Coach Wilcox looked more calm with Jason near third . Next, he turned to me . He slowly made his way over, making me nervous . What if I got cut right now? Noah would flip out . "What have you gone over exactly?"
"He's taken notes on the basics . " Zeke replied for me . "Saturday we went over the most common plays . "
"Obviously not . " Coach refuted . "Hard grounders down the third baseline is second after grounders to the shortstop . " He looked at me . "You would cover the base of it was a grounder to Noah, right?" I nodded . "Then why wouldn't you do the same when the ball goes to third?" I lifted a finger to point at Noah . He was more athletic and knew what to do so shouldn't he cover . . ?
AdvertisementCoach chuckled at my weak response . "You think Noah should do it since he's a better player?" I nodded, exactly . "Okay . Think about it like this . If it's a grounder to the first baseman, where would you go?"
I pointed at first base . I should cover . We went over this Saturday . Someone should be on the base .
"Right . Now, why wouldn't Noah do the same, and cover for his side? We can't leave third open, because there's a chance for error . "
I nodded, starting to understand . That makes sense . I should have thought about it more .
"Let me give you a cheat . " Coach Wilcox called in Noah, Jason, and Julian . "How many players do we have on the infield?" I raised four fingers . "And how many bases?" I raised three fingers . "So if there's an infield hit, you have one player going to the ball and everyone else should grab a base . Understand?" I nodded . "Just remember B . The letter B rhymes with three . Want to know what else starts with the letter B?" He grinned . "The three roles of an infielder: ball, base, backup . Your job on every ball in play, is to pick one of these three options . You either go to the ball . Go to the base to cover . Or backup a play . "
Enlightenment dawn on me .
"Wow Coach . Who knew you can make baseball this simple . " Noah smiled, trying to hold back a laugh .
Coach didn't hold back his laugh . "This is as simple as can be . This is what I use to teach little leaguers . " My face twitched at the thought of being compared to little kids . Coach noticed . "It's nothing to be ashamed of . You just lack practice . "
Noah gave me a thumbs up . "Three B's . Apparently that's all you needed to know . Everything that Zeke taught you is just extra details . " Jason and Julian let out little laughs .
"That's not true . " Coach Wilcox came to defend his captain . "Zeke probably gave you more in-depth information that you should continue to study . Baseball doesn't always go according to plan . The three B's are just the guidelines . " He clapped his hands twice and turned away . "Back to your positions!" He headed back to his spot next to Mr . Miller .
Julian and Jason were quick to walk back to their spots, and Zeke had already ran back to center field . Only Noah stuck around for a second . "Don't mind Chris . A few of the upperclassmen are just mad that you have a better bat . Just focus on playing . Not even playing well . Just having fun while playing baseball . " He pulled my cap over my eyes before taking off .
I fixed my hat so I could see properly . I wasn't completely naive . Some of the guys were bound to be upset with a total newbie on a varsity team . Zeke even said so before, that they shouldn't have to accommodate me . I need to carry my own weight .
I focused on the guy calling the plays and hitting the ball . We started to run a few more plays, and with coach's cheat, I felt more comfortable making decisions . The infield plays became easier and easier .
As we started to work on hits to the outfield, I really started to understand the point of knowing ball, base, backup . If it was hit to the left field, Noah would go to the ball to be the cutoff and I would cover second . If it went to right field, Julian would go to the ball to be the cutoff man, and I would go cover first base . In regards to center field hits, Zeke threw bullets to Noah and I made sure to cover second . Since I didn't have a strong arm to throw home, it wouldn't make sense for me to go to any ball in the outfield . Noah though, had a crazy arm to go with his outstanding reflexes . I really wasn't surprised that he would start at shortstop with those skills .
Chapter end
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