Haunting at Home Plate by David Patneaude

Author:David Patneaude
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company

— 13 —

The Cubs

Game time. Make or break time for the playoffs. My mom’s in the stands. I’m waiting for Mike to announce the starting pitcher. My mouth’s dry, I’ve got this twisted-up feeling in my stomach. Half of me’s hoping she’ll call my name, the other half’s praying she won’t.

She gets us together in the dugout and starts calling out batting order and positions. “Batting third and pitching will be Sid.” Sid’s expression doesn’t change. “Give us three good innings, Sid, and Nelson will relieve you.” She looks at me. “That way we’ll have both of you guys available for the playoffs. Okay?”

“Okay,” we answer. Sid forces a smile. I’m having a hard time standing still.

“You’re batting fourth, Nelson, and starting in right field,” she says.

I nod. I hear her call Nate’s name but the rest of the lineup’s a blank. I’m going to pitch. “Fourth inning,” I mouth to my mom. I make a pitching motion. She grins. We beat the Cubs last time, but it was tight, something like 5-3, and Gannon knocked in three of our runs with a homer. We don’t have Gannon now, but we’ve got Mike. We’ve got our bats working. I’m feeling better about pitching, especially when Emmett tells me, “I’m going to have fun catching you.”

Webb digs in at the plate. Two weeks before, he’d stand up there with the bat on his shoulder and hope for a walk. Mr. Conger would try to get him to crowd the plate, hoping he’d get hit with a pitch. Now, thanks to Mike, he looks like a hitter.

He tags one hard. The shortstop knocks it down, but has no chance for a play.

It’s a good start, and we end up with three runs in the first. But in the bottom of the second the Cubs get two and have a guy on third with only one out. I creep in on the grass to have a chance to cut down the runner. The batter swings and the ball flies toward me. I start in. Too late, I realize he’s crushed it. I stop, begin backpedaling, then turn and take off. I see the ball, but it’s coming too fast. I leap, my glove stretched out backhand.

I crash, staring helplessly at my empty glove. Grady hustles over and fires the ball to Woody, but by the time he relays the ball to Emmett the batter is crossing home plate. He has a home run. Kind of. It should have been an out. Instead they get two runs.

“Way to hustle, Nelson!” Mike yells. The guys join in, trying to tell me I did a good job. Yeah, right.

Sid gets the next two batters. The inning’s over. Finally.

“Why were you playing so shallow?” Chas says to me.

I feel like smacking him. “It was a gamble,” I say.

“It cost us two runs.”

“Sometimes you guess wrong,” Emmett says.

I triple to left center to lead off the third. Nate smacks a long fly ball for an out; I tag up and score easily.

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