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For all of its successes, Eric's class has also known its share of failures. After playing in the shadow of Marty and the class ahead of them, they were now completely on their own. Because of their surprising lack of confidence, many of the players became isolated individuals rather than part of a team. For some, their diamond dreams were fading away.
Email me, Douglas, at thehakaanen@hotmail.com
CHAPTER 53 LOST...
<Saturday, February 16>
The first practice was what first practices often were--organized, yet chaotic. The weather was chilly, but dry. The new freshmen looked completely lost, but the upperclassmen quickly made them feel comfortable.
Unlike the upperclassmen, the freshmen had never played for Coach Sanders and needed a lot of guidance. While Coach Ecklund ran similar practices, the expectations at the high school level rose dramatically from middle school. Coach Sanders and Coach Hart demanded hard work and concentration from the start. High school turnouts started a month earlier than middle school turnouts and the freshmen quickly started whining about the cold.
"Live with it," Kevin told them. "It's not going to get any warmer because you're crying about it. Just keep your asses moving and you'll warm up in a hurry." That pretty much summed up what they heard from the likes of Eric, Scott, Danny, and some of the other seniors. The object from the first turnout was to practice to win. Doing anything else took away from their goal.
The upperclassmen knew that some of the freshmen would not make the JV roster, but might make it as sophomores. They knew some freshmen would never play school ball and they knew that some would be a part of the program for four years. Whatever their fate, the seniors felt it was their obligation to welcome them into the program and to make them feel comfortable. They also made sure to let the freshman know that the expectations were high and they were willing to get in the face of anybody who didn't work to meet those expectations.
There was an aura of confidence surrounding the practice. The Mustangs were, after all, the defending Seamount League champions, as well as the defending State-A Champions. But there was also a feeling of caution. The seniors knew they were good. They knew they would be one of the better teams in the league. But there was also this feeling that their class had never proved itself to be among the elite. Like Eric, the players knew they were talented, but wondered if they had the steel will that the team had exhibited the previous spring when they battled their way to the state title.
<Monday, February 18>
There were fewer players at Monday's after school practice than on Saturday. Saturday had been an optional practice for the athletes who were on the basketball team. All of the basketball players who planned on playing baseball showed up for the morning practice. Monday meant they were back on the hardwood.
The reason for the overlap was the moving of the State A tournament to Safeco Field in Seattle. The date of the tournament was now two weeks earlier than originally scheduled. That meant starting the schedule earlier, which meant starting turnouts earlier. It also meant compressing the schedule so that the league and district tournaments could start earlier. The 3-A and 4-A schedules had been made the year before when the Mariner schedule was released. The A schedules had to be completely redone.
"I can see now why the board wanted to put things off for a year," Noah told Eric as they warmed up.
"Me, too, but I'm glad they didn't. It means we at least have a chance of getting to the place that shall not be named. Put it off another year and we've all graduated," Eric said.
"I looked at the new season schedule," Noah said. "We had better hope for no rainouts because it's really going to be tight. It will strain our pitching for sure."
"We have three good starters," Kevin said. Kevin was throwing with Lars. "Scott, Blaine, and...um...well, rumor has it we have three good starters."
"Just remember which pitcher can cross you up on a pitch and plunk you in the nuts," Eric said.
"Must be some wild dude. I don't remember us having any wild dudes out there."
"Then you haven't been paying attention to Scott," Noah said.
<Tuesday-Saturday, February 19-23>
Tuesday practice was cancelled because of wind and snow. The snow wasn't heavy, but it was sticking, plus the temperature was in the mid-thirties. Since basketball was using the gym for games, there was nowhere available for practice.
The next day the snow turned to rain. Practice went indoors for an evening session which started once basketball finished. While Coach Sanders admitted to Coach Hart and Coach Miller that the rescheduling of the season was a disaster, he kept up a positive front for the players. He also made sure everyone got as much as they could out of the time spent practicing.
While the field was damp on Thursday, it wasn't raining, and practice was held outdoors. It was cold, with occasional drizzle. The players were bundled up in sweats, long johns, hoodies, jackets, stocking caps under their baseball hats or hats with ear flaps. Whatever it took to stay warm, the players latched onto it. The coaches had gas heaters operating in the two dugouts, and each group received opportunities to warm themselves up. Coach Sanders admitted to Coach Hart that if not for basketball he would have moved the practice indoors. The last basketball games of the season for the boys' and girls' teams were on Thursday. The boys' team would be going to the league tournament on Saturday, but would have no more games at the Mayfield High gym. The baseball players were back indoors for Friday and Saturday practices.
"It would be nice to practice on an actual baseball field," Noah observed as he, Eric, Kevin, Nicky, and Jeff rode with Seth McCall to the Mustangs' league tournament game at Lakeshore High School. Kraig, Hunter, Lars, Chandler, and Korey were all on the basketball team, with the two sophomores swinging between JV and varsity.
"Maybe we're getting all the rainouts now," Kevin said. "Then we won't have to deal with it when games start."
"Wishful thinking, Kevin," Noah said. "This is the Pacific Northwest , you know."
The Mustangs lost to Chinook 66-58 in their loser out league tournament game. Since the players who were on the basketball team only needed five baseball practices to be eligible for games as opposed to ten for the rest of the squad, Coach Sanders told them they didn't need to practice until Wednesday. Actually, he forbade them to practice until Wednesday.
"You need a few days off to recoup," he said. "Anybody showing up to practice, even if it's just to watch, will be sent home."
<Wednesday, February 27>
For the first time since the first practice the Mustangs had a full squad on the field. Not only that, they had dry weather and a dry field. The temperature was in the upper forties, but everybody was in good spirits. Even under the original schedule they would have been practicing this week.
The team would be going to a four-team jamboree at Kentburg on Saturday. The jamboree was considered a practice and not a game, so the basketball players were eligible to play. Kentburg, Meadow Park, Clark Pass, and Mayfield were the four teams. Each team would play three games of three innings each. That was the good news.
<Saturday, March 2>
The bad news was that the jamboree was rained out. Instead, the Mustangs had a two-hour indoor practice in the gym. Coach Sanders held a meeting after the practice.
He complimented them on their good attitudes and their hard work even though the weather hadn't been very cooperative. "Remember, it's raining on everybody else in the area, too," he said. "Nobody gets an advantage from the bad weather."
The coach then went through some housekeeping items before getting to the crux of the meeting. "I know things have seemed pretty tight to all of you. With basketball and baseball overlapping and with all of the rainouts, it appears we haven't accomplished much in two weeks. But in reality, we have, even with the jamboree being rained out. As you know, with Winston moving to the Seamount League this year, we will only have two non-league games instead of the four we'd been playing. You can all read a schedule. You know that one of those games is at McQuade Island on Wednesday and the other will be the Nooner against Multnomah in April.
"The varsity roster will be posted Monday morning. I would have preferred to post it this week, but I wanted to wait until after the jamboree that didn't happen. There will be fifteen names on the roster, but chances are some of the underclassmen who make the varsity roster will be playing some JV ball as well. The JV doesn't play until next Tuesday. Coach Hart plans to have your roster posted on Wednesday. Unless you are a senior, if your name isn't on the varsity roster, it could still appear on the JV roster. Any questions?"
Of course there were questions, which Coach Sanders and Coach Hart patiently answered. Coach Sanders then dismissed the team, wishing them all a good remainder of the weekend.
<Monday, March 4>
Coach Sanders posted the varsity roster on the bulletin board in the locker room. Here is how the roster looked with the player's name and grade.
Eric-12 Noah-12 Scott-12 Danny-12 Kraig-12 Kevin-12 Lars-12 Carl-12 Hunter-12 Gavin-12 Blaine-11 Justin-11 Toby-11 Chandler-10 Korey-10
Toby, Chandler, and Korey would be switching between the varsity and the JV. All three were pitchers and pitching for the JV would give them needed experience and keep them sharp. Coach Sanders was certain that Chandler would be pitching some varsity innings as well.
<Wednesday, March 6>
The Mustang varsity boarded the bus at noon. The ride to McQuade Island, including the ferry, would take around three hours. It was going to be a long afternoon. Scott was going to be the starting pitcher, but he knew he wouldn't be pitching the entire game. Eric knew he wouldn't be pitching at all. He was going to be the starter when the Mustangs opened up their league season against Chinook on Friday.
The best part about the long trip to McQuade Island High School was the ferry ride. It wasn't a very long one, only twenty minutes, but many of the boys had never been on a ferry.
"Since you've been on a cruise ship, this has to be like a rowboat ride for you," Kevin said to Eric.
"It's fun, though," Eric said. "Especially doing it with all of you guys."
"If the ferry sinks and we can't make it, does that mean we forfeit the game?" Justin asked.
"No way," Noah said. "We just morph into a water polo team and kick ass anyway."
While the Mustangs didn't exactly kick ass, they did play well enough to win. Scott went the first three innings, leaving with a 5-2 lead. Blaine pitched the next three. The junior was somewhat inconsistent, pitching two three up and three down innings while giving up four runs in the fifth. He did leave with a 7-6 lead however. The Mustangs scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh on a single by Eric and an RBI double by Scott. Lars pitched a scoreless seventh and the Mustangs started out the season 1-0.
<Friday, March 8>
[ERIC]
I told Noah before the season started that if we could only sleep together one night a week, I wanted it to be the night before I was scheduled to pitch. I wanted his warmth, his presence, his wisdom, his beauty, and his love in my bed. I wanted his energy around me even as we slept. I wanted to soak in as much of him as I could.
Today I was starting our first league game. We were playing the Chinook Totems at home. If every night goes like last night, then my idea of having Noah sleep with me the night before a start was a perfect one. We ate with mom and dad after practice and then did our homework. We watched some television, talked with mom and dad on a variety of topics, and undressed and meditated on the floor of my bedroom.
I've learned a lot about meditating from Noah over the last year. Add to that the graduate course from Robert, or Espowyes if you wish, in Montana, and I was starting to get the hang of listening to the whispers of the world around me. Noah says he can get so lost in himself that he ends up within his own universe. I haven't been able to reach that peak in my meditating, but I am working toward it. I think I sometimes come close. Noah says I will know when I am there.
The sports writers in the Seamount League area picked us for fourth place in our nine team league. They favored Harborview, which was returning just about everybody from last year, to win the league. Kentburg was picked second. I think Ben being hyped as the best pitcher in the league had a lot to do with that. Lakeshore was pegged for third simply because they seemed to always finish in the top three.
I thought we should have been in the top three. We had more players coming back than Lakeshore did and we were defending league and state champions. But even with last year's trophies, we didn't seem to garner the respect we thought we deserved.
Chinook was picked for sixth place. Coach Sanders said they were a better team than people gave them credit for. They had five starting players, including their top two pitchers, returning.
I think I had the right mixture of confidence and nervousness. Whatever the mix, I pitched well, going four innings and giving up four hits and a run. The score was tied 1-1 when I left. It was cold, the temperature in the low forties, which was hard on the hitters.
It wasn't easy on us pitchers either. I often had a hard time getting a good grip on the ball. The rules gave the umpires the option of allowing pitchers to blow on their hands in cold weather. Our umpires said during the pregame meeting that blowing on our hands would be okay. Kevin and I had been elected co-captains, which meant we could participate in the ground rules meeting if we wished. Since we were the starting battery (pitcher and catcher) we elected not to participate and Coach told us what the umpires had said.
Chandler pitched after me, his first varsity innings as a pitcher. He was a pinch runner in Wednesday's game against McQuade. He was obviously a bit nervous, walking three in his two innings. He also gave up a bases clearing double after two of those walks, making the score 3-1. Toby pitched the seventh for his first varsity experience, but we couldn't get the bats going. We lost by the 3-1 score.
We started our league season 0-1 after suffering what we thought was an upset loss. No way should we have lost to Chinook at home. The loss didn't do much for our somewhat fragile confidence. Things weren't going to get any easier. We would be playing Harborview Tugs at home on Tuesday. They hammered the newcomer to our league, the Winston Raptors, 14-2.
After the game, I talked to all of the seniors about us meeting at Bob's Burger Barn for lunch tomorrow. Everybody agreed it was a good idea. We all knew there were some issues that we needed to hash out, and those issues all had to do with the seniors.
All of us were at The Barn at the agreed upon time except for Danny and Carl. I didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing since some of the issues had to do with them.
Since it was available, Bob let us eat in the meeting room. The group consisted of Scott, Kevin, Kraig, Lars, Hunter, Noah, and me. We ordered our burger combos and sat at the big table in the meeting room. Bob brought us our orders and we talked with him about our disappointing loss to Chinook.
"You guys will be ready for the Tugs," Bob said, referring to our game against Harborview on Tuesday.
"Everybody thinks they're the best team in the league," Hunter said.
"Until somebody says differently, you guys are the defending champs," Bob told us. "And don't you forget it."
After Bob left, we ate and talked about some of our team issues. We talked about how we had to step things up, that we weren't putting out at an elite level. We certainly weren't showing ourselves to be an elite team. We could feel that after two games.
"I know a lot of us have talked about steel," Kevin said. "That we don't have the strength of last year's team."
"I agree with Kevin," Hunter said. "We don't have the total confidence we had last year."
"And why should we?" Lars asked. "What have we ever done without us being on the same team as last year's seniors? We had a shitty record our eighth grade year at the middle school. We had problems winning half our games last summer. We like to say how good and experienced we are, but we haven't done anything."
"I beg to differ," Noah said. "First, we had an excellent JV team when we were freshmen. The eight of us were the core of that team. We proved we could play with the teams in the Seamount League. You might recall that we were defeating teams that had a lot of sophomores playing for them."
"Second, we seemed to have forgotten all the bonding we did last summer. That really worked great last summer, but we don't appear to be following up on it."
"Are you suggesting we all hop into bed with each other again?" Kraig asked.
"No, but I am suggesting we might want to remember the fun we had doing something like that as a team. We seem to be regressing to how we were on eighth grade when it took us over half the season to get our acts together."
"Noah is right, guys," Kevin said. "We're being individuals instead of a team. If we're going to fulfill our diamond dream, we're going to have to make changes now. We can't afford to go through half the season not having our acts together."
I liked Kevin's diamond dream statement. That is what we had back in middle school--we had diamond dreams. Now we were losing sight of those dreams, and not for the first time.
"What about Danny and Carl?" I asked. "We all know they aren't putting out one hundred percent. Kevin and I have both talked to them. I think Coach Sanders has, too."
"There's a lot going on with those two," Noah said. Noah always seemed to have his finger on what was going on beneath the surface. "Carl has had yet another split with a girlfriend, just for starters."
"He should be used to breaking up by now," Scott said. "He does it often enough."
"And you haven't?" Eric asked, feeling guilty as soon as he said it.
"I broke up with Cindy and with Tama. But Tama and I are back together again."
"I really don't see how you can stand her," Hunter said.
"She apologized to you for the shower thing a long time ago," Scott said.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," I said. "It's exactly what we've been saying, that our team is too much into individual drama and not into team issues."
Another problem with Carl is that he signed a letter of intent with Montana State for football. Full-ride scholarships to NCAA teams were rare for players in our classification. Some of us thought that Carl had let his being recruited and signed go to his head.
We talked some more, but didn't really resolve anything. This wasn't the catalyst like the meeting in the dining car of the "Coast Starlight" that turned us all around. But we all felt some progress was made.
I couldn't help but wonder, however, if we needed the kind of in your face, take no prisoners, leadership that Marty and even Connor provided. I knew I had my strengths as a leader, but getting in the face of somebody and calling them out wasn't my style. It would be phony for me to do that, and everybody would know it. Kevin was the same way. We led by example and by talking things over with our teammates. As I'd been telling Noah, I just didn't see that kind of a hard, brass balls leader on this team. And heaven knows, some of us needed it.
<Tuesday, March 12>
[KEVIN]
The Harborview Tugs got off their bus brimming with confidence. We could all see it. We recognized the attitude, because that was us last year. It obviously was not us this year. We thought we had the attitude, but we quickly discovered that wasn't true. Our meeting on Saturday didn't seem to help much.
Practice on Monday had been indoors and it was terrible. While we all cared, and cared a great deal, it was like our minds weren't totally on what we were doing. I was no exception. Something was wrong, but nobody knew what it was, or how to make it right. Eric told me at lunch yesterday how much he liked my idea of diamond dreams.
"Hell, Eric, you're the one who gave us the dreams."
"Maybe, but I never put a name to it like you did."
"I got lucky. Usually it's Noah who comes up with something like that."
"Well, it wasn't Noah this time, it was you. But if we don't get things moving soon, we could end up with a diamond nightmare."
"I don't think it's that bad," I told him.
"I hope not, Kevin. I really hope not." I knew if Eric didn't have full confidence in the team and the dream, then none of us would. Somehow we needed to get him jacked up again. After our fiasco against the Totems, I had to wonder if the nightmare hadn't already started.
The rains had stopped early on Tuesday morning and the grounds crew had the field in good shape. When they built our little ballpark, they did a great job. Our field drains really well, one of the reasons a lot of school tournaments are played here in Mayfield. Our field doesn't have as many rainouts as most fields. But even though it wasn't raining, it was windy and cold and not anywhere close to good baseball weather.
"Good baseball weather?" Noah said, laughing when I told him that during warm-ups. "It's even worse than bad baseball weather."
Scott couldn't find the plate to start with and walked three of the first four batters. All three came in to score. After a couple of visits from me he managed to settle down and limit the damage. Still, we were down 3-0 to a damn good team.
Once again we couldn't get our offense going. Our best chance came in the fourth. We had only two hits up until then, but Eric, Justin, and Scott all singled with one out. Carl, our cleanup hitter, was up. He'd been a big part of our offense for a long time, but he was hitless so far this season. That didn't change when he swung and missed at two pitches that were out of the strike zone. He let a pitch that was way high go by, and then tried to pull an outside pitch. The result was what often happens when a batter tries to pull an outside pitch instead of going to the opposite field with it. He hit an easy two hop grounder to the shortstop, who flicked it to the second baseman, who pivoted and easily threw out Carl for a double play.
I will say that Carl ran hard, which he hadn't always been doing this spring. But speed is not one of his strengths. The problem with Carl wasn't that he got thrown out, the problem was he had a crappy at bat, swinging at two bad pitches and then pulling an outside pitch. Carl is a good hitter and knows better than that.
Scott did a good job after the first and gave up no more runs. Eric relieved him in the fifth. He gave up a homer to their big stud in the top of the sixth, and that was all of the scoring for the Tugs. But we got only one more hit after the fourth inning, and never came close to scoring again. The final score was Tugs 4, Mustangs 0. We went into the locker room after the game feeling pretty down.
We were all getting out of our uniforms, eager for a nice warm shower. It had been so cold we had a few light snow flurries. Sometimes I hate school ball, just because the weather seems to always be freezing.
It was while we were undressing that things got even worse than what they were. At least it looked worse at the time, but, looking back at the incident, what happened might have been our wake up call.
Carl was naked and starting for the showers. He started bitching about how cold the weather was, which was why he still didn't have a hit. "How can anybody hit when you can see fucking snowflakes?" he asked.
All of a sudden, Scott was right in his face. Scott was naked, too, and if the whole thing hadn't been so serious, seeing those two big dudes nose to nose without any clothes on might have been funny.
"You are so fucked, Carl," Scott yelled. "It's been just as cold for everybody. But we don't swing at first pitches that are up in our fucking eyes. Fucking bases fucking loaded and you have an at bat that would embarrass a goddamn sixth grader."
"Fuck you, Scott. I'm not the one who walked the bases loaded in the first. Nobody can get a big hit every at bat."
That was when Eric stepped in between them. He was still wearing his jock strap, or it would have been a total nudist confrontation. "No, you're not the one who walked the bases loaded, Carl. And you're not the one who didn't give up a run after the first inning. All anybody on this team wants is for everybody to give one hundred percent every game, every play, and every at bat. While you take your shower, maybe you should ask yourself if you're doing that."
I knew Eric had talked to Carl in private a couple of times. But here he was giving it to him right in the locker room in front of the whole team. Not an in your face thing like what came from Scott, just a statement that it was maybe time to look in the mirror.
"And fuck you, too, Eric." Carl walked back to his locker and quickly dressed. The rest of us showered, but he was gone before we got out.
Scott apologized for losing his cool. He said he was frustrated by how he pitched and about how we couldn't score runs.
That night I told Kraig and Korey that it was looking more and more like the papers overrated us instead of underrated us. We might not even be good enough to finish in the top six, let alone the top four teams.
<Thursday, March 14>
The reeling Mustangs had to come right back and play the Monte Vikings at Monte. Blaine started the game and pitched like a frightened junior. The bats failed to come to life again.
The bus ride home was a long quiet trip. The final score was 7-1. The Mustangs were now 0-3 in league and had scored only two runs in those three games.
The girls' varsity was on the bus as well. Sensing the gloom surrounding the boys, the girls, who had won their softball game 10-7, kept their chatter to a minimum. There was a pall hanging over the boys' team. Anyone looking through the windows of the bus at the glum lot in the back of the school bus would be hard pressed to identify them as a team with diamond dreams. What they saw instead was a team that was lost and lifeless. It was a team that needed to discover itself very soon or it could all but write off its season.
"This is just like eighth grade," Kevin said that night at the family dinner table. "At least in eighth grade we were losing close games. Today, we got our asses kicked by a shitty team, plain and simple. Carl looked clueless at the plate, Blaine looked clueless on the mound, and we all looked clueless in the field."
Kraig and Korey didn't comment. Their dad tried, unsuccessfully, to put things into a positive light. Just as it was for the twins and their little brother, dinner was tasteless for the Mayfield Mustang players that night.
<Saturday, March 16 >
[ERIC]
As discouraged as I was about how baseball was going, I wasn't totally down either. I've known my teammates since I moved to Mayfield in the sixth grade. I knew they were winners. I've known that since the first year I played for them. We, meaning the team, which includes me, just needed some kind of a wakeup call, and I don't mean like the tirade Marty and those guys went on that time on the "Coast Starlight." Besides, I don't think that kind of tirade is what this team requires. It worked then, but it won't work now—we're a different kind of team than that one.
I thought maybe Scott and his big blowup in the locker room might wake us up. According to Noah, who knows all, that whole affair wasn't everything it appeared to be. It turns out Scott and Carl, along with Danny, have become pretty tight over the last year or so, right down to their having sex together. I admit to feeling a momentary pang of resentment when I heard about the sex, since Scott and I haven't done anything since we split up.
Anyway, what happened in the locker room was more a matter of two friends arguing than a teammate ready to fight a teammate. Noah told me that, according to Danny, they kissed and made up, or something akin to that.
There were two things that happened over the weekend, however, that set the stage for us to talk about our dream. They weren't related, but they got some people to thinking, and led what would become known as the lunch meeting, not to be confused with the dining car meeting.
The first thing to happen involved a surprise visit to my house. Mom and dad were in Centralia doing their big grocery shopping. The Mayfield grocery store was nice for basic stuff, but it wasn't a super market. People needed to go to Centralia to do their big shopping. You'd think with Kentburg, Mayfield, and Meadow Park fairly close to each other, somebody would have built a super market. It hasn't happened yet, so all the big stores are in Centralia.
Noah was away with his parents visiting his cousin Ethan and his family. It was a visit that didn't excite him very much since he didn't care much for Ethan. The surprise visitor was Blaine. Trust me, that was a huge surprise.
"Hey, Blaine. What brings you to the Simmons estate?"
"Hi, Eric. I need to talk with you."
I invited Blaine inside. We went to the living room and I got us each a soda. He sat on the couch and I took the overstuffed chair across from it.
Blaine got right to the point. "Do you remember that after I did that whole sex bonding thing with you I said I had a good feeling about the team and about us being ready to defend our championship?"
"I do remember that. Hearing it gave me a great feeling."
"Well, I meant what I said. And I still think so, even with me stinking up the place against Monte on Thursday. I was so against that sex bonding thing. I hated the idea so much I got too smart for myself with the whole voting business and the vote to do the bonding thing ended up passing."
"I remember. I told Noah that I would never put you in charge of a conspiracy." That got us both to laughing, loosening up the atmosphere considerably.
Then Blaine gave me his second surprise. "I think we should do something like that again," he said.
"You mean do sexual bonding again?" I asked incredulously.
"No, no, no...not that it can't happen, it doesn't have to be about sex. But here's the thing. You know that when I moved here I hated the guys in your class because I thought you were all faggots and were too stuck up to talk to anybody new. I learned since that, yeah, you are all gay, but you weren't stuck up. You just didn't want to deal with me because I was an asshole."
"That sure has changed."
"I got some help from somebody who I won't name who told me that maybe I needed to start looking at myself." I had no idea who he was talking about. I would have to ask Noah, who knew everything about everybody. I learned later it had been Marty who talked to him. "But what I did know, even then, is that you guys were a team. You played together and you did shit together and nobody got between you guys. You stuck up for each other on and off the field. And when things got rugged you did stuff like that sex bonding thing."
"So, what are you proposing?"
"Here's the deal. I don't know if you noticed, but we seem to have forgotten all the bonding stuff and become a team of cliques." I opened my mouth to protest, but he stopped me and kept on going.
"There's the twins, Hunter, and Lars clique. They're the macho jock gay guys. There's the Scott, Carl, Danny clique. They're the macho jock straight guys who like to fuck each other." Was I the only one who hadn't known that Scott was playing around with Carl and Danny? "Then there's the Eric and Noah clique. You guys are the little smart dudes who think you're a step ahead of everybody." Again, he stopped me from protesting.
"Then there's Chandler and Korey and the gay boy sophomore clique. What we have left is me, Justin, and Toby--the juniors. We're a clique because you guys have us all locked out of your cliques."
"That's not entirely true," I said while realizing that a lot of what he said was true. "Almost all of us seniors had lunch together last weekend."
"See what I mean? Almost all of you seniors had lunch. I bet it was Scott, Danny, and Carl who weren't there—the bed buddies who aren't queer. And even if they were there, that shows that you're the biggest clique of all—the senior clique."
I couldn't help wishing that Noah was here. He knows how to handle personal things like this. I'm the organizer between the two of us, and he's the people person.
"So if these cliques exist," I said, knowing that they did exist, "what can we do about it?"
"Have a players' only meeting this week after a practice. Talk about being together instead of apart. And then saying that each one of us has to do something with somebody outside of his little clique; we could even do something with a couple of peeps if we want. It can be one of the sex bonding guys, who cares. We just need to get out of ourselves and all become a team again."
Blaine had been one big surprise after another from the moment he'd rung the doorbell. I never saw Blaine as a guy who was big into interpersonal relations. But here he was coming up with the kind of observations and ideas that Noah and I should have had. That little thought hit me like a lightning bolt. "Oh shit," I said out loud.
"What? You don't agree?"
"No, I agree totally. I was just thinking that Noah and I should have thought of this. If thinking of yourself thinking isn't selfish, I don't know what is."
"You like my idea?"
"I like it. Guys can just go have a milkshake together, go to somebody's house and watch a movie. Maybe they could shoot hoops at the park, or play catch together. Two or three guys could go hang out at the mall in Centralia on a Saturday."
"Some guys could play video games together. Maybe even give each other a blow job if they wanted." There was another shocker from Blaine.
We ended up agreeing that Monday was too soon for a meeting. We were playing Winston on Tuesday. They hadn't won a game all year. If we lost to them we were a lost cause anyway. But with Kentburg and Lakeshore coming after Winston, a players' only meeting was essential. This would be something much different than a Go to State Team meeting.
"Maybe you and me could be the first two guys to do something," Blaine said.
"What did you have in mind?"
"I've gotten a few blow jobs in my life. Very few in fact. Two of them were from a guy, and you gave me one of those. I remember saying I'd give a BJ back some day. Why not return the favor to you?"
Blaine was definitely surprise after surprise after surprise. "Are you serious?"
"Totally. Look, everybody can know we did something together at your house today. They just don't have to know what. Hell, it could have been playing checkers for all anybody cares."
I was so stunned by the entire turn of events that all I could do was nod in agreement. Before I knew it, we were in my room with our clothes off. Blaine had one hell of an athletic body and was much more developed as a sixteen year old than I was as a seventeen year old. His boner was still working on catching up lengthwise, although it was a nice five and a half inches or more. But damn, it was thick. The thickest I'd ever seen.
"It hits six when it's really excited," he said, apologetically.
We were about the same length in the dick department. I just hoped he didn't think my body was too puny. I was very toned with nice musculature, but I was no stud like what he was turning into.
"I have to text Noah, then we can start," I said. "We have an agreement that BJs on the side are okay, but we need to call or text and tell each other we're doing it and with whom."
"Do you need to wait for permission?"
"Nope, I just need to tell him."
Never having sucked cock before, Blaine was a bit amateurish to start, but he took instruction well. He didn't try to swallow my entire teen tool and I didn't expect him to. He said he wasn't going to swallow my cum, and I didn't expect him to do that either.
He did surprise me with his enthusiasm, however. His cock was hard, it was leaking cum, and other than not taking me real deep, he didn't hold back. He used lips, and tongue, and good suction to get me immensely hard and turned on.
"Awww, fuck, Blaine, you're doing a hell of a job. This feels sooooo good." I was splayed on my bed, my feet on the floor, with Blaine in between my legs. I had that familiar feel in my gut and in my groin. I knew I was close to cumming and I warned him. Heedless of my warning, he just kept going.
"Oh, Blaine, you gotta stop or you're going to get a mouthful." He kept right at it. As I let out a low growl and started spewing my teen cum into his mouth, I couldn't help but admire his decision to take my seed.
He coughed and sputtered, swallowed cum, spit cum out on me, and had cum dribble down his chin. I think he managed to take most of it, even if he did make a mess.
"Oh, wow, dude, I thought you weren't going to swallow," I said as I caught my breath.
"I figured if I could eat pussy, I could eat some jism," he said.
"And the verdict?"
"It's actually better, I think."
He started to jerk off his thick piece of meat, but I grabbed his arm. "I've never sucked one that big," was all I said as I got down on the floor and put as much of his thick, nearly six inch cock into my mouth as I could. He let out a long moan and raised himself up on his knees, legs spread, to allow me better access.
For an almost totally straight boy he'd really gotten himself turned on. I had a little more than half of his cock in my mouth, and it was really stretching me out. He held my head and tried to shove it even further in until he had me gagging some. Deep throating that thick monster was not going to happen. The taste of his precum was strong and bleachy. It didn't take him long to shoot at all. While I was a bit overwhelmed by how much cum he shot out, I was able to handle most of it, losing just a bit as he pumped semen in faster than I could swallow.
After we finished we lay naked on my bed, going over what we had just done as well as what we planned to do. We agreed that Wednesday was the day to have the team meeting. I told him that I would talk to Kevin about it today, and we'd set it up with Coach Sanders on Monday.
We finally got up and started dressing. "No regrets over what we just did?" I asked.
"None. I probably will never have sex with another male again. Last summer I did it because I had to and ended up not hating it like I thought I would. This time I did it because it felt like the right thing to do. You're really a pretty awesome dude for a brainiac."
"Thanks, I think. Your cock was the biggest one I ever sucked." I was referring to the girth rather than the length.
"Wow, I guess that says a lot." He gave me a huge grin that looked good on him, especially since nobody saw it very often. "Oh, and Eric, if you use my idea, you can take credit for it. You're the team captain, after all."
We were dressed when my phone chimed. "That's Noah," I said. I looked at my phone and read the text he'd left.
"What did he say? Was he pissed?" Blaine asked.
I showed him the text. It said, "Blaine? You gotta be fucking kidding?"
We were laughing almost uncontrollably as we walked down the stairs just as my parents came in. We apologized for not being able to let them in on the joke. "You had to have been there," is all I could say.
The other thing that influenced our team involved Scott. It was something I didn't find out until later. Like Blaine sucking my cock, it may not have been a huge deal, but it ended up meaning a lot.
[SCOTT]
It was me who suggested to Danny and Carl we go to the batting cages in Centralia. Carl was struggling. He hadn't gotten a hit yet in four games, and it wasn't because he wasn't trying. I know I said he was being lazy, but I was getting frustrated watching him.
I went over to his house that night and we made up. After we talked it out, I said he needed a couple of long sessions in the batting cage to take care of what was wrong. Coach Sanders told him a couple of little things he needed to do better, but most of his problem was between his ears. He was having his personal problems, plus the pressure of signing that letter of intent, and I think it all got to him.
"There's no way batting practice at turnouts gets you enough time to work on things," I told him. "Ask your dad for some money and we'll go on Saturday." Danny was eighteen and could drive us, so getting a ride wasn't a problem. Me getting Carl's ass that night before I left wasn't a problem either. For a guy, he was a hell of a fuck.
I did have a problem come up on Friday, and that was with Tama. After being almost human for quite a while, her Little Miss Bitch was coming back. "Once a bitch, always a bitch," Danny said after me and Tama had our latest argument. He said he'd see if Mary Alice could tame her back down some, which was something that usually worked. I can tell you that if Mary Alice said anything, it sure didn't work at school on Friday.
"Are you coming over to my house to study tomorrow?" Tama had asked me at lunch.
I thought for a moment if this was something we'd agreed on and I'd forgotten. I couldn't remember it being talked about, so I confidently told her that I had plans to go the batting cages with Carl and Danny.
"You could change those plans, you know," she told me. "They know the way there."
"I could use the practice. I don't know if you've noticed, but we've only scored two runs in our three league games. I'm the number three hitter and having a .167 batting average doesn't cut it."
"So that means baseball is more important than I am?"
"Tama, we've been through this before. I have to be dedicated to my team and my teammates during the season. Come on, you play sports, you understand what I mean." Tama played basketball and softball.
"I don't use sports as an excuse to ignore you. You didn't answer my question about what was important."
I had no idea where she was coming from. I figured she had to be on the rag or something—that it was that time of the month. "I guess as far as tomorrow afternoon goes, baseball is more important."
"So, you'd rather have baseball than sex."
"Tama, this is getting silly."
"It must be true if you won't admit it. Are you still fooling around with those two?"
"What two?" I asked kind of innocently.
"With Danny and Carl."
"Tama, we're all straight. And Danny's going out with your best friend."
"You didn't answer that question either. And we've all played around together, so don't lie to me about how you aren't still doing things with them."
"Tama, this conversation is stupid."
"Fine, go hit your stupid baseballs. Just don't expect anything from me later."
"Don't worry, I won't."
Looking back at it, I made the exact right decision. We got a lot out of being at the cages, especially since we got the idea of inviting Coach Miller to join us. He was a really huge help and even bought us lunch as we spent a small fortune at the cages hitting the ball. Carl and I both started getting some consistently good swings in.
Tama and I had split up before, but she mellowed out for a long time and we even enjoyed sex together. I wondered if we were about to split up again. I wondered if we did split up if we'd ever get back together again. The funny thing was, I didn't care.
I spent the night at Carl's house with him and Danny. What we did in Carl's bedroom made up for anything I missed with Tama that weekend.
<Monday, March 18>
Eric and Kevin talked to Coach Sanders at lunch, telling him they wanted a players' only meeting after practice on Wednesday.
"Why don't you have it in here during lunch?" he asked. "Maybe it will get you into the right mood for practice, whatever it is you plan on talking about. In fact, why not have it today?"
"There are some things we need to talk about and plan," Eric said.
"If you're doing this to get things untracked, I would think that talking before tomorrow's game would make more sense than doing it after. The sooner the better, right?"
Kevin was the one who spoke up. "Coach, from what we've heard about Winston, if we can't beat them we aren't worth a crap anyway." Winston was new to the league and was struggling after moving up from Class-B.
"You should have defeated Monte," he pointed out. "They beat you rather soundly and you're twice the team they are."
"We hope we know what we're doing," Eric said.
"I'm hoping the same thing." He gave his two captains his best coach's glare and said, "You guys have all handled your issues pretty well over the years. You've done it with a lot more maturity than you're sometimes given credit for, and I've seen what you've all accomplished. Now that you are seniors, I would be remiss not to trust you in this situation. I just hope to God you're right. If we lose tomorrow, I think we can all but kiss the postseason good-bye."
"It's not that bad, coach," Eric said. "But it's close. If we have the meeting during lunch, we're going to want to eat in your classroom. We need all of the time we can get."
"Agreed. I will let you guys in and retire to the staff lounge."
The bell rang and Kevin started for the door. Eric had Coach Sanders for math next period and stayed. Before Kevin could get out of the door, however, the coach stopped him.
"From what I've heard, this Winston group can get pretty mouthy. One thing you can help me with in the locker room today is remind everybody to ignore any crap they hear from that team."
"Will do, Coach," Kevin said and left.
Eric sat in his seat, wondering if they had made the right decision by putting off the meeting until after the Winston game.
<Tuesday, March 19>
If the right decision meant depending on the Mustangs defeating the Winston Raptors, then the team had made the right decision to wait until Wednesday to hold the meeting.
The game was held at Winston on another blustery day. Coach Sanders was right when he warned his team that the Winston boys were mouthy. The same held true of the fans and of the coaching staff.
"Must be hell to coach a team of queers," the head coach said to Coach Sanders as they waited to meet the umpires at home plate.
"The only reason I'm not shoving my fist into your mouth," Coach Sanders said, "is because I told my kids not to get into any fights." The arrival of the umpires ended the conversation, but two coaches knew they didn't like one another.
The time Scott and Carl spent in the cage seemed to pay off in the first inning. Coach Sanders had considered moving Carl down in the order from the cleanup spot, but decided to wait one more game. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision. Justin led off with a ground out to third. Eric then singled on a 2-2 pitch. Scott followed with a solid single to center, moving Eric to third. Carl then launched a 2-1 pitch over the left field fence. What made his home run particularly impressive was that he hit it into the wind.
Scott was the starting pitcher and saw to it that the lead held up. He went five innings, followed by an inning from Chandler and one from Lars as the Mustangs won their first league game of the season by a score of 7-3.
On the bus ride home the Mustang players were not only pleased with the win, they were also pleased that they got some offense going. They were especially pleased that they kept their mouths shut when Raptor players made under the breath comments about the sexual orientation of many of the Mustang players. The fact that the Mustangs had some openly gay players was no secret, and up until now it hadn't been much of an issue. The Mustang players did their best to make sure it wouldn't become a bigger issue by not reacting to the prejudiced comments of their opponents.
The talk was of the big mystery meeting to be held at lunch the next day. Only Eric, Kevin, Kraig, Noah, and Blaine knew what the meeting was about. The four seniors agreed with Blaine's idea. There had been so much negativity around the team, they were happy to have something positive to discuss.
Because the Seamount League now had an odd number of teams, each team had two byes in the schedule. The first one for the Mustangs came up that week, another reason Eric and Kevin decided to have the meeting on Wednesday. It would give everybody almost a week to chew things over before they played Kentburg.
The Royals had one loss, by a score of 3-2 to Harborview. Two days after that they would be playing the Lakeshore Sentinels, who were undefeated so far. The Sentinels would be playing Winston next, on the same day the Mustangs played Kentburg.
In other words, the Mustangs had two very tough games coming up: Harborview and Kentburg. Coach Sanders hadn't announced the starting pitchers for either game yet, but everybody knew they would be Eric and Scott. The only question was, which team would they start against?
"Next week is when we show if we are an elite team or the also-rans we've been playing like," Eric told Noah that night.
"Using what Kevin said, we might look at it this way," Noah said. "Is our five year dream a diamond dream or a pipe dream?"
Eric knew right then that Noah had given him the theme for the next day's meeting.
Next: ...and Found