It's in His Blood
by Piper Wright
County Crossing - County Crossing may not look like an important plot of land, but its role as a trading hub in the Northeast Commonwealth has led it to be more than just a mud pond in the great expanse. First founded by two mutfruit farming brothers, Carlos and Carlton House, County Crossing was then turned it into its current chems and meds empire by roving doctor Doc Weathers.
From there, the area grew into an advanced and expanded settlement with the old National Guard Training Yard serving as Doc Weather’s emporium. The Houses’ mutfruit farm still serves as the local staple food, with barns of molerats, radstags, and brahmin on the extended property to serve up the heavy appetite for meat the locals love.
Across from the National Guard Training Yard, Beantown Brewery Stadium shines like the new building it is. Arrays of plants have been spread around the fan entrance to the stadium, giving an aesthetic peace to the wastes.
My destination on my stroll through the “Crossing” is behind the National Guard Training Yard, where some of the old supply buildings has been turned into player housing, along with several shacks built for those desiring the outdoors more. Front Porch Potter, acquired in a three-way trade among his original team, the Sunshine Tidings Chemists, the Starlight Lady Killers, and the County Crossing Bloodbugs. The trade was perpetuated by a front office tiff that caused the Chemists’ sponsor, Small Bertha, to force team owner Talia McGovern to move Small Bertha’s brother to her team. In a swap of three first-round picks, including Potter, and 12 players in all.
“I wasn’t drafted by the Bloodbugs, but I belong here,” Potter says. He lives in one of the shacks, the one with the biggest front porch of them all. Fitting, I think. So I have to ask.
“They don’t call me Front Porch for nothing.”
In fact, his shack was custom-designed, which makes me wonder what might happen if he moves on to another team through trade or other means. His shack is like no other I have seen. The indoors area is what he calls the “fallout shelter in case of radstorms.” It is windowless, with one sleeping bag on the floor, a locker for some of his equipment, a dresser for clothes, a comfortable chair and a lamp for reading. The outside, though, is something else. The porch outdoors are as large as most indoors areas of shacks. There is a large couch, a hospital bed for sleeping, a cooking stove, and a few shelves for reading and other goods. I see his baseball equipment hanging from nails on the shack wall.
“When I was a kid, I would only go inside when there was a radstorm blowing through. Otherwise, I stayed outside 24 hours a day. My mom said she didn’t like that I never came inside, but I think she secretly preferred that all of us stayed outside so she could have more room.”
He described his “bedroom” at his home at Outpost Zimonja. The shack was his mom’s. His dad and older brother mostly stayed away either working the farm or guarding against roving marauders or drinking at the bar stand. As for Front Porch . . .
“I made the front porch of our house my own fort. I set up a covered area, and I slept there.”
He cannot explain exactly why he was so attracted to the front porch and wanted to spend his time there, but the settlers at Outpost Zimonja all called him Front Porch. Eventually, his brother and father started calling him that, too. His mother was the last to hold out.
“To her, I was always Harry. Always. It wasn’t until I was around 16 that I finally heard her say it. All my life, my momma would always say, ‘It’s too dangerous to be outside. Or come inside for once to eat with us.’
“That day, she said, ‘Front Porch, watch out, or the bloodbugs will get you.’ Well, as it turns out, she was right!”
The Bloodbugs did indeed get Front Porch, and the nickname followed him to Sunshine Tidings Co-Op where he was assigned to player housing, a place with a small porch crowded inside with four beds and outside with four chairs. After he was traded, the first thing he asked about was getting a custom-built shack. Doc Weathers agreed.
“Doc’s been great. He really supports the team.” Front Porch pauses. He starts to rebut himself but thinks better of it. He then just repeats himself, the first time I see a lack of confidence in himself.
We get to talking about baseball, about his story. It’s as typical as a lot of the players. Though Outpost Zimonja does not have its own field for all-out baseball, a lot of the youth there would play a version using sticks and rocks.
“Rockball, we called it. Everybody hated when I would pitch because they could never hit my pitches. It didn’t really matter. A home run in rockball was hitting the ball over the pitcher’s head. The rock just wouldn’t fly.”
From Front Porch’s skills in rockball, he later decided to do some traveling in his mid-20s. That’s when he hooked up with one of the Commonwealth’s pre-CBO traveling teams, the Quannapowitt Mud Hoppers. Front Porch’s first chance to pitch a baseball did not go as well as his rockball days, though.
“I would love to say I was a natural at baseball and dominated every time I ever pitched, but I will never forget my first game with the Hoppers. We were playing against the Malden Middlemen. It was the 5th inning of a six-inning game. They told me to go finish up the game for our team. When I went in, we were losing 8-1, I think. I know when I threw my last pitch to strike out their worst hitter, we had given up 25 runs for the game. That didn’t feel good.”
Front Porch got better, though. He went from pitching late in the game to starting to get in earlier in the game, until he got the hang of pitching and started pitching at least a full game a week. By the time tryouts started for the CBO, league representatives could see that he was one of the better pitchers out there, despite being more than 10 years older than most of the players there. His talent made him good enough to go 21st overall.
For now, Front Porch is the best pitcher on a team trying to find its identity after being swept by the Finch Farm Four Leafs last weekend. Potter suffered his first loss, falling to 2-1 on the season, as well as watching his ERA swell to 4.71, which is still much better than teammates Bad Company Grognak (5.79) and Blaine Phrasemaker (9.31).
“We’ll get better,” Front Porch says. He finds his confidence again. “We have The Slog coming in this week, and we beat them two out of three just a couple of weeks ago. We’ll find our wings.”
With a player like Front Porch Potter leading the team as the team ace and the acting player-coach, I have no doubt he can help the Bloodbugs fly. And bite. It’s in his blood.