The Hitting Zone

Grampa crushed us in bowling. He scored a 224. Dave was the closest with a 162. Noah was at 107. And I was last at 88. It was a great time though despite no one winning Grampa's money. We found out that Grampa used to be in a league a few years ago before him and Gramma got too old.

On the way home, Dave told him he should join a seniors league to get out of the house more. Grampa waved him off and said he couldn't bowl every week. Just every now and then with us would satisfy him.

"Is the $500 on the table every time?" Noah asked.

"Sure!" Grampa grinned. "Maybe you'll catch up to me before I die. What a sight that would be."

We laughed even though we shouldn't. Noah really got his attitude from Grampa. A lot of his personality couldn't be explained with just Mom and Dad, yet with Grampa...they acted like two peas in a pod.

Kyle felt left out when he found out that we went cosmic bowling and had a chance to win $500. He looked at Grampa. "Can't I come with Marie? She doesn't have to compete. Bowling can be a fun date."

Grampa had laughed at him. "Sure, sure. I think we can have up to eight on a lane."

Sunday morning, we woke up and followed Noah on his run...at a much lighter pace, of course. We took turns with the free weights, adding an exercises and the twins even competed in handstands before Noah reminded Dave that he shouldn't be messing around the day before a game. That prompted Dave to call it a morning and went in to shower. Kyle bragged until Noah challenged him. Kyle made his escape next.

I stuck it out with Noah, finishing the complete workout. I had a lot of energy to burn after midterms and not being able to play yesterday. After the morning routine, Grampa surprised us by saying he was able to find Zeke's game on TV. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to watch him play from home.

Zeke did better than yesterday, going 3-3 at the plate with a double and two singles. He didn't drive in any runs, but he scored twice in a game that his team won 6-1.

After his game ended, we got lucky and was able to watch Jeremy and the A's play Sunday evening. It became a whole day affair, watching baseball and eating in front of the TV. Luckily Grampa told us to clean up just before Mom and Dad got back home.

Mom stood in the doorway as we were watching baseball highlights. She squinted as she looked around. "You boys didn't just eat junk food today, right?"

"Not with Grampa around." Dave patted his stomach. "We had pasta for dinner. Gotta carb up before tomorrow."

"What time is the game tomorrow?" Dad asked.

"3pm." Dave answered. "Warmups start at 2pm. Bus will leave our school parking lot around 12:30, I guess." He looked to Mom. "So we have to have an earlier lunch."

Mom lifted an eyebrow. "That'll be up to your grandfather. Your dad and I will be busy if we want to make it to the game on time."

Dave bolted for the stairs, hollering for Grampa.

Monday morning, we had time to kill. It was to close to game time to do any running, practicing, or training. At least for the three of us. Kyle went for a jog and came back asking for Noah to catch for him. It doesn't take much to get Noah to play with a baseball. He accepted casually. Dave and I just chilled in front of the TV, watching some sports news show that was talking about some players who got injured during spring training. Recently a shortstop had torn his ACL when rounding the bases.

I cringed at the thought.

Dave laughed at my face. "Don't worry, Jake. You don't run hard enough for that to be a problem. Plus, it's just a freak accident. That stuff doesn't happen on the daily."

My hands covered my knees. "I've had a lot of different injuries before. But nothing like that. How do they fix your ligaments?" I'm more of a broken bone kind of person.

"Surgery. Takes forever to come back." Dave sighed. "Those guys are out for the season." He cheered up. "It's more common in football and soccer so don't worry about that. It's more important to take care of your arm." He grabbed his elbow and started to stretch. "Tommy John surgery is our Achilles' heel."

I shivered, remembering the scar Rhys had. A whole year away from baseball...I don't think any of my brothers could do it. Not Jeremy. Not Zeke. Not either of the twins. And definitely not Noah.

Grampa prepared steak salad for lunch. Matching it with fruits and some slices of garlic toast. It was a good meal to have before going to school to catch the team bus. We saw a few other player eating a bagged lunch before boarding or even taking snacks onto the bus. Spring break meant kids were off from school, not parents. I was thankful to have a family like the Atkins.

Coach nodded at us as we boarded. The ride wasn't long. Just enough for a brief nap from some of the guys. Not Noah and I. Noah was texting Zeke, asking if they were going to compare stats today. Zeke had one more game in the series against that school and he was kicking butt. Noah was crazy to pick today.

Unexpectedly, Noah got a text from Rhys saying he wanted to compare with Dave today.

Noah laughed as he let me read the text. "Rhys must have seen my text to Zeke. It's rare for him to be pitching the same day as Dave." Noah got up and looked for Dave in the bus. "Yo Dave. Want to compare stats with Rhys today?"

"Hell yea!" Dave yelled back. "He's on!"

Noah sat back down and started to text back. I smiled and shook my head. "I don't know why you like to add more pressure to yourself."

Noah grinned. "Because it's good practice." He shrugged. "Plus it's good timing." He nudged me. "Why don't you text Jeremy and get him in on the action? You versus him. In stats."

I shook my head again. "No way. You want me to compare to a pro? That's crazy. He's also seven years older."

"How is it not fair?" Noah shot back. "He's a pro playing against pros. Heck some of the guys he plays against is like 15 years older. You actually have an advantage being so good in our age group."

I hesitated. "I don't know."

Noah shrugged. "I'll text him myself. I would bet on you against him."

"We're not actually betting on anything, right?" I asked, suspicious. "I don't want Mom to get mad."

"Purely for bragging rights." Noah assured me. He sent Jeremy a text. That he was going to compare stats with Zeke. And Dave was comparing against Rhys. Then asked if he wanted to compare against me. Jeremy didn't need extra convincing, he replied that he was in.