SUNSHINE POV
"Toni Spena, I want you to meet head Coaches, Paul Cedar and Mark Talent, and our assistant coaches, James Lainey and Sid Willock." I shook each of their hands and gave them a smile.
"I thought you were the head coach?" Coach O'Niall laughed and shook his head.
"I am, these guys do all the work and I get the final say." He punched Paul in the shoulder and he laughed along wit him. "So I think we'll get you started up with just sorting through the players profiles, sort them by position, statistics and then secondary positions." I nodded, but I hadn't expected him to hand me a stack that was four inches tall.
"All these kids are trying out for this team?"
Coach O'Niall laughed. "We've been the state champions six years in a row, the national Champions the past three and 20% of our players either make it onto the recruitment team or get recruited right away."
"Jeez." I took the forms and headed towards the long and large table that they used for team meetings. I knew Kenny had talked this team up but I hadn't expected something like this.
It looked like every male baseball player in the state wanted to be apart of this team, aside from the eight back home.
It was a gruelling task, most of the players didn't have a secondary position, and a lot of the statistics sucked, and some I was almost certain were made up. No one bats .1000 and also there was no such thing as having 12 perfect games in a 13 game season.
I supposed they would get exposed as the tryouts went on, but it was ridiculous for them to lie.
Coach Paul came into the room about two hours into my sorting. "Hows it going."
"It's going." I told him. "How do the tryouts work?"
"Well with each tryout we're hoping to cut it in half."
"There's like two hundred kids here."
"Yeah, we let everyone try out, you can't tell a ball players potential by a sheet of paper." He had a point. "That's why we have five tryouts. After the first two days we'll cut 100 kids, and then
we'll cut 20 and then another 20 then we have two exhibition tournaments to see how they play. Then we make our final cuts."
I nodded and after another hour of sorting I had finished organizing the players.
"I have another task for you." Coach O'Niall said scaring em half to death. "We have a field a few blocks from here, some of the boys have been practicing on for the past few weeks."
"I know the one."
"Alright head on down and write down a few things for us will you?"
"Like what?"
"Just things you see. Number of pitches they have, how well they're hitting. Give us an idea of who to look out for."
I nodded. I was doing grunt work but I didn't mind. It wasn't like I was getting coffee and washing their cars, I was involved.
When I got to the field the same boys were there including Kenny who was pitching, they didn't seem to notice me or really care that I was there so long as I wasn't on the field. I had a pad of paper and a pen and was ready to start writing notes but I didn't really know anyones name, so I went by what they looked like.
It was going okay, when they called for a break and one of the boys, a shorter blonde boy that kinda looked like Smalls came over. I mean he would have looked like him had this boy not been
build like a truck. I always thought Benny was fit, but this guy looked like he could lift the bleachers with 60 people on it.
"How do you throw the ball like that?" I asked, he looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. "The muscles. . . doesn't it make you lose the flexibility in your arm?" He ignored me and started rummaging through his bag for something. "Did you hear me?"
"I heard you." He snapped. "Mind your own damn business."
"Meow." I growled at him. "Chill out, I was just asking." His eyes rolled and he continued to look through his bag. A short moment later his hand came out clutching a needle. Before I could
say anything he was sticking it in his arm and injecting a clear liquid into his veins.
"Whoa what the-"
"Oh calm down. I'm diabetic." He snapped before tossing the needle into his bag and storming off to the dugout.
As he left Kenny took his place giving me a big smile and leaning one arm on the bleachers beside me. "Hiya Sunshine."
"Hey."
"You know he's lying right?"
"Huh?"
He nodded in the direction of the boy who just left. "He's not diabetic."
"Then-"
"Steroids." My eyes widened, it made perfect sense but I always thought that they were Illegal, especially in school baseball. "None of us have ratted him out or anything. Can't really prove it unless they do a urine test, which they probably won't do."
"Why not?" I asked.
"He's the best hitter we have here."
Steroids.
Something I had never seen in my baseball career so I didn't really know how to feel about them. I did know that they had some nasty side effects and that they were not allowed in the major leagues. Why was he willing to risk a possible career this early? "So what are you doing?" Kenny asked trying to see my paper.
"Oh. taking notes on you guys."
"So the black kid pitcher. . . he's the best here isn't he?" He joked that giant smile still plastered on his face.
I grinned and nodded. "Oh you know it."
A/N :Short I know, it was a filler, the action will be starting soon I promise!