Wild Pitches by Hayhurst Dirk

Author:Hayhurst, Dirk [Hayhurst, Dirk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-02-06T06:00:00+00:00

After my phone conversation with Adam, I was bent on getting to Japan. Not only did I talk to Fish [a fellow reliever who’d been abroad to pitch] about going overseas, but to anyone who had even the remotest sniff of Asian play time. Stories sprang from everyone. Tales of how different and wild life abroad was, tales of adventures in a foreign land with crazy customs, tales of how guys got paid millions to play in a league that was no better than the one I was in right now! The thought of signing some huge deal danced in my head like Japanese sugarplums. And the best part was, even if I completely wet the bed, I’d still get paid—guaranteed money!

I started to imagine Asian scouts in the stands whenever I took the hill. I could see them there, taking notes about how my fastball was as ferocious as a tiger and my curveball as bent as a dragon’s back. But, if they were really there, why did they never talk to me?

The days turned into weeks. I didn’t hear back from Adam. I left him messages telling of how I was putting out my Asian vibe. I even asked him if I should add more funk to my delivery since Asian pitchers seemed to like that. On the other side of things, my teammates were starting to get sick of my talking about it. After all, there are only so many times you can ask your friends how much they think you’re worth in yen. I didn’t care if it annoyed them, though. I was too close to making money from the game to worry about the opinions of the guys around me. I was as hot as I’d ever been and I needed to cash in somehow!

One morning, as I paced around the Las Vegas airport waiting for a connecting flight, my cell phone rang displaying an unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Hello,” greeted the voice of an operator. “I’m calling on the behalf of Mr. Kenji Yoshimitsu of the Yomiuri Giants. Is this Dirk Hayhurst?”

“Yes, yes, it is,” I blurted. I looked for a quiet place to hunker down for this possibly life changing phone call. This wasn’t just any Japanese team calling me. This was one of the premiere Japanese teams, with big-time pocket books!

“Hello, Dirk. I am Mr. Yoshimitsu’s translator. You may speak to me directly as if I were Mr. Yoshimitsu himself. Is this okay?”

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Very good. Please excuse delay for translation, Dirk.” There were pauses mixed into the translator’s speech while he listened to what sounded like Japanese words reverberating in the background. I found it funny how much of their language actually sounded like it could be used in a samurai film.

“We are calling to discuss possibility of you playing for our organization. We are interested in your services very much.”

“I’m honored to hear from you, Mr. Yoshimitsu,” I began, like I really was talking to him, “and I am very interested in playing baseball in Japan.

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