What happened....Well.....Fade to black....
I left for Ohio yesterday morning and the travel time was estimated 5 hours and 25 minutes. Not expecting to hit much traffic, I left earlier that I needed to, which was a very good thing....As I passed Pittsburgh, there was a hail storm where the cars had to pull over since no one could see inches in front of their windshields. I did not count on dying in a hail storm, so I pulled over and remained vigilant as I watched the cars behind me do the same thing. All I could think about was that I was going to miss the game while sitting on the PA turnpike or die trying to make it......
After the hail storm, I continued my journey until I made it on time to the field in the northeast corner of Ohio, north of Akron and south of Cleveland. It was cold, naturally....
As I paid for my ticket, the student gave me $2.00 change for my $5.00. Nice....
No, not NICE! As I looked at the price, I saw that the admission price was 5$ for adults and 3$ senior citizens. Hmmm....did she charge me the senior citizen price? Moi? A senior citizen? Over 60 years old according to the box office flyer....really....sigh.....Hey, I was wearing my coolest Oakley shades and had orange shoelaces in my Nikes....a senior? Sheesh! Fine...bit I was a very cool senior!
As I sat in the stands....the wind picked up....temperature went down....a bitter cold evening was upon us. A not so perfect evening for baseball....more like hockey...where were the pucks?
Finally the game begins and the big kid is on the mound. He is fearless as he mows down the other team....K, K, K, K, K , and K. He gives up one run. Mind you, it is freezing. I could see during the 5th inning that he was losing his command and knew that it was time to pull him. After all, the last time that he pitched was two weeks ago AND the trainer made him lift yesterday because he has omnipotent power to do what he wants with the athletes.
And so, as the pitchers' battle continued, the opposing team pulled out their starter and added members of their bullpen. Thinking the Czar would do the same thing, I was actually not surprised to see him in the 6th. The Czar never follows protocol.
Oh, by the way....the starting line up consisted with the players who have not seen action most of the year. I could naturally see that the Czar did not expect to pull this game out.
As the kid was losing his grip on the ball due to the weather conditions, he loaded the bases with the help of the shortstop and was taken out of the game.
This was my cue to leave. As I was packing, the Czar was tossed from the game for jabbing the umpire. Classy...very classy....
As I left, my body shook from nerves and the chill. But I was happy that I was there. After all, he pitched brilliantly. He needed to have someone who had his back in the stands and that person was me.
AS I traveled back east, I wanted to go as far as I could last night before stopping. Dad and Tink kept calling me and begged me to stop and spend the night. When I travel along a highway, I try to stay at a Hampton Inn. You know what to expect, they are clean, and you are given breakfast. So, I found a HI outside of Pittsburgh. Guess what? There was no room at the Inn....so I continued another 30 miles before I found another off the turnpike. As I entered, I asked for a room and all that was left was a handicapped access room. "I'll take it...." As I entered the room, there was a faint smell of urine. I knew that I was going to spend a nominal amount of time in that place and they would make a bundle off of me as I planned to leave around 4 am.
As soon as I woke, I threw on the clothes that I had on the day before and ran out of the room. I needed, wanted, craved a shower, but was not going to undress there. No way!!!
The trip home continued uninterrupted until I finally heard from the big lefty.
"Dude, you were amazing! So proud of you...."
Then he spilled it.....
It was freezing. During the fifth inning, he could NOT feel the ball anymore. Not caring, the Czar left him in the game until he proved that he could no longer throw by loading the bases....
During his warm up, there were a few wayward pitches. Ok, that is what warming up is all about. An athlete warms up their arms and strokes...you see it in golf with a golf swing, batters swing the bat several times, and tennis players warm up their serves. Obviously, this is not allowed on this team......
The psycho pitching coach screamed at him during warm ups. He screamed, mocked, and humiliated the kid BEFORE he threw the first pitch in the opening inning. Really? Does Freud support this type of motivation? Uh, Dr. Phil...want to chime in on this style of pumping up your guy?
No? No one?
Anyway, he was so terrific. I finally sat back and enjoyed the show. During the game, I am not sure if I was going into a hypothermic coma or what; but I had visions of when he pitched for the first time....when he hit the ball off the plastic tee when he was one...when he was in a pitchers' battle during the 8th grade CYO championship.....the time when he blew his cork and ripped off his jersey after pitching in legion baseball....is this what it is like when a person is dying? They see their life flash before their eyes? Well, I was not only seeing my life but the big kid's life too.
With that said.....he claims that he is in pain today since he threw 91 pitches yesterday. The pitching coach screamed at his 6 strike outs. The big guy claimed that it was not his fault that the other team could not hit his pitches. The coach claims that he should always pitch to contact. Oye! I am going to have an ulcer after this season.....
Let me get this right.....Strike outs are bad...hit balls are good....got it.....
Now that I am home, I need to go back to life as I know it and get the work done. Thanks for traveling this road with me.
Peace!
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