summary: in which larry teaches connor some baseball skills

welcome to the chapter where i showcase my complete ignorance regarding baseball
i have zero fucking clue on how to baseball and i hate most ball sports which means i've never watched a game. so um, forgive any inaccuracies?

anyway, chapter title from deh. (duh!)

i apologize for posting this chapter late but today was kind of a shit day and i just finished writing it hnnnghhhh

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After two weeks of summer break, Larry decided that Connor needed to get out of the house a little more, instead of spending most of his days at home reading or practicing his dance routines. Of course, Connor had protested fiercely, saying that he took Skywalker out for a run every morning, and went to the playground near their house every evening with Zoe. Larry, however, had put his foot down and signed Connor up for Little League.

While Connor spent the rest of the day sulking at home, Larry had set out to buy him a new baseball, bat, and glove. Cynthia was delighted at the prospect of him picking up a sport, and ironed the uniform so that there wasn't a single crease in it, although Larry reminded her that it would probably end up dirty and muddy after a few minutes on the field. She, however, was not dissuaded in the least.

"You're going to look so handsome in this!" she gushed, holding up the uniform for Connor to take a look.

He nodded half-heartedly. It looked nice, and he liked the colors, but he didn't want to wear that uniform and go to Little League and play baseball. It didn't look fun, he didn't even like baseball, and the other boys would probably be better than him because he wasn't athletic like them. And then he would probably do something stupid like miss all the balls and make Larry embarrassed.

"Connor, come over here, and see what I got you," Larry called the following morning.

Connor set his book down and hopped off the couch. "What is it, Dad?"

"I got you your baseball glove!" Larry exclaimed, taking the glove out of the bag and handing it to him. "I'm going to show you how to break it in."

Connor turned the glove over and put it on. "How do you break it in?" he asked, following Larry to his workshop.

The table was already set up with various bottles and cloths, along with older tools from one of Larry's previous projects. Connor noticed that there were new baseball memorabilia decorating the walls since the last time he'd been in there.

"First, shaving cream," Larry said, sitting down on the workbench and motioning for Connor to do the same.

"Shaving cream?" Connor giggled. "Does the glove have a beard?"

Larry laughed. "No, it's to soften the leather and help break in the glove. Feel how hard it is now?" Connor pinched it and nodded. "Shaving cream helps to soften it and makes it easier for you to catch or throw the ball. Now, you take the shaving cream, just a little, and rub it in for about five minutes."

"Can I try?" Connor took the glove from Larry and smeared some shaving cream onto it. "Is that enough?"

"That's good, you don't need too much." Larry nodded approvingly. "Once you're done with that step, you wrap the glove around the ball, and tie it up with rubber bands—just like that!"

"Then it's done?"

Larry shook his head. "Not quite, buddy. This is the part that's going to take a while: you put the glove under your mattress, and you sleep on it. And then you take it out tomorrow morning, put shaving cream onto it again, tie it up then put it under your mattress. And you do it every day for a week."

"Under my mattress?" Connor echoed in surprise. "Why?"

"It's going to help break in the glove, soften it enough so you can play comfortably."

"But a week is so long," Connor whined. Even if he didn't want to go to Little League, he still wanted to play with his new glove and ball.

"You have to be patient!" Larry clapped him good-naturedly on the shoulder. "If you don't wait, you won't have a good glove to play with."

"Is there a faster way?"

"Well, a lot of the shortcuts people use seem to work at first, but they end up ruining your glove in the long run. One of my classmates in high school put his glove in the microwave."

Connor let out an amused laugh. "What happened? It got cooked?"

"Pretty much," Larry replied, with a disapproving shake of his head. "He was so proud of how quickly he had broken it in, but he ended up throwing it away in a week because it was completely ruined. A waste of a perfectly good glove, too." Connor nodded thoughtfully as he continued. "So you see, sometimes you may feel like you're going through too much trouble to get something done, but it pays off in the end." He handed Connor the glove. "Do you remember what I said about the steps?"

"Shaving cream, rubber bands, mattress." Connor replied, listing the items off his fingers.

Larry beamed. "That's it, son. You're good to go."

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Connor had grown slightly more eager over the days leading up to Little League, especially after he finished breaking in the glove. When he pulled the soft leather from below the mattress and put it on for the first time, he'd grinned so broadly—he had broken in his first baseball glove! And Cynthia had taken a few dozen photos of him in the Little League uniform, proudly clutching his glove, ball, and bat, with Larry standing proudly at his side.

Looking at the pictures, Connor could see the similarities between him and Larry. They both had eyes that sparkled brightly, except that Larry's was brown and Connor's was blue, with a small patch of brown in the right eye (Zoe would teasingly call it the 'poop patch'). And they both had the little crinkle around the corner of their eyes when they smiled a little too hard.

"Did you play a lot of baseball when you were young, Dad?" Connor asked, looking up from the picture.

"So much," Larry replied nostalgically. "My dad used to take us to every baseball game, and I played with my friends every day after school. My brothers and I would collect all the baseball cards. My dad taught me how to break in my own glove for the first time when I was around your age, and I played with it until it was completely worn out."

"Do you think I'll be a good baseball player?"

"I'm sure you will be, with enough practice," Larry assured him, pulling the cap over Connor's eyes and making him giggle.

However, whatever prior excitement that Connor had been feeling about Little League was promptly extinguished after his first practice. The weather was too hot, he got tired out quickly, he kept missing the ball, and all the other boys seemed to be bigger and better than him.

Exhausted, sweaty, and frustrated, he dragged his feet back to the benches where all the parents were seated at, half-afraid of the criticism he expected from Larry.

"What did you think of the game, buddy?" Larry asked.

Connor took off his cap, running his fingers through his messy hair. "I'm no good," he sighed. "Kept missing the ball." He looked down, his pants had mud and grass stains at the knee from the two times he had tripped over.

"It's okay," Larry said with a smile, and Connor looked back up, a little surprised at not getting told of. "Nobody starts off perfect. This was only your first game."

"But those boys were so much better than me," Connor countered, swinging his bat in the direction of several other boys.

"Well, they may have practiced more. A lot of this is learned through practice," Larry said gently. "I haven't been doing a lot of that with you." He paused to think for a moment. "Tell you what, I'll do some drills with you a couple times a week, give you some extra practice. I used to do that with my brothers and dad all the time. How does that sound?"

Connor didn't really like the idea. He didn't really like baseball anyway, it wasn't fun and only made him tired and frustrated with himself, so the idea of playing more wasn't exactly appealing. But Larry looked so hopeful, and Connor did want to spend more time with him—he was always busy with work nowadays—so he finally nodded and agreed.

"That's great!" Larry beamed. "Well, let's gather your things so you can go home and take your bath. But first, how does a trip to 7-Eleven sound?"

"Awesome!"

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"Watch how you hold your bat," Larry said as they practiced together a few evenings later.

"Like this?" Connor adjusted his grip.

"Much better," Larry nodded, throwing the ball towards him.

Connor swung the bat, but missed the ball again. "Ugh."

Skywalker excitedly bounded after the ball and brought it back to Larry. Her favorite thing about the game was all the balls she got to chase, and neither Larry nor Connor complained, since it saved them time from going after the balls themselves.

"That's okay, let's try again."

"I keep missing," Connor complained as they sat down to catch their breath ten minutes later. "It's too hard."

"Practice, young man, and patience," Larry chuckled. "That builds sportsmanship."

"But I'm no good at sports," Connor whined, pulling out a blade of grass and tearing it into shreds.

"That's why you need to work harder at it," Larry replied, standing back up. "Do you want to try again?"

"Alright," Connor agreed, getting up, albeit rather reluctantly.

Just then, Zoe appeared. "Can I try to play?" She motioned towards Connor's bat.

"Sure," he handed it to her. "But do you know how to play?"

"No, but I watched you and I want to try," she replied confidently.

"Let's see how you do, shall we?" Larry said, pitching the ball.

Connor could tell that Zoe wasn't holding the bat correctly, and he was just about to point it out when she hit the ball back to Larry.

"Yay! I hit it!" Zoe cheered, doing a little victory dance as Larry and Connor stared at each other in surprise.

"That was really good, Zo!" Larry finally exclaimed.

"How did you do that?" Connor managed to squeak out.

"I don't know, I just saw it coming so I whacked it," Zoe laughed. "Can I try again?"

She missed the second and third ball, but managed to hit the next one. After that, she declared she had enough and walked back into the house.

Connor picked up the ball and bat, looking over his shoulder at Zoe's retreating figure. "See, even Zo-Zo is better than I am," he said dejectedly.

"Connor, just because someone is better than you doesn't mean that you aren't good," Larry responded kindly. "Maybe you just need a little more practice to get to that level. But let's take a break for now and get ready for dinner, you've already improved a lot today."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

"Thanks, Dad."

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okay as much as i hate baseball 'to break in a glove' fucks me up every single time i listen to it
guys.
larry was trying so hard. he really was. say what you want about him but he really tried.

anyway, constructive criticism always appreciated! lmk what baseball facts i got wrong so i dont repeat them lmao thank you
also, like, comment, subscribe, you know the drill. and hmu on tumblr ( thewickedverkaiking) if you ever want to chat!