We, legitimately, watched baseball videos all morning . And not the fun kind . All of it was informative or a tutorial on what to do for each situational play . Noah had briefly gone over situational plays with me before my tryout, but we ended up not having to go over it since my batting impressed everyone . By lunch time, I had wrote down five pages of notes with an attempt at some diagrams for reference . Safe to say, I've retain at least half of it . Maybe .
I looked over my notes during lunch and on the way to the park, trying to make sure I'll pass the test Zeke wants to throw at me .
Their neighborhood park was bigger than what I had expected . It had a playground, soccer field, and a baseball field . We lugged our gear on over and placed it near home plate . Then Zeke had us do the same warmup as always, even though we weren't doing a full practice . Surprisingly the twins showed up with Garret and they joined our warmup .
"What are they doing here?" Noah asked Zeke .
"In situational plays we need extra players . Someone to hit the ball to Jake . Someone to play first . You'll play short . Depending on what I want to do, we'll need those guys to stand in for real players . " Zeke informed us .
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"Hey!" Dave yelled out . "You basically just called us lackeys!"
"And your point?" Zeke continued the warmup without stopping .
"Is this really the way you treat your younger brother, who's doing you a favor?"
"You're doing the team a favor . Not me personally . Take it up with Coach . " Zeke remained expressionless as always . We wrapped up the warmup and got our gloves .
Zeke took up a bat instead and dragged a bucket of balls closer to himself . "I'll hit the balls since I have the best control . " No one refuted . "Noah to short . Jake to second . Garret, you'll play first . Dave to right field and Kyle will be a catcher . "
"Wouldn't Garret in the outfield be a better choice since plays it more?" Dave disagreed .
"I'm left-handed . " Garret made a face . "It would only make sense If it was left field . Glove side closest to the foul line and whatnot . "
"It's just practice . " Dave put his hands on his head . "I don't want to go all the way out there and shag balls . Make Kyle do it instead . "
Zeke's eyes cut through him, making me feel nervous for Dave . Zeke looked like he was about to thrash him . "Fine . Kyle does have the stronger arm . It would only make more sense to send him . "
Kyle smirked at Dave . "You're right . I'll do it . Since I have a stronger arm . " He jogged to the grass and found a good spot to stand .
Zeke ignored Dave's look of displeasure . "Since you're catcher, you're responsible for handing me a ball . And making sure the rest make it back into the bucket . "
Dave grumbled and took a spot next to the bucket . He gave a ball to Zeke .
Zeke looked at me . "I'll be calling out the situation before I send the ball to you . You field accordingly . Every wrong one will equal a lap, which you'll run on Monday . "
I nodded nervously and got set .
"No outs . " Zeke smacked a light grounder my way . I quickly fielded it to Garret who waited at first patiently . Zeke nodded, satisfied . "Simple and quick . Next . One out, runner on first . " He sent me another grounder towards my right hand . I bare handed it, and lightly tossed it to Noah, who was waiting on second base, then he fired it to Garret on first .
Garret whistled . "Not bad . Already attempting bare hands? You also paired with Noah very nicely . "
"Wrong . " Zeke shut down Garret's compliments with one word . "That'll be a lap . "
"What . Why?" Noah looked as upset as I felt . That was my first real attempt at a bare hand and Zeke isn't even giving us credit as a pass?
"I said runner ON first . " He stressed . "That could possibly mean he staying close to the base . Maybe without a lead . The batter could also be a slow runner . It would have been a safer play if you backhanded with your glove to ensure it didn't get past you . We don't need fancy and nice looking plays . We want safe plays that'll win games . "
My jaw dropped .
Chapter end
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