Caught Stealing - Charlie Huston [15]
Trenton is in the box. Eddie goes into his windup, a huge, slow delivery to the plate that takes forever. Then the ball explodes from his hand at ninety-eight miles per hour. And it moves. Eddie’s pitch is perfect; it bursts out of his hand looking like it will hit the outside of the plate, then darts inside. To hit heat like that, you have to guess where the ball will be when it reaches you and start your swing just as the pitcher releases it. Trenton starts his swing in time and his guess is dead-on. He’s leaning back in the box with the bat choked in tight against his body and he lays wood right on it. The guy is a monster. Even handcuffed by a pitch like that, he launches the ball skyward.
It’s coming at me. When it flys off the bat, it shoots up at the kind of angle that screams pop-up and on any given day, it’s a ball that should fall just short of the warning track in right-center. But today the wind is up. It’s blowing out from behind the plate and as I start drifting back to the wall I can see the ball get caught up there, dancing and blowing out on the currents. The left fielder, Dan Shelton, is moving in. But I call him off: I have the ball. This is my ball. I know the runners are streaking to beat out a single. I know that cocky bastard Trenton is moving slowly down the first base line, waiting to break into a home run trot. But this is no home run ball, I can see that. This is no homer. It’s gonna be close because the wind is really moving it around up there, but this is no homer. The play is gonna be right at the wall. If I’m not perfect I’ll flub the catch, it’ll drop in, and we’ll lose the game.
The ball carries farther than I thought it would. It’s going over. It’s a homer. The crowd is screaming, willing the ball over the wall. I have sudden visions of Carlton Fisk waving his arm, willing his home run fair.
I put on a burst to the wall and jump, stabbing my glove into the air, and feel the comfortable thump of the ball coming to rest in the woven pocket of my glove. I drop to the ground, cradling the ball, my ball, my World Series–winning fucking ball. And the Oakland Coliseum goes berserk. I am mobbed by my team. The rest is a blur leading to the champagne-drenched locker room.
There are microphones and celebrities and a call from the president and Eddie wins the Series MVP and drags me up to the podium and says he wants to share it with me. Someone brings my folks back to my locker and they’re both crying and we hug and laugh and gradually things start to settle down a bit. I’m twenty-two. I’ve spent four years as a Minor League phenom and now I’m a star in my Major League rookie season. I have everything I ever wanted and my whole life is waiting for me and it just sparkles. My parents head for home, the strangers clear the locker room and I start to get undressed.
I am unbuttoning my jersey. As I turn to my locker, Rich is standing there right in front of it. He’s still seventeen. He has beautiful long brown curly hair that drops to his shoulders and this goofy smile that chicks just eat up. He’s wearing sneakers, black jeans and his favorite Scorpions T-shirt. I am so happy to see him.
—Hey, Rich, man. How’d you get in here?
—Just snuck in, man.
—Wow! Wow, you look great. How are you, man?
—Good, I’m good. But you! Hey, talk about wow.
—Can you believe it?
—Sure, man, everybody can. There was never any question. I mean, come on.
—Thanks. Thanks, man, that means a lot.
—But hey, that catch! Nobody, nobody could have called that. Fucking outstanding, man.
—That was. Man, I can’t, I can’t describe. That just felt.
—Cool, right? It just felt cool.
—Yeah, that’s it, man. It felt so fucking cool.
—Awesome, just awesome. So what now, what do you do now?
—Well, there’s a thing, you know, just a huge bash all night. Come, man, you should come.
—No, man, I’d feel weird.
—No, really.
—No, I’d love