SHORT HOP - My Career In Baseball by David Driscoll

[WWBL Commissioner]

Originally Posted by Tib

Yeah. Should have said "average". I've changed it now.

Just my but if you are trying to say, "the old guys got it done" I would go with combined age instead of average, makes it sound a little more special, but again just my

[Jazzmosis]

Once again, you write a chapter of genius wrapped in suspence and coated with a delicious sauce of fantastic.

You're my god.

[The Funk]

Originally Posted by WWBL Commissioner

Just my but if you are trying to say, "the old guys got it done" I would go with combined age instead of average, makes it sound a little more special, but again just my

Yeah, I was thinking that as well. Maybe "The combined age of those two hitters was 68" or something like that, might read a bit better. "the combined age of those two hits was..." doesn't quite sound natural to me. Again, like the Commish, my .

[Skywalker76]

Great stuff. Will they make it to the playoffs ?

[WWBL Commissioner]

Is it Saturday yet? Oh Tib, how about a half chapter today, another half Saturday, and a full one on Sundays I of course am just kidding, just like to post every once in a while in here hoping to draw new readers for you!!

[Tib]

Somebody needs a fix.

How about one chapter a week? With all the OT I've been working on the weekends and my fatherly day-care duties during the week, I'm strapped just to maintain that pace. Remember, I'm also working on the History of CBA Baseball and a new photo album, not to mention that I'm trying to figure out the best way to convey the excitement of the playoffs in journal form.

I just got a little ahead only recently and I'd like to keep it that way. But I'll do this: if I ever get three chapters ahead I'll post a surprise chapter during the week. Fair?

[Tauro]

Originally Posted by Tib

Somebody needs a fix.

How about one chapter a week? With all the OT I've been working on the weekends and my fatherly day-care duties during the week, I'm strapped just to maintain that pace. Remember, I'm also working on the History of CBA Baseball and a new photo album, not to mention that I'm trying to figure out the best way to convey the excitement of the playoffs in journal form.

I just got a little ahead only recently and I'd like to keep it that way. But I'll do this: if I ever get three chapters ahead I'll post a surprise chapter during the week. Fair?

Sounds good to me.

And what, you can't do anything between midnight and 6 am?? Come on! where is the dedication!

[Tib]

Welcome to Chapter 31! I'm posting this chapter tonight because I'm working another 16 and won't have time to post it tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoys the end of the Knights' season as much as I did.

[Tib]

Chapter 31

September Reign

From: Dave Driscoll (ddriscoll@CBPA.org)
Sent: September 23, 2007 11:48AM
To: Don Driscoll (dondriscoll@familynet.com)
Subject:

Dear Dad,

I’ve got an off-day today, so I thought I’d say a quick hello and fill you in on all the excitement. First, it was good to talk to you on the phone for a change. Thanks for sending me those investment brochures. I spoke to Ken Kline yesterday and he suggested a couple of things I’m probably going to do.

Been looking at houses here. It seems like a better investment than renting an apartment. I’m just not sure if I have the time to keep it up, what with being on the road and all, but I’m looking anyway. After next season I’ll be eligible for a contract extension or at least arbitration, so I’ll be getting some kind of raise (I hope!).

Gwen says hi. I talked to her after we got bombed by Boston on the 19th. 21-6. Yikes. That was hardly the performance of a 1st place team. Funny, but Grier just laughed it off. “It still only counts as one loss,” he said. I guess you can’t get too depressed about getting totally crushed like that. Maybe what bothered me most was Flash going 4 for 5 and dodging my tag in the 4th inning.

Anyway, Gwen is doing well. She got a new job with WKCB radio doing voice- over sports, whatever that is. She says she’s the “radio voice of the WKCB sports department”. I’m happy for her, but she still plans to pursue television broadcasting. I’ve put in a word for her with the Knights, but I’m not holding my breath. Eddie Martinelli, Terry Frasier and Mike Salt are going to be the “radio voices” of the KC Knights for a while yet.

I’ve asked her to move in with me. She hasn’t given me an answer. I think she’s still a little scared of the commitment involved in living together. I’m not pressuring her. The truth is I’m a little scared myself. But I feel it’s the next step for us, whenever it happens.

So we’re in first place! Let me tell you: after 96 losses last year it doesn’t suck! After we beat Baltimore 24-5 on the 3rd and 7-2 the next night, we faltered a little against Indianapolis, but won 7 of our next 10. In fact, after Moises Chupp joined us on the 9th I caught fire (8 for 16). I’m not giving up shortstop to anybody if I can help it.

My knee is bothering me. The workouts we’ve been doing are more intense than in the minors and since I haven’t told anybody about it yet I can’t very well lighten up without looking lazy. I think the team trainers know something is wrong with it. I’m just playing it off like I twisted it a little.

Last week when we played Seattle Frankie Ward had to play for me. Grier saw me limping a little during warm-ups and decided to give me a rest. I didn’t want to come out but I really did need a day off. The day before against Indy I got pulled for Chupp in the fifth because I took a bad swing and wrenched it. Just to prove it was all right I stole a base and stretched a looper into a double. Right now it’s touch and go. I’ve done about all I can with it; I just hope it holds up.

Chupp is a good guy. A veteran. He played for Dallas in ’93 when they won 104 ballgames, so he knows how to win. Grier and Faraday wanted him to give me a break late in the season. I don’t want a break! I want to play. But it seems they were right, given the trouble with my knee.

81-70 is a great place to be in late-September. Our 4-game lead feels like it’ll hold up for a while. The division is getting blasted for being the weakest in the CBA but I don’t care. First place is first place, especially now when we’re in the last ten days of the season. Our magic number is 7, I think.

Roster expansion has given us some more arms. Osvaldo Frias, Eusebio Tatro and Renshichirou Tadamichi came up two weeks ago. Of the three, Tadamichi looks like he’s pretty good. He calls me Usagi-goro.

Thanks for asking about Hannibal. I found out that he just bruised a neck muscle and he’ll be back in the lineup tomorrow against Miami. It was a scary moment, though. Joel Kral did terrific as his backup, didn’t he? I think it’s a shame Joey’s not getting any more playing time. If he wasn’t so quiet he might convince Grier to start him against more right-handers; a .330 average against righties shouldn’t be ignored.

Speaking of ignored, I talked to J.R. a couple of days ago. He says he mopped up AA, but he didn’t break through to Raleigh. He’s getting frustrated. I told him he was only 24 and it’s not time to panic yet. But that’s easy for me to say.

J.R. says Moose went .292/25/85 in Raleigh, but wasn’t called up. He said normally Moose wouldn’t be affected by it, but this time it’s different. J.R. told me Moose thinks the Atlanta people don’t believe he’s smart enough to handle big league pitching. I think that’s ridiculous, but I’m no catcher. I mean, managers and computers call pitches nowadays, anyway, so what’s the problem? I told J.R. it’s because Kotta and Pelucci love their veterans and they’re going to keep Landingstone until his option runs out. Then at least two spots will open up because Atlanta will never offer Simonds a new contract; he’s 35 for God’s Sake.

Some other news: Keith Hart is hitting .313 for Atlanta in limited time and Lino Lopez is at .117 as a backup infielder and pinch runner. He’s only played 22 games for the big club this year, but he did hit 23 homers for Raleigh. Yoogie’s in Durham rehabbing his elbow again. He was 6-5 with a 2.08 ERA until he strained it. I hope he gets better. I called him but he must have moved because the number’s no good. J.R. says Jose Landeros just got promoted to Raleigh after hitting .322 for Durham. Cristobal Ayala has been a yo-yo, bouncing between Durham and Raleigh all year. I see what these guys are going through and I’m glad KC decided to get rid of Kellinger and bring up the young guys when they did. Thank God for John Grier. Imagine! I could be in Raleigh or even Durham right now if I were still with Atlanta. To think I have Theo Garner to thank for it…

That’s all for now. Take care and tell Jen congrats on all-Pac 10!

Dave


We had back-to-back 6-5 wins over Miami on the 24th and 25th to drop our magic number to 4. It was going to stay at 4 for a while, though, because we lost the next three games when Araoz, Pena and Katz all got shelled. Let’s face it, they were a tired group. The real blow was Pena, though. I still remember him throwing that pitch. Sean Wright bounced that ball to me and even as I fielded it and threw to Carrera I could see Pena grabbing his elbow out of the corner of my eye. I think I was at the mound before the ball got to first.
“Go damn eet, Hope!” he said to me in his thick Dominican accent. “Iss my Go damn hellbow again.”
Injuries happen, but knowing we were going to be without Pena for two weeks really hurt. Caffey and Grier put Tadamichi in his spot, but it was a tough role to fill for a young kid, even if he did have potential. He had only been in this country for 18 months.

Thankfully, Cleveland and Chicago kept losing, too. Of all the divisions, ours was looking like first round fodder for the likes of Dallas and Oakland. It was a war of attrition in the UL Central that year. Everybody was getting hurt. Still we kept winning. Against all odds and with a herd of eager kids, a payroll less than half that of Cleveland, and the guidance of Ollie Caffey, Mark Schernborg and John Grier we were doing what seemed impossible only three months before.


September 29, 2007

Kansas City – Beat the Colts again tonight, 6-4. Went 1-3 with 2RBI but made another goddamn error. #15 now. I’m at .978 for the year. This ****ing knee…I can’t get to balls cleanly right now.

My shoulder is hurting, my knee feels about as solid as a rope bridge, my back is sore… This is much, much tougher than I thought it would be. I heard about late season fatigue, but I never imagined it would feel like this. A little tiredness, perhaps, but this… Everything feels like it’s breaking down, like a cheap car that knows its warranty is running out. How is it going to feel when I’m 34, much less 24? It occurs to me if I had played a college schedule I might have had a taste of what real fatigue was like. Looks like I’ll have to build up my stamina through experience. I just hope I don’t let the team down…

Flying out early tomorrow to play a make up game vs. Washington. Biggest game of the year. Our magic number’s only 2, plus if we do manage to win the division and squeeze past Dallas we’ll probably have to face the defending champs in the ULCS. Important to win for more than one reason.


September 30, 2007

Beat the Sentinels 8-6. Stole a base on my tricky knee. Of course, it seemed like everybody stole a base tonight. Aaron Christian has no arm at all. We ran on him at will. Jonesy had 2, Bobby had one… Even Carreras had one and he never steals! Cardenas hit his 13th homer in 3 months. Hannibal hit #34. Unfortunately, magic # is still 2. Damn Gilly – he picks now to start a hot streak? Doesn’t he know we need Cleveland to lose?


I stumbled back to the paddock, going 2-13 the rest of the season (.280). I had yet another error as my confidence and my body continued to erode. It was my 16th of the season and my 3rd in ten games. I had faded from the Defensive Ace race pretty quickly. Now I was a close fourth at .975 behind Grover Nunez. I thought I was better than Grover Nunez. I got to a hell of a lot more balls, that’s for sure. Why didn’t they factor Balls Fielded into the equation? I’d probably win the Ace Award outright. I had at least six years on all the other top shortstops.

I did manage to steal my 17th, though, which made me feel a little better. I also managed 86 walks and 73 runs scored. My OBP was .384. They were not bad numbers, certainly, but I could have finished stronger.

KC limped to the finish line with four losses, but thank God they didn’t affect the standings; Cleveland lost 5 of their last 6 and Chicago lost their last 3 and we were in. I think my journal entry for October 4th sums it up:


October 4th, 2007

WE WON THE DIVISION! We got CLOBBERED tonight 18-7 by the Mammoths but it didn’t matter. The Comanches got scalped by Denver and WE WON THE DIVISION by default! WE ARE THE UL CENTRAL DIVISION CHAMPIONS!

I can’t hit **** right now, but I don’t care! I don’t care that we’ve only won 85 ballgames this year. I don’t care what ESPN and that self-important prick Mel Myers thinks of us or our division. We won – end of argument!

We’re going to play Dallas in the division series and they are probably going to score 100 runs against us. Hannibal’s hurt, Pena’s hurt, Jonesy’s hurt, Parris is hurt. Hell, it feels like everybody’s hurt right now. But even so, if we play well and we keep them off balance we could beat them. Who knows?

It felt great to do it at home. What a weird thing, though. We were down 15-3 in the 5th when the scoreboard became the most important thing on the field. None of the 27,000 who were there even watched the game anymore. All they wanted was for Chicago to lose. Ironically, at that moment I hated the Chicago Comanches with all my heart and soul. I remember it was CHI 3 DEN 3 in the 9th (they were an hour ahead of us). Then the score board changed to CHI 4 DEN 3 and the place let out a terrible groan. I was turning around between pitches to check the board myself. Then it came up: CHI 4 DEN 5 Final and that was it. The place went nuts – and we were still losing 17-5 at the time! How strange and wonderful!

Went out with the rest of the Squires (Kral, Jones, Frisina, and Cardenas) and had a great time. Note: I DID NOT drink to excess despite the constant offers of fans to buy us drinks. Jonesy bought the whole place a round – never let it be said he’s a totally moody bastard; I saw him smile at least once.


So, 85-77. 44-37 at home, 41-40 on the road. 17-24 in 1-run games – due mostly to the bullpen’s ice cold start. Our 4.49 team ERA was 6th in the CBA. How remarkable was that? I’ll say it again: Ollie Caffey is a genius. We were 10th in runs scored. Good enough for a division championship. And we did it all with a payroll of $38 million (28th).

I was 24 at the time. What a great time in my life. I encourage all young people to win something by the time they’re 24; for a short while you feel superhuman.

I got calls from my folks, Gwen, her folks, my high school coach, my agent Jackson Majkowski and my sister Jen. I even got one memorable x-rated phone cam message from several of Jen’s single girlfriends. I forwarded it to Moose and received a very politely worded thank you. I got calls from Cliff and Yoogie and Doug Atcheson. A voicemail message came in to the Knights’ switchboard addressed to me. It went like this, and I quote:

“Good job, kid. I knew you could do it. Now don’t **** it up.”

Thanks Theo.


Next week: Chapter 32: "It's David and Goliath Out There"

[jaxmagicman]

Sweet division winners. Time for the playoffs. I can't wait to see how you write about the atmspher.

[Jazzmosis]

Damn... nice! Just.. incredible.

The playoffs were a plus too

[Tauro]

Just keeps getting better, Tib..

[cubuff38]

That was one of my favorite chapters yet. Division title, what are the odds; seriously, you guys must have been ridiculous longshots in Vegas before the Season. If only you'd pulled a Pete Rose you could be a billionaire by now!

[Tib]

The '07 Knights were 26 games back at one point, too. What made it even more incredible was that ITP did it all by itself. Remarkable. KC had a lot of talent, though. It was young talent, but still.... there were something like 6 first rounders on that team (Jones, Kral, Frisina, Driscoll, Haslam, Carreras).

Wait 'til I tell you about the playoffs... insane.

[Y0DA55]

Tib... don't do that to us. It's only Tuesday! So now we have to sit here ALL WEEK wondering what happened to the Knights when you leave a cliffhanger like that?

Anxiously awaiting Saturday!

[WWBL Commissioner]

Originally Posted by Tib

The '07 Knights were 26 games back at one point, too. What made it even more incredible was that ITP did it all by itself. Remarkable. KC had a lot of talent, though. It was young talent, but still.... there were something like 6 first rounders on that team (Jones, Kral, Frisina, Driscoll, Haslam, Carreras).

Wait 'til I tell you about the playoffs... insane.

Oh yeah sure tease us a little bit more!!!! great work as usual Tib.

[jaxmagicman]

I am going to wait like three or four weeks to read a couple chapters at a time. That way he can't do that to me anymore.

[Tib]

Here's Chapter 32! Before the playoffs go any further I must make mention of something I think is important. I vowed not to make this dynasty a stat parade, and so far so good, I think. But when recounting the playoffs came around I realized that you, dear reader, are at a significant disadvantage for a number of reasons.

First, the CBA is a fictional league filled with fictional players, so none of you have any idea who they are unless I tell you.

Second, if this were a real life MLB memoir you would already know the results and major stories of the playoffs being described. But this is the CBA, so you have no idea. So? So I'm going to have some explaining to do. Context-building, as it were.

Third, how do I convey the drama of a playoff you should already know the result of when of course you don't know the result because this is a ficticious league and to give it away would undermine the aforementioned carefully constructed drama?

So I decided the playoffs had to be described almost inning by inning. The game stories are terrific in themselves and well worth the read, but were the CBA a real life league and DD a real player the game-by-game descriptions would be omitted without a second thought. So bear with me a bit for the next couple of chapters as SHORT HOP takes a bit of a stylistic tangent and goes into PbP Mode.

[Tib]

Chapter 32

"It's David And Goliath Out There"

Rudy Galindo was our only All-Star. Dallas had four. We had one pitcher with 18 wins. Dallas had two (and one with 16). Dallas won 93 games and boasted an unbelievable 48-33 road record. We were 41-40 on the road that year. Dallas was 6th in CBA Total Pitching. We were 11th. We were 3rd in Team Homers. Dallas was 2nd. Dallas had won 2 of the last 3 division titles. KC had finished dead last 3 of the last 5 years.

Anyway you looked at it, we were the underdog. The only thing we did better than the Dallas Marshals was draw walks and field. Every pundit from Mel Myers to Gray Lassiter said the same thing: Unless they find some offense, KC is doomed.

Three and out. It seems like that’s all I heard for three days. “KC won’t last four games,” they said. “It’ll be another playoff sweep for the Lawmen”. I was getting tired of it. We didn’t exactly suck, you know. We had one of the best outfields in the Bigs. I thought it was certainly more dangerous than the three dinosaurs Dallas had (sorry Dalton, Earl and Ronaldo – that’s how I felt at the time).

The one place I never heard a negative comment was Kansas City. After waiting so long for a winner, the town went crazy. I saw navy and gold everywhere. Merchandise was flying off the shelves. After I got all I could for free from the team, I bought up as much as I could to send to all my friends and family. Not only that, but I started getting requests for playoff tickets from people I didn’t even know I was related to. To everyone who asked me for tickets and didn’t get them: we were 28th in payroll. How many tickets do you think the Knights could spare, anyway? I only got four and three of them were taken up by my parents and Gwen. And the fourth one was reserved for someone else.

After 50 years away from the city, Clifford Jericho Tyler made his second appearance in Kansas City in less than a year to see me play. I put him up at the Beaumont. On the Thursday before we traveled to Texas I picked him up for lunch. He looked as dapper as ever in a burgundy suit and that corduroy roadster cap of his. I had a television interview late that morning with Scott Black at WKCT. Then we went to lunch.

"My, oh my, look at this town,” said Cliff as we sat down to eat in the enclosed patio of the Waterford’s River View restaurant. “I don’t believe I’ve seen anything like this in quite a while. Look at that huge billboard with you and those boys on it. That is something else, I must say.”
“How have you been Cliff?”
“Passing. Passing,” he said, placing his pill container on the table in front of him. “The doctor’s got me on this diet.” He spat the word with disgust.
“You’re looking really good,” I offered.
“Mmph,” came the reply with a suspicious look. “I’m thinner, but I don’t feel better. Shiela found my secret chili hiding place. Eugenia Draper comes over far too often.”
“She’s just looking out for you.”
“She’s a Nosy Nellie,” retorted Cliff. “She’s spying on me for Shiela. She’s got Mooney spying on me, too.”
“How is Mooney?”
Cliff’s voice dropped. “Not good, David. I think the drink has finally got to him, to his insides. I don’t think it will be long now.”
My mind flashed back to the night we walked Mooney Copell home from the bar – what was the name of it? It seemed so long ago. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Let’s not talk about old men,” said Cliff, his face brightening in the riverside’s cool noon sun. “Let’s talk about young men. Let’s talk about baseball.”
“Yes sir,” I said agreeably.
And we did.

While we were getting ready to play the Marshals, out on the West Coast the Mammoths were preparing to take on the Admirals, who had made the playoffs yet again after weathering an unprecedented 3-way playoff with Boston and Washington. Flash phoned me after Boston had been eliminated. He was absolutely livid about the moves Ron Pittsley had made. “I’m a free agent, Hop,” he told me, “and I’m not playing for Pittsley again.”
“Have you declared yet?” I asked.
“I’ve declared to Boston,” he said. “I’ll file as soon as I can.”
“Where do you want to go?”
“To whoever brings the cash.”
“Cash for the Flash,” I said.
“Amen, brother,” said Theron Richards.

In the Mutual League it was Houston vs. San Francisco and the L.A. Colts vs. Atlanta. Funny, if things had been different I could’ve been playing for the Generals against my home town team.

Brian Duncan wrote that the Knights had to do two things to win: play good defense and kidnap Wes Schmidt. Roger Muggs called us “the most under underdogs since the Greeks at the Battle of Marathon”. Hey, I remember thinking, the Greeks won that battle, didn’t they?

Game 1 was October 10th, a cold day made colder by an unusually frigid wind whipping southward across North Dallas. It was a strange day, a day where I did things I almost never did. I broke a bat in batting practice. I broke a shoelace putting on my uniform. I wore thermals (and I never wore thermals). I lost my shades. I had to borrow Tommy Gonsales’ fluorescent yellow Performalens which made me feel really self-conscious. I felt out of my game. I was excited, I was nervous, but there was something else: there was fear.

I’ve fought fear my whole career. It’s a thing with me. It goes hand in hand with excitement. I’m forever worrying about the worst case scenario, preparing for the direst contingency. As I stood on the cold gray dugout steps of Lone Star Park waiting to be announced, I found I had gone deaf. I couldn’t hear the crowd.
“Batting fourth, in right field, number thirty-four: Von Jones.”
A stab of fear rifled through me. It was like an icy lightning bolt that traveled from head to toe. I can still remember the feeling today. It was the feeling that after that day nothing in my life was ever going to be the same.
“Batting fifth, designated hitter: number twenty-eight: Joel Kral.”
Looking back now I see it was a rite of passage -- a crossing Cliff would have called it -- from prospect to proven, from tons of potential to true professional. It was time to take my place alongside Horatio Munoz and Rutherford Monroe and Coleman Butterfield and all the great Knights of the past.
“Batting sixth, playing shortstop, number four: Davey Driscoll.”
I hit the top step, slipped, and nearly fell flat on my face. I nearly took out the network steady-cam guy who was standing just to my left. He followed me as I jogged to the first base line to join my teammates. I saw they were cracking up in that smiley, everything-is-perfectly-fine way big leaguers have. The stumble unclogged my ears; I could hear now a chorus of boos. As I turned to face the crowd, Joel Kral leaned over to me and said, “You have grass on your chin.”
Well **** me running.

One of the crucial decisions of Game 1 happened before either team took the field. It was Grier’s decision to start Sebastian Pena. After hurting his elbow Pena had worked furiously to return. All signs pointed to his being ready. Pena was adamant he was healthy. Caffey thought he was ready. Grier agreed -- more, perhaps, out of support for his player than common sense. On the other hand, it was a short series and we needed our best players to play or we wouldn’t win.

Pena wasn’t ready. We gave him three in the 1st when Joel Kral hit a 440-foot homerun. Dallas got two back and added three more in the 3rd on two singles, two walks, a double steal and a hit batsman. Pena wasn’t sharp. He was done in the 5th.

In the 6th Bobby Frisina hit his second homer of the game and suddenly it was 5-5. In a moment that was to prove prophetic, Bobby was surrounded as he hit the dugout step and started returning our high fives. “I feel good, boys,” he said. “I’m gonna burn’em up!”

But in the bottom of that inning Wilfredo Torres came in to face Dalton Rappaport with Wes Schmidt on second and Rapps sent a 1-2 pitch over the center field wall. Every time we scored Dallas would answer. Every time we threatened they managed to squash the rally. In the top of the 8th we were down by a run. I led off the inning.

The feeling of a playoff game is both easy and hard to describe. You can say it’s exciting and thrilling and full of noise and energy and you’d be right, but those are general terms. Everybody gets excited and thrilled from time to time. But for a professional athlete to reach the postseason requires so many factors to come together, so many variables to occur, so many incidents of good fortune it’s almost Providential. I don’t believe in Fate, as a rule, but what else do you call it?

Our 2007 season could have ended in misery so easily. The Knights really didn’t have the money to buy out McKinnon’s contract, but they did. They didn’t have the money to sign Rob Saville to a long term free agent contract next year. They would’ve been justified in saying “we can’t afford this guy”, but they went out and got him anyway, knowing it was probably going to be a one-year thing. There were certainly many times during games when I could have really hurt myself. There were times when Alan Bennett’s back was hurting so bad they almost put him on the 60-day DL. What would I have done then, without his range to my right? How many 5-3 grounders would have been RBI singles? Ollie Caffey wasn’t cheap, either. With a pitching staff as fragmented as ours the Knights could have elected to hire someone else for less, but they didn’t.

No one gave up on us. We didn’t give up on ourselves, even when we were 26 games behind – could that have really been just four months ago? That’s what I thought about as I walked to the plate in the 8th. I thought about how far we had already come and the opportunity we had now, on a national stage, to show the world what we knew in our hearts: we were giant killers. Isn’t that what knights were supposed to do, anyway?

I hit a slow chopper to Brazell at second. I dropped my head and never ran so fast in my life. Brazell was rushed and threw it away. I had it beat anyway. My knee was on fire. As I trotted to second, a somber reality came to me: I knew I couldn’t make a sharp turn at third. I knew how much we needed my run. I knew our defense would suffer if I came out. Most of all I knew that I was revealing at last that something was wrong with my knee. I motioned for a runner. Tomas Gonsales ran for me and scored on Cardenas’ single to right. Scott Haslam came up and doubled into the left field corner, scoring Cardenas and all of a sudden we were up by one. But Dallas tied us again in the bottom of the inning when Earl Simonson homered off the restaurant window 483 feet away. It seemed like we had to work twice as hard to score against them as they did to score against us. Steve Parris froze Bill Clark on a backdoor slider to end the inning. The roller coaster ride continued into the ninth.

Gonsales went out to second and Frankie Ward went to short. Yamato walked but was no threat to steal. Our infield was salivating for a double play ground ball, but Fuentes walked Brazell before they got it so the Marshals had Yamato on 3rd with who else but Wes Schmidt coming up. The noise was deafening. I stared at Schmidt from the dugout. He was so calm, so expressionless, like a headsman before the final stroke. Fuentes grimaced with exertion as he threw a split-finger but it hung a fraction too long and Schmidt bounced it into center. Game over, 9-8.
That’s why he’s Wes Schmidt, I thought as I gathered my gear and walked quietly down our tunnel.

“Great game, guys,” said John Grier. “Fantastic job.”
How can he think there is anything fantastic about losing a game after scoring 8 runs?

“What’s so fantastic about it, skip?” said a dejected Steve Parris, who took the loss.
“One: we never gave up,” said Grier. “Two: we scored eight runs against the Dallas Marshals, four against their bullpen. Three: we chased Bjorklund after four innings and he’ll remember it. He’ll especially remember you, Frisina. Four: tonight we convinced the country we are no fluke, that we deserved to win our division, that we belong here. Dallas now knows we are going to test them. They are not going to be able to phone this one in. If we force them to adjust to us, we can get them off their game. If we get them off their game we can beat them.”

“Nobody is giving us a snowball’s chance,” Grier continued. “Everyone is saying we’re as good as done, that it’s David and Goliath out there. It doesn’t bother me. If I remember correctly, David killed Goliath, didn’t he?”

Next: Chapter 33, "We're In For A Barnburner"

[Jazzmosis]

You've got to be kidding me... 1: I have to wait another week for the next game? So unfair... 2: You had to believing you were going to win this one...

Genius writing, Tib. You're invoking emotion into me over non-existent players.