Hey it's me again to the few people who read this story thanks and hope you keep reading it… look I know this has been awhile but I am back with ideas and much more… so on with the show…
Chapter 2 Try-outs…
Draco walked in a rather large training facility. Its size was impressive, considering the somewhat small baseball team it housed. Yet, it was comfortable, professional and hopefully, his future. Heart pounding with anticipation, Draco walked on towards his destination.
"These guys come in looking like they have been playing baseball since they were bloody tykes… Coming from Major League Teams would do that to you…"
And true, Draco was right; he looked up the history of baseball and knew how the players keep on training with winter leagues like this one and one over in Arizona that starts after The World Series… But Draco is ambitious - he has a thirst and a soul, thursting for challenges. After all, he placed a solid week's practice for the pitcher position… no matter what, he would be ready, for himself, and for the people he was trying to impress.
"But Blimey, If I would be truly taken aback at what they did before, its what are you going to show out for try-outs today... And believe me I am here for a reason…" Draco thought to himself…
"Hello young one, are you here for try-outs?" A husky, pale skin elder wearing a team coat with a note board in his hand greeted him enthusiastically.
"Hi I'm Draco Malfoy, and yes, I am here for Waikiki Try-outs, today and you are sir…"
"Why I'm Richard Harding, Pitching coach for Waikiki Beach Boys, Welcome…"
"Oh, thanks. Well where are the changing rooms?"
"Oh yea, just go all the way to the back, its ahead of you. And welcome to the clubhouse, hope I see you more."
"Thanks." Draco said and quietly walked by Richard towards the changing room…
"Tall, flexible, and look to have strong muscles at the right places in his arms, looks to have great starting pitching material. Eh, let's see on the field…" Richard thought to himself, as he watched the newcomer walk away from him.
When Draco looked at the door for the Beach Boys Changing rooms a sign on the right side of the red door said…
"Players, Managers and other authorized people only." Draco said to himself.
"It's a new step, but just look like you've been here before"
"Like I've been here before." And Draco, with a serious face opened the doors and he walked in the changing rooms, not looking back…
His serious face was replaced by sheer astonishment,as he looked around, and surprise hit him with the force of an oncoming freight train. Big Screen TV… Chairs misplaced all over the floor… The Beach boys trademark on the newly carpeted floors… Men walking, talking laughing to each other and getting ready for try-outs… It was a weird sight. Thinking of most American athletes tight and focused to themselves during most games, like the Americans on the quidditch pitch for their teams at Hogwarts… But you don't see that in them. Suddenly Draco has come out of his shock and saw Robert walking towards him.
"Draco, you actually came. That's great man, I told you, you have some potential to be a good pitcher. So here for pitching right?" He asked.
"Yea, of course." Draco said in a nonchalant matter.
"Well they are starting in a few minutes so go out there and good luck…"
"Thanks."
And Robert jogged back to his locker…
Draco looks up to his nameless locker, looks to his fist and grips it as hard as he can, a look of ambitious, competitive fire in his shining eyes and looks back up to his locker.
"It will have MY name on this locker soon." Draco fiercely thought to himself.
"Pitchers! Five minutes till time to go out there..." An assistant said out loud to mostly everybody…
Draco finally snapping out of his trance finally got ready for a big step in his career as a Major League pitcher…
After stretching for readiness, Richard, the pitching coach told the players trying out to make a single line behind the bullpen to show pitching technique, ball-speed and pitcher catcher and the irony was that guess who was catcher…
"Robert, hey mate… I didn't know…"
"Well I also can play catcher but my main position is Center field"
"But because of my powerful arm that supplements it, I'm the second-string catcher."
"Really, so can you field?" mused Draco.
"Of course I can catch, in high school I was All-State first-team, All-academic honors in outfield. Went to Boston College, led that team to a National Championship and was All-American 3 out of 4 years and the big fix around the camps…" boasted Robert. See, he was not much of a talker unless is his play in baseball. After that, all bets are off.
"Heh, nice honors… so, why are you here?"
"Well to get noticed more, a lot of great players came from these Winter Leagues and flourished on and made the big stage in less than 2 years. I'm hoping I will be one of them. See, one of my big problems was batting, that's what every scout said to me. Hopefully these guys can help me out."
"Well batting is not what we just need to tighten up, can I say coughegocough" Draco joked. After sharing a good laugh one of the pitching assistants comes up and says "Malfoy, Draco"
"That's all you man so, good luck I got outfield drills," Robert put his hand out and takes it making a friendship that just may last.
"Later."
"Later, Drake" And Bill began running to Outfield Drills…
Draco next to get up to the mound, with his heart beating the first challenge was going to begin.
"Ok Draco, the first drill we do is called the strikeout game. It helps control in the strike-zone, sees there is blue and red shades that takes the size of the plate, blue is a cold place for a hitter and a hot place is a hot place for the hitter the is also white plates, they are neutral. The main object is to avoid the red hit the blue. Got it?" said the assistant.
All Draco could do was nod.
"All right, here we go mister…"
Flashback… one week ago…
In one of the few pitching cages in Waikiki, here is Draco Malfoy in his white-t shirt and green shorts, walks up to the mound for his hour session. He carries a book it's called "Pitching Basics, Learn to Master the Position in 2 months time…" Draco had only a week. He stared at the strike zone and learns today's lesson.
"Velocity"
Then he started mumbling.
"The application of direct force to the baseball is illustrated with elbow circle break of the pitching hand right before acceleration."
He stares at the red and blue painted glass and it suddenly turned into his dead father's head…
"DRACO YOU FAILURE!!! CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING RIGHT! I TOLD YOU TO JOIN THE DARK LORD THE TRUE SIDE, WHERE WE'VE FOLLOWED FOR YEARS! BUT NO, WHAT DO YOU!!! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU DO! LEAVE THE HOUSE AND JOIN THE SIDE OF THE LIGHT!! AND THAT BASTARD WEASLEY, POTTER AND THE MUDBLOOD!! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, KILLING ME? YOU WILL NEVER GET ME OUT OF YOUR MIND SON, OR IF I CAN CALL YOU THAT YOU DUMB FUCK!!!?"
Draco's eyes went wide when seeing this…
The shock and intimidation of his father's appearance when he killed him during that final battle and the words still ring in his ears in total ice cold shock…
"YOU WILL NEVER GET ME OUT OF YOUR HEAD; I WILL FIND A WAY TO DESTROY YOU FROM THE INSIDE!!!"
That's when he thought, he is here for a reason…
"Pitchers need to fire their relaxed pitching elbow down and around toward 1st base. This may come into conflict with many pitching coaches mythology of the high cocked arm position during the balance phase of the pitching motion. And oh yea, IM HERE TO LIVE AND OWN MY RESPECT! SO YOU CAN BURN IN HELL WITH VOLDEMORT, LUCIUS!!!"
He raised his left leg, kicks it out, foot stays on the rubber, and with what he had in him he released his first pitch, 4-seam fastball around the corners, with the speed of 92 mph made the glass into particles.
He stares at what was a glass hole and walks to it, the ball went clean threw it…
And that to him showed that yea… He had ability. And his trademark smirk says it all.
Flashback ends.
For the rest of the week he taught himself the basics of pitching from velocity to control to his choice types…
As he hit the right spots, different pitches, are shown in his arsenal…
"CRACK!" a 4-seam fast-ball.
"CRACK!" a Splitter.
"CRACK!" a Sinker.
"CRACK!" a Curve-ball.
And his trademark… A combination of his splitter and Sinker named after his house…
"CRACK!" his Sly-ball, a towering sinker-splitter that comes slashing through…
As his pitching skills are in show the Coaching Staff was in awe of his abilities.
His grip… "CRACK"
His eye at the plate… "CRACK"
His release point… "CRACK"
His Durability to keep the heat up at a supreme level… "CRACK"
There was one weakness to his prospering ability… "CRACK"
His Predictability, after at least ten pitches you can easily predict what pitches are coming from him.
But with even that… can you still hit it?
"CRACK"
"No you can't" Waikiki Surf-boys Manager Marvin Ramirez thought aloud.
With the final dissolving of the glass Draco was about to pitch more but the movement of glass stopped…
"That's enough Mr. Malfoy, please get in the back of the line." The assistant said…
That's when Draco stepped off the mound and waited for his turn again…
Five days later…
As it was the final cut for try-outs and Draco was on that final cut. The final test for Draco was called…
"Nine up, nine down" said Manager Ramirez, "The thing about this you will be pitching a real game. The nine starting batters on my list will come up to plate; you will have fielding behind you like a real game. On of the main things you will be tested on was ERA or earned-run-average. You'll have three catchers and you had a night to work with him. So this is it, three come in, but only one will be on the starting rotation. But asides from that part, all of you are on the team. Congratulations."
Besides from Draco two distinguished pitchers were favored to make the Rotation…
Tim Jefferies, NCAA Division III ace, was player of the year in 1996 and first team All-America, played for the two-time defending national champions Redding University Kings in Redding, Pennsylvania, as a starter those two years he posted a 31-4 record 155 strikeouts both school records. He has four pitches, a curve-ball , sinker, Knuckleball and his trade mark 2-seam fastball his aura when he was in college was over powering even though being a ground-ball pitcher… his prospect of being known, but his biggest weakness, durability, he averaged only 4.5 innings a game and only recorded a complete game once. But he could scare many hitters into shock what heat he can put into the ball. A mostly quiet, keeps to him in the dugouts, but one good drinking night even though he rarely drinks but still he can go real wild…
Cannibal Robinson or known out in the Midwest "shifty", a true power pitcher to the name, and a proven winner. Played Division II and put the nation on fire with his cutter fastball that can slide through the eye of the hitter a the right point and fool him into thinking that the ball went down in the strike zone, like a ball, but it hits right in the middle. Even though he is careless where to put it in the strike zone, he is cocky about the sense of his rocket-like arm. He can go longer than Jefferies but is more prone to injuries of Jefferies. "Shifty" went an average 7.5 innings and posted 32-5 record and ERA of 2.09, in his first two years in Keller College in Carbondale, Illinois. But the other two years he was a 7-4 and an ERA of 4.55 because he missed most of those two years with arm injuries that almost led to Tommy-Johns surgery, which is a pitchers surgery that reforms and fixes the broken muscles in the arm. Neurotic about his injuries and has that certain tweak to his arm when he is on the mound. That's why most people call him shifty.
When Draco first got note of this he knew where to go to for help…
Bill…
Flashback, yesterday in a pitching cage in Waikiki Hawaii
"Hey man, all week they've been talking about your abilities and they are all stunned about it, even the coaches, I ran into Coach Ramirez, he told me" then he turns voices "'that white haired cat, even though he has some predictability issues, he seems to be a strong and very solid pitcher, you know anything about him?' he asked me… I just said that you're new around here and just came in to the scene, and I mean just… Boy he was surprised," Robert said as they were playing warm-up catch in the cages.
Draco was taken aback when he heard about this. The feeling of him being in the prospect of being a practically new to the game and the way they are thinking of him as he is a college star that is here for rehab.
It was just five o'clock at night and Draco was off from work, he needed the time with his catcher for the test he is given, he wanted to get focused for that test, that sacred spot on the rotation means a lot for him as in now, but as he gotten to the big pitcher as he researched, he was more into getting into the major leagues than anything else, he is willing to wait it out.
"Blimey, are we done yet I feel ready to start, we don't have much time you know." Draco said.
"Look, we have all night, all thanks to the helpful people at Drystone Pitching, which my father owns. So just stay calm and keep cool, and when I think about it, I think you're ready for the task so let's get started…"
Bill went to his catcher stance and had put the mask on.
"All right, give me your best shot." Bill yelled out.
"Are you sure about that?" Draco yelled back.
"Come on man, how bad can it be?"
All Draco could do was smirk.
"All right what you want me to give you?"
"Hmm," Bill thought for a sec. "How about you give me a classic 4-seamer for starters? Right down in the middle…"
"Sure, mate" and that smirk felt like he wanted to surprise him.
And so his pinpoint focus was right in the middle. Not just the plate, he wanted the front of the ball right in the middle of the catcher's mitt…He wanted to show how much talent these former quidditch arms have.
He picks his leg up, and as soon as he does it he kicks out, plants his feet and by the other time he has it on the other side, the ball is released…
"How bad can it b-"Bill thought before ball hits glove. His eyes widens, the racking, crippling feeling in his hands breaks through to his soul…
Yeah, he was surprised.
And Draco well, lets say he wasn't…
Totem baseball field today…
As he looks back at that night he felt that he made his friend Bill, a believer. For the rest of the night he stays up talking about how to fool hitters and their coaches and to be bold and not afraid of their pitches, he knew how the guys hit on that lineup, so he gave him where were the hot and cold zones on each hitter…
"So, Drake" said Bill as he sat by him. "You ready man? I mean this is it; this is for the final spot in the starting rotation, which a lot of people say it's the best in League… so prove yourself to this staff, you prove yourself to the league."
All Draco said was "That's what I'm hoping."
"Jefferies, Timothy, you're up first." Said an assistant…
Let the games begin…