which the umpire called a strike; the second he hit, but it went foul, the next one was a ball, and the next came right down the middle of the plate, and Fly Kidd hit it solidly, it went up high and back, but hit the fence and fell inside the park for a double and the man who was on second base ran in home for a run and the first points for Campus 5. The fans were cheering, because this was the first time this game that Campus five had shown any kind of spark. Now it was Ronald Poe’s turn at bat and Fly Kidd who is at second base was saying to him ok Hoe don’t screw this up this is our chance to take the lead, and the coach also was calling Poe and saying something to him, I could see that Poe was only looking at the pitcher and nodding his head.

The pitcher turned to his outfielders and gave a signal, the outfielders shifted to the left as if they were expecting the ball to come between the second and third base to the left outfield, then he faced the batter to pitch to him, the first pitch was high and inside, Poe did not swing, the umpire called ball. Poe stepped back from the base, held up his right hand, tapped the bat on both his cleats and stepped back to the plate, he looked at Fly Kidd on second base and nodded his head upward as it if to suggest what’s up, Fly Kidd nodded his head toward right field, Poe nodded back and smiled, he tighten the grip on his bat and waited for the pitch, the second pitch was low and out side, Poe swung and hit it foul, Poe knew that the next pitch had to come in more over the plate than high in or low out, so he tighten his grip on his bat and checked his stance, the ball came in centered over the plate and a little to the outside, Poe swung and hit a solid shot to deep right field for a double, that brought Fly Kidd all the way home, and put Poe on second base, the crowd roared again in appreciation. Fly Kidd was saying that’s the way to hit the ball as he was walking back to the dug out, and the players and coaches was cheering. The next batter had three strikes and that ended the inning. Neither team scored in the sixth inning. Each teams coach called his team to huddle up for a pep talk for the final inning. Campus 8 was down by 2 points and needed 2 runs to tie and three runs to win. The 7th batter in order was up to bat for Campus 8. The pitcher for Campus 5 looked at his infield and did a signal, and the infield players tightened, he pitched the ball, the batter swung and hit it foul down first base, the second and third pitch was a ball, the batter swung and hit the fourth pitch just over the second baseman’s head for a single. Campus 8 fans started cheering their team, they was chanting “hit this one out the park”; the next batter stepped to the plate looking every bit like a power hitter as the crowd continued chanting “out of the park”. Campus 5 dugout was up and cheering their pitcher on. The pitcher looked at the batter, wind up for the pitch and let it go, the batter hit it high left for a foul ball, the next two pitch’s were balls, the next pitch came in low and centered, he hit it deep right field for a double, now there’s two runners in scoring position with no outs. Campus 5 coach called time to have a talk with his pitcher. Coach walked back to the dugout; his players were chanting let’s get a strike out to the pitcher. The pitcher wind up for the pitch and let it go, the ball was hit to the ground and the second baseman scooped it up and threw him out at first base. That’s one out with runners on second and third base. The next batter stepped to the plate for Campus 8. The dugout for Campus five were cheering their pitcher on to strike him out, but the swung and hit the first pitch between first and second base for a base hit that brought the third base runner home for a score, and advanced the runner on second base to third base. Now the score was Campus 8; 2 and Campus 5; 3 with one out and a runner on third base. One more run and the game would be tied or to more runs and Campus 8 would take the lead.

Fly Kidd walk over to the pitcher and said something to him in his ear that no one could hear and the pitcher nodded his head in approval. Fly Kidd walk back to his short stop position, the pitcher looked over his out field and gave a signal, and the outfield came in close, he turn to the batter who was winning up with his bat for the pitch. The first pitch was high and inside the batter did not swing. Fly Kidd was saying yeah baby let’s get another out; we need to close it out here. The next pitch was low and inside, the batter swung and hit it foul down outside the third base line; Poe tried to catch it, but it was to far out, alright baby get him to hit another one my way Poe said to the pitcher. The next pitch came in high and centered, the swung and hit it solidly, it went between third and second base, it looked like it was going to be a base hit, Fly Kidd squatted and jumped as high as he could and caught the ball out of the air, the crowd roar with cheers, and the runner on third base who thought the ball may have with over and be caught tried to run home for the tie, Fly Kidd was alert and threw the ball home, and the runner was tagged out, and that ended the game with Campus 5 winning by the score of 3 to 2. Larry and I jumped with joy as well as the crowd. Campus 5 players and coaches were all over Fly Kidd and lifted him up on there shoulders, calling him the hero of the game.





A Short Story by:

Namkraps