I hadn't played baseball in an unbearably long time. I used to play every year along with my other pals. Prior to every game, the opposing team captains conducted drafts. It worked out for the most part since there were never more than fifty players in the draft, meaning that each team in just about every game was fully loaded prior to first pitch.

Everyone in the Turbo League got to play in six games every weekend... except for one.

The Zenith Storm had a long history of futility spanning more than fifty years. Admittedly, they were never the most fun to watch. And yet despite their futility, their fanbase was loyal as hell. I don't think any other fanbase was willing to pay so much to watch their team lose every season. Sure, they made the playoffs every so often, but they were often stopped early. The only time they had made the championship round was forty-two years ago... which ended in them getting crushed 19 runs to none. Many of the fans had been dwelling on that fateful playoff run, hoping for something to hope for.

Over the years that followed since I retired from baseball, the squad consisted mainly of a band of misfits. Often they were rejected by other squads in the league, known for committing costly errors, or just plain being bad ball players. But they had Zenith the Hedgehog — perhaps the greatest pitcher ever to step on a pitcher's mound, notching more than 10,000 strikeouts in a career that lasted fifty-one seasons. He loved baseball that much, he just couldn't give it up. There was something about the sport that drove him to keep playing. Maybe it was the fact that he'd never won a championship, which, after all these years, you'd think he'd have achieved by now. But, nope. He'd done everything but.

Before this season started, Zenith did the unthinkable and announced his own retirement following the conclusion of the season, and the season quickly morphed into one to remember. The team started out ok, then rode an eight-game winning streak to finish the season with an impressive 22-8 record, locked in a tie for first place in the division with the Aleena Shades, because my mother came out of hiding to take over Shadow's old team and arguably the Storm's most hated rival. The two teams played a one-game tiebreaker game, which the Storm won. It was the team's first division championship in seventeen seasons. This was all done through a list of injuries that plagued ten of their players, and yet expectations were at an all-time high all of a sudden, to the point where I found myself tuning in to watch their games. I'd always had some respect for the guy for taking on the huge responsibility of leading this club for fifty-one years, but this year was different. In Zenith's case, there was no more talk of next year. There was no next year. But there was talk of whether the club would fold following Zenith's last game. When the playoffs started, I was getting anxious as to when that day would come. I would've felt bad for the guy were his team to lose out in the end. Eventually I thought to myself: could I help him win the whole thing this year?

The Storm met up with the English Revolution (yes, English was the guy's real name) in the Division Series and swept them in three games. On the surface they looked poised to make a deep playoff run this time around, but would they be able to handle the equally red-hot Demitri Rogues? Personally, I didn't think so.

"Hey Knuckles! You wanna toss the ball around?"

The red echidna looked at me puzzled. "I don't know, Sonic. I haven't played baseball in ages." He flexed his dominant right arm. "I probably can't even hit anymore. Can you still run?"

"Of course!" I shrugged sheepishly. "I've been running my whole life."

He folded his arms. "Prove it."

"Alright, I will."

I dashed to the top of a nearby skyscraper.

"Over here!" I shouted. Sure enough, the echidna saw me up here and waved.

I dashed back to him. He shrugged. "Fair enough. I guess I can play for a while. I got Hector to watch the Master Emerald for me."

"Great!" I gave him the "thumbs-up". "Meet me at the softball field at the Mazuri Sports Complex with a bat and some balls."

"I'll be there shortly."

As he dashed away, I ran back home, dusted off my old baseball gear, and lugged it to the softball field. A couple of minutes later, Knuckles showed up with Verne the Bat, Knuckles' adopted son, who was carrying a duffel bag full of stitched balls.

"I see what you did there, Knux," noting his lack of an actual baseball bat.

"Heh."

I gave him my bat to use, while Verne rushed for the outfield. I took out a baseball from the duffel bag, then trotted towards the pitcher's mound. Knuckles just stood in front of home plate, holding the bat to his right, staring menacingly at me as I delivered the pitch. He just watched it go by.

"You can throw overhand if you want to," he shouted as he threw the ball back into my glove.

"I think I will, thank you." I stared menacingly at Knuckles before delivering this pitch in an overhand fashion, as I'd promised.

Knuckles took a giant swing at the ball... and missed gloriously.

"STEEEEERIKE ONE!" Verne shouted from behind me.

"Give me a break. I'm rusty," the echidna piped in short response as he threw the ball back to me, staring menacingly at the bat in the outfield. Rusty my cage, for he clobbered my next pitch well over the fence at left center field, over the area where Verne was hanging out, playing Knux to pull the ball there. Knux continued to hold the bat in front of him, staring menacingly at it, before throwing it high into the air in no particular direction. Nice bit of showmanship, Nudillos Bautista. Verne just sighed and shouted, "I got it," hopping over the fence.

"Sonic, you're playing baseball again?" I heard a slightly masculine voice exclaim following the big fly from Knuckles. It was the now middle-aged Tails, who was wearing a pair of bifocals. Along with him he brought Amy, who was pregnant with her second child; Bunnie Rabbot, whose robotic half had been recently reverted to normal; all three Babylon Rogues, no longer wearing goggles as they'd given up hoverboarding; Sticks the Badger, who was now a violin virtuoso; some female raccoon I don't recall having seen before; Silver the Hedgehog, a bestselling electronica singer; Blaze the Cat, whom I'd seen a lot since she moved in near my home; Manic and Sonia, whom I hadn't seen in years; and even Shadow the Hedgehog... same ol' Shadow.

I was in shock when I saw them all here. "Tails! What are you all doing here?!"

The fox continued, "You were gonna play a game of baseball and not invite me? Or Shadow?"

"Whoa, there. Take it easy, pal." One base at a time. "I didn't see you at all today. If you wanted to play..."

"I'm just messing with you, Sonic," he interrupted, as if waving off my confused monologue. "But seriously, can we all join in?"

"Uh, sure," I said nervously. "Why don't six of you team with Knuckles. The rest of you can head onto the field with me and Verne."

"Affirmative."

I was joined on the field by Shadow, Blaze, Bunnie, Silver, Sonia, and Manic, while Tails, Jet, Wave, Storm, Sticks, and the unnamed raccoon took seats on a bench behind the field on the third base side. As Knuckles touched home plate and headed for the bench, Verne met briefly with him, and they had a quick conversation about something, with Knuckles pointing all over the place, before Verne ran back to the outfield.

We played for what seemed like the rest of the night, but in actuality it took maybe two hours. And you know what, it was a rejuvenating experience, like that feeling you get from riding a bike for the first time in years. I was left to question my decision to quit baseball, but it also reminded me that I had an old friend who was going to retire from the sport. I wanted to convince him to keep playing for as long as he could, as long as he still had his greatest talent in him. But I just couldn't do it. He probably had his reasons, so likely nothing would make him change his mind.

Even so, I was — no, we were determined to help him cap off his career with a bang.

I knocked three times on the door. It opened slowly to reveal a gold-and-maroon-colored cat with a brunette ponytail, a big "M" tattooed on her left forearm, and a bright blue shirt with the outline of a heart on the front.

"Oh! Sonic!" she exclaimed. "Uh, can I help you?"

"Yeah, is Zenith here perchance?"

"At this point in the season?" Her face sported a cold, empty stare. "No, he spends all his time out at the ballpark. He tells me every day he's doing this practice routine, but I've never seen him practice."

I smiled wryly. "Not a baseball fan, are ya?" She shook her head lightly. "You think he'll spend some time with you once the season's over?"

"I hope so." She shrugged. "He tells me this is his last year doing this. How do I know he's telling the truth?"

"Everyone knows that." I smiled again. "They'll hold him to it."

"Pardon me, blokes," I heard another deep masculine voice beckon in a slight accent, strongly telling of his supposedly tragic upbringing, as he tried to scuttle towards the open door.

"Zenith! There you are!" everyone else behind me exclaimed. As we were greeting the tall red hedgehog, the cat smiled and gently shut the door.

"So... what can I do for you?"

I explained our proposition in twenty seconds or less.

"You serious?!" he jolted. "All of you?"

Amy raised her hand. "Well, not me. My hand's busted up enough from your fastball." The rest of us laughed. Zenith couldn't help but smile a little, as though trying not to laugh.

"Wow," he interjected. "Blimey, I don't know..."

He looked away for a second. Then he did a double take.

"Wait, Knuckles...?"

Knuckles nodded. He'd never played on Zenith's squad.

"And Shadow...?"

Shadow also nodded, for the real Shadow and the Shadow prototype had never played together either.

"And... what's your name?"

"Verne the Bat." He pointed towards the scarlet echidna. "He's my old man."

Zenith apparently mouthed the word "wow", evidently in some kind of disbelief, followed by six grueling seconds of the dullish-red hedgehog eyeing us all over. Finally he sighed.

"Practice tomorrow at two."

We all celebrated spontaneously.