Game Two

We play a game every Sunday and this is the last one before the Christmas break. Here baseball is a year round sport because the climate is perfect. Cuernavaca is known as "the city of eternal spring." Things will pick up again after New Years, giving me time to get back into shape.

Today's game is against the Leones (Lions) and our manager is giving me the ball again to start the game. I have decided to throw all fastballs. I have a lot of movement on my fastball and I decided after last week's game to just challenge the hitters and put the ball over the plate. I have a pretty good defense and I think I overthrew a bit last week. It would be good not to hit anyone.

The same heckler is here again "Gringo, Go to you House!" Snap! Got me again. A few other heckles surface that quite frankly I couldn't decipher. It definitely wasn't English or Spanish. One player on our team is particularly proficient at heckling back. The Cocodrilo (the Crocodile) has no fear about confronting spectators, other teamates or opposing players, and umpires. He takes up my cause, relating how I am going "smoke" everyone today. Don't brag too much, I tell him.

I give up a run in the first and in the second inning but no one really hits me hard. I struck out quite a few batters. No one would have scored if it hadn't been for a few silly mistakes on my part by trying to pick off a runner on first and a wild pitch with a guy on 3rd. In the 3rd inning we jump out quickly with 5 runs and then add 7 more over the next two innings. I start feeling a bit more confident and take out what is left of the "A game" velocity. I throw a bit harder and then tossed in one curve just for fun and struck out a batter. After a really long rally on our part, I tell the coach that I should probably bow out at this point as I have stiffened up. A left-handed pitcher called "Cafe" or "Coffee" comes in and shuts down the Leones. When he strikes out batters, Cocodrilo chimes in "your coffee has been served, guey!" Showing the Mexican sense of humor, he is called Cafe because his is much darker than everyone else. Mexicans love joking about race and skin color. As we pour it on to the tune of 12-2, darkness falls in the 6th inning and the game is called.

Win number one for "The Rookie!" I even got a 2 RBI double which is now costing me dearly as I actually had to run around the bases as well as slide. Could someone unchain the plow attached to my back? I will be paying for this tomorrow. Thank God for extra strength naproxin.