Play Ball: Chapter 16

“Play Ball”

Chapter Sixteen (first draft)

During the middle of the spring semester in 2004, on an unseasonably cool March weekend, the Greenville High School baseball coach signed up the varsity baseball team up to play in the First Annual West Tennessee Industrial Baseball Tournament.  The Greenville high team traveled a couple of hours west of Greenville to play ball in the tournament.

The Greenville Tigers won their first game on Friday night, their next game early on Saturday morning, and the following game on Saturday afternoon as well.  They were on a roll!  My grandson, Danny had not taken the mound yet for the Tigers, but he had been hitting great with 7 hits in 9 at bats, with 7 RBIs so far in the tournament.

Once the Tigers had won the game Saturday afternoon that put them in the championship game scheduled for 8:00 p.m. on Saturday night.  Danny’s dad, brother and sister had been to all of the games so far, but Saturday night they somewhere that they had to be.  So it was just Danny and his mom, Emily.  There were a couple of hours to wait before the championship game, so they drove into the quaint downtown area of this rural town and got dinner at a charming meat and three.

At 7:00 p.m. Danny and his team met back up on the fields and began stretching, playing catch, and warming up for the game.  It was really exciting for the team to have won all three games in a row to get to the championship game.  The energy and excitement level were high to say the least.  Coach Stevenson called Danny over and told him that he would get the start to pitch for this game.  Danny was ready. It was finally his turn to take the mound and he felt strongly that he would have a great pitching outing that night.

Saturday had warmed up a bit and the weather was absolutely perfect for the baseball game; it was cool with a very slight breeze.  The smell of fresh cut grass and burgers on the grill filled the air.  The stands were full of cheering fans.

The game was off to a great start.  Danny’s friend and catcher, JB hit a homerun over the centerfield fence in the first inning, and the shortstop, Jason hit a homerun over the left-center wall in the second inning.  The whole team was hitting extremely well.  The Tigers had runners on base every inning.  In fact, they stranded a total of 7 runners throughout the game.  Danny ended up with 5 RBIs just in the championship game alone. 

But it was on defense that Danny was on fire.  He was really on that game.  His fast ball was fast; his curve ball was nasty, and his slider, deadly.  He struck out the side in the first inning.  He struck out the side in the second inning.  By the sixth inning he had 12 strike outs total.  There were a few hits sprinkled in those 6 innings, but Danny was responsible for many of the outs.

In the final inning, Danny got two more Ks for a total of 14 strikes-outs out of a possible 21 outs.  Danny had pitched all 7 innings and it was one of his best games ever.  The Tigers won the final game of the tournament 12-2.  All the Tiger fans were thrilled.  The Tigers were the Tournament Champs!

My daughter, Emily, told me that after the game, under the bright lights on the field, the tournament directors had a nice trophy presentation ceremony.  She said that they had done a classy job of putting it all together for the final two teams.

First the names of each player for the runner-up team were announced.  Each player came out and received a trophy for second place in the tournament.  Once they accepted their award, the players went and lined up on the third base chalk line.  A larger trophy was given to the coaches for the school that designated them as the second place team in the tournament.  Everyone applauded.

Then, it was the Tiger’s turn.  Again, the tournament directors called out the names of each individual player on Greenville’s team who in turn came out onto the field in order to receive their first place trophies.  Danny was covered head to toe in dirt like all the other players, but he looked so proud as he stood there with his teammates celebrating a hard fought victory.

After each of the Tiger players received their award, they lined up on the first base chalk line and waited.  In time, the tournament director’s announced the coach’s name and gave him a very large trophy for the team to display in the trophy case back at school in Greenville.

Next the tournament director’s did something that, as my daughter Emily described to me, was a bit surprising.  None of the players, parents, or fans knew in advance that the tournament officials were going to do this.

The tournament director said that he was going to announce an “All-Tournament Team.”  There had been 10 school baseball teams in the tournament and they chose one player from each team to represent their schools on this elite team.  They started reading the names of the players selected. 

Emily was incredibly nervous. She was hopeful that Danny had done well enough to make this all-tournament team and it would really mean a lot to him.  Emily was so anxious that she actually had to get up and start pacing behind the stands as she listened to the names being called.

They had called out nine names, when Emily heard, “Jason Cummings, Greenville Tigers.”  Our team erupted in applause.  Jason had pitched a great game on Saturday afternoon and had an awesome homerun in the championship game.  Emily knew that Jason deserved the honor; but she was so incredibly disappointed for Danny.  He had played incredible baseball over the weekend too.

The tournament director gave Jason his plaque as a member of the “All-Tournament Team” and he ran out onto the field to stand with the other all-tournament team members.  All the spectators were applauding.

Emily was devastated for Danny.  She started to walk away to her car, tears were filling her eyes. She was overwhelmed with disappointment and she did not want Danny to see her reaction.

One of the dads, on the Tiger’s team, reached over and patted Emily on the back and said in a conciliatory way that he was sorry that they had not called Danny’s name.  Emily tried to smile through her tears.  The boys’ dad said, “Danny played some of the best baseball I have ever seen” and Emily knew that they over looked him for this special award.  She thanked the dad for his kind words and made her way towards the parking lot.

Just as Emily stepped onto the parking lot, she heard over the loud speaker, the tournament director say that he had one final award to present.  Emily, feeling totally disillusioned, with her head hung low, paused.

The tournament director then read from a card and said that there had one player had stood out as the top player for the All-Tournament Team.  This player had 14 strike outs as pitcher, 10 hits at bat with 12 RBIs, and even had 2 doubles throughout the duration of the tournament.  The tournament director announced that the MVP/Most Valuable Player of the “All-Tournament Team” for the West Tennessee Invitation Tournament was Danny Young of the Greenville Tigers.

Emily was completely shocked! She said that there were no words to describe how elated she was!  She immediately turned around and started running back as fast as she could to the bleachers.  The tiger’s stands erupted in applause.  The other player’s parents were looking back to see if Emily had returned. On the field, the Tiger players were going crazy as they dog-piled on Danny.

After the chaos died down, Danny walked up to the podium that was set up on home plate to receive his plaque.   Then, he walked over to Jason and stood next to him with the rest of the All-Tournament Team.  Jason reached out and shook Danny’s hand.  Danny was thrilled; you could read it all over his face.  Jason was truly happy for Danny too!  It was really a proud moment for Danny.

Later, Emily said that she had felt so bad for having been disappointed initially.  She wished that she could have just been more excited for Jason and not worried about how Danny would be affected at not being selected. 

What an exciting weekend event it had been for the Tigers - both of the pitchers for the Greenville High Tigers made the All-Tournament team and as a team they had taken first place overall.

First Draft “Play Ball”  © 2012 Feeling Good Entertainment, LLC and Diane LeJeune