Team Players by Mike Lupica

Author:Mike Lupica
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

SEVENTEEN

Sarah didn’t wait to see what was going to happen now that the yelling had stopped. She just went down the bleachers two at a time without saying good-bye to Cassie and hopped onto her bike and rode away.

Cassie stayed.

The whole Cubs team was gathered around the home plate area. She couldn’t hear what anybody was saying now, just could see that Mr. Anthony was doing most of the talking. When he finished, she waited to see if Teddy and Sam were going to shake hands, make some kind of peace, at least for now. If they did, she didn’t see it happen.

She quietly moved down out of the bleachers and up to the fence, in time to hear Mr. Anthony say, “See you tomorrow night. Batting practice at five sharp.”

Cassie watched Mr. Anthony and Sam leave together and thought, Their team is just divided in a different way right now. It wasn’t just one new player. It was this new coach. But when he and his son were gone, the rest of the Cubs were still there, seemingly in no hurry to leave.

Then an odd thing happened. Or maybe a cool thing. Jack went and grabbed a bat and gestured for the other guys to take their positions. Brett went out to short to take Jack’s place. And for the next fifteen minutes, Jack hit ground balls to the infielders and fly balls to the outfielders. Suddenly they were all chirping at each other and laughing sometimes, as if they all needed to remember why they were here, why they were ballplayers, maybe even why they loved baseball, before they went home.

When they were done, Cassie came through the fence and sat next to Teddy while he took off his equipment. Jack and Gus sat in the grass in front of them.

“So,” she said, “how’s the season going so far for all of us?”

“Ours hasn’t even started yet,” Teddy said.

Cassie said, “What did Mr. Anthony say about that play?”

“Totally wimped out, for a guy who thinks he’s so tough,” Teddy said. “Said he didn’t have the best angle on the play, but it seemed like it just might have been overaggressive baserunning to him.”

“Well, yeah,” Gus said, “only if you’re looking to start a bench-clearing brawl.”

“Looked to me,” Cassie said, “as if he was trying to make up for the fact that he dogged it when the ball was hit.”

“Emphasis on ‘dog,’ ” Teddy said.

“Did you say anything to Coach?” Cassie said.

“I don’t call him that,” Teddy said. “Not gonna call him that. I just think of him as that jerk’s dad. But, no, I didn’t say anything. No point. He was never going to go against Sam.”

“How did you guys end it?” Cassie said.

“He told us that not everybody on the team had to like each other to win with each other,” Teddy said. “Another one of his dopey sayings.”

“Hey,” she said, “look on the bright side.”

“There’s a bright side?” Gus said.

“At least you guys don’t have almost the whole team mad at you like I do.

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