The Batboy Read Online Free PDF

games.
    Brian had already gotten his batboy job when it came time to try out for travel ball, and before he did, he told Coach Joe Johnson that even if he made the team, he would have to miss some games because of his job. But when Coach Johnson heard what the job was, he smiled.
    “I was a batboy with the White Sox the summer I turned sixteen,” he said. “Best summer of my whole life.”
    Then Coach Johnson had said he’d check with the board of directors for Bloomfield Little League about adding an extra player this summer, giving one more kid a chance to play with the Sting.
    “Nothing a coach likes better than a win-win situation,” Coach said. “I feel like I just won a doubleheader.”
    Brian checked with Mr. Schenkel, who said that a lot of his batboys played on travel teams and tournament teams in the summer, and that he was sure he could get together with Coach Johnson to come up with a schedule that would work for everybody, especially since Brian wouldn’t be traveling with the Tigers.
    When Coach Johnson got the preliminary schedule for the Sting, he e-mailed it to Brian’s mom, who e-mailed it to Mr. Schenkel. By the end of that week they had all come up with a way for him to play the five weekends when the Tigers were on the road during the Sting’s season and get enough time off from the Tigers when the Tigers were at home to play at least twenty of the Sting’s thirty games.
    Brian told Mr. Schenkel that he wanted to miss as few Tigers games as possible, that as much as he loved playing travel ball with his friends, his job was his first priority. He just wanted to make sure that Mr. Schenkel understood that he’d spend every day and night of the summer at Comerica if he could.
    The first series of the season for the Sting was against one of the two teams from Rochester, the Rockies, who had made the state finals the year before. But Kenny had shut them out on Friday night, and now the Sting seemed to be on their way to an easy win at the West Hills field on Saturday afternoon.
    It was 5-0 after three innings, but that was when things started to fall apart behind Brendan DePonte, their number-two starter. And the trouble actually started because of their number-one starter, Kenny Griffin, who played shortstop when he wasn’t pitching.
    With two outs in the top of the fourth, bases loaded, the score still 5-0, the Rochester cleanup batter hit what looked like the dream double-play ball of all time right at Kenny, who wasn’t just the best arm the Sting had, but the best pure hitter and the best fielder. Sometimes Brian thought Kenny had even better hands than Willie Vazquez, the Tigers’ shortstop.
    Not this time.
    Kenny came up and out of the ball way too soon, as if he could already see himself flipping the ball to Kyle Nichols, coming over to second. So instead of his fielding the ball cleanly, it bounced off the heel of Kenny’s glove, rolling to his left. Then, when he hurried to pick up the ball, he managed to kick it into short center instead. By then the score was 5-2, runners on second and third for the Rockies.
    The inning turned into a nightmare after that, as Brendan completely lost his composure. The Rockies got four more hits and scored five more runs, and by the time the Sting got back to the dugout, they were losing, 7-5. Different day, different game. It was one of the beauties of sports, how fast things changed.
    Except you didn’t think it was so beautiful when it happened to you, especially after ringing up the kind of lead they’d had against one of the best teams they were going to see all summer.
    Kyle hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh to get them back to 7-6, but that was the way it stayed until the bottom of the ninth. Brian was batting seventh tonight and had gone 1-for-3. He’d doubled down the left-field line in the second, knocking in a run and then coming around to score himself. He’d lined out twice after that, and walked right after Matt’s home