The Hitting Zone

Noah's depressed attitude followed us throughout the day and seemed to worsen every time someone came up to talk about our wins this past weekend. His voice became monotonous and his sighs made the atmosphere around him uncomfortable. I waited until we sat at our bench for lunch, before saying something. "Why are do you sound so dissatisfied when talking about the win this past weekend?"Noah looked startled, almost as if he was surprised I would start a conversation by myself. Then he did another sigh, "I'm just a little disappointed that everyone is talking about my brothers and not me. None of them made varsity as a freshman so shouldn't I be the one they talk about?" He ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm just used to being the best on my team. It sucks to lose the spotlight."I shrugged, not sure what to say. We both pulled out our lunches and started to eat in silence. After sitting around, I came to realize something: I stole some of the attention he was looking for. I put my carrot sticks down and looked across the bench at Noah, my best friend, my only friend. "I'm sorry."Noah looked up, startled. "What? Why? What happened?"I shifted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I stole your attention."Noah raised his eyebrows. "What. You're not making sense." Then it dawned on him. "You think I'm mad that you're more in the limelight than I am?" I nodded. "You think you're stealing the attention that I want?" I nodded again. He started to laugh like normal Noah. "Jake, I'm not upset with you at all. Don't apologize to me like that ever again."I tilted my head. "Are you mad at your brothers then?"Noah laughed a little more. "No, no, no. Well, normally, yes. But no, I'm not mad at them for this. It's more like I'm mad at my circumstances. Like if I was born just a few years earlier, than they would be the ones being compared to me instead of me to them." He thought to himself. "Hmmm. It's like I'm an artist. A painter. People come up to compliment my friend, who is also an artist, but sculpts instead. I'm not mad at him for being a great artist. I'm mad that these people won't compliment my own work first. Why would you tell a painter, that his friends sculptures are really good?"...I stared at him blankly. Was that supposed to be an analogy? If so, it was poorly executed. Analogies are supposed to have some relation, right? The only similar component I could recognize is that, the painter isn't getting complimented on his work. So Noah just wants people to compliment him? Hmm. That makes sense. It's weird to get compliments for your brothers, since it's not like you trained them or anything. "I think your fielding is the best on the team." I told him. If all he's looking for, is compliments on his game, then I could give it to him. I was present. I saw every grab, snatch, dive, and throw, he did. "Of course." Noah snorted. "The best fielder always plays shortstop. Do you know why?" I shook my head, no. "It's because most balls hit in to play will go to the shortstop. Just look at our scorecards from the weekend. I definitely recorded the most outs compared to the other fielders.""I remember." I nodded in agreement. "You're very agile." I thought about all his diving stops and grabs. "Duh. I have to be. All shortstops have to be. It's a necessity. You should work on your agility too." He picked at his lunch. He pointed his carrot at me. "You're too flat-footed when it comes to defense. We should work on that." His eyes widen and he dropped the carrot. "And running the bases. And go over the hand signals. And anything else that isn't hitting."I shrugged. Sure. Noah groaned. "Tomorrow's the game. Zeke and the coaches will be mad that I didn't teach you all the signs before the game. Again." He sighed. "And you still don't know how to slide."I wiggled my nose. "I learned how to slide this past weekend."Noah outright laughed. "Jake, that can't be considered sliding. At all. More like tripping and falling onto the base. And eating dirt. There's multiple types of slides you need to master for different situations."This time it was my turn to sigh. "How many?""There are four main ones: feet first, head first, pop up slide, and a hook slide. Unlike your go-to head first slide, the feet first slide is the safest and most common. Head first slides are risky and are proven that they slow you down. You should really only use it when the other team throws a high ball on a tag play." He took out a cookie to eat. "Pop up slides should be used on all delay steals and on slides where the base runner sees the ball gets away from the defender and he has a chance to advance to another base. It's the quickest slide, but you have to be careful not to interfere with the ball or play, otherwise you could be called automatically out."I couldn't imagine doing a pop up slide ever. I haven't even tried sliding feet first, I couldn't imagine popping up to try for an extra base. I'm not even that fast. "A hook slide?"Noah replied. "This slide really isn't used as much any more like it was in the past, but it can be an effective slide when going to one side of the base when a throw is on the other side. It works the best at 3rd base. Basically, the base runner bends out his left leg similar to a hurdler stretch position. He has his other leg extended out and just touches the base with the left leg away from a throw to the other side of the base. It's too complicated for you."No kidding. We spent the rest of the lunch break talking about the slides and whether I could even learn them. Noah said that there were drills you could practice, but nothing beats like a real game situation.",