Anyway he wrote a pretty nice piece of survival/baseball fiction which was clearly wish fulfillment. Already in the story we meet Michael, a tall 10 year old, who has had to rescue his parents after they are hurt in a tornado. Upon taking him to the hospital he learns they must have $100,000 in surgery, but never fear, the reason they were in the car was to drive to a baseball tournament with a $100,000 prize. Below is the writeup of the baseball scenes
The day of the games begins. Michael is very nervous; he has to win for his parents. In the first inning when he came up to bat, he let the first pitch go by to see how fast the pitcher was throwing. Michael hit a double off of the second pitch. There were two outs and Michael was on third. Ben came up to bat and hit a single to right field, which drove in Michael to home. The next half inning, Michael pitched a 1,2,3 inning. In the fourth inning, Michael came up to bat and hit a homerun. The game was now 3-1 in favor of the Helena Turtles. The Turtles went on to win the game, 5-4. Michael hit a triple, a double and a homerun. In the second game of that day, they played the New York Jets. The Turtles won, 6-2. Two games, two to win. Micahel really wanted to win the tournament to save his parents. The TUrtles won 11-5 in the Saturday game. SUnday came and it was the championship game. The Turles were playing the Seattle Blue jays.
In the first inning, Micahel hit let off and hit a single. He evntually scored that run. He pitched two innings of 1,2,3. In the bottom of the 6th, Michael was up to bat with two outs. They were losing by three runs. The first pitch was a ball. The second pitch Micahel fouled off. The third and fourth pitches were balls. The fifth pitch was a strike. Then it was the sixth pitch. The pitcher went into the windup, and threw the ball. Michael swung. In that moment, all Michael was think about was saving his parents. The ball made contact with the bat and Michael closed his eyes. Smack!!!! Michael had just hit the championship winning grand slam!! The crowd was going wild as Michael ran home. The turtles had just won $100,000 and the coach and the team decided to give all of the money to Michael so he could pay for the operations his parents needed
A little after I read this piece, Ethan comes on in. He tells me that he and his dad were out practicing squaring up to the ball and long throws. We joke for a minute or two and then he goes off to use the internet. Maybe 10-15 minutes later dad comes strolling in. He calls Ethan over and I mention how I heard they were practicing.
At this point Dad just goes OFF on Ethan. "I told him after Tuesday night that if I ever saw him play like that again I would just quietly pull him from the game. He was so unfocused. Throwing dirt around and not paying attention." Later on in the rant "His fielding was just terrible. I'll tell you one thing Coaches don't do in this league. I'll tell you that Coaches don't teach the kids to square up to the ball." Talked about how Ethan was just "lazy". How "coaches don't teach the kids that baseball is a running game" and they need to run. Later on he said again that if Ethan was not going to "contribute" to the team he would just quietly pull him from the game. When he took a breath, after ranting for a good couple of minutes (and it always seems longer when you're listening) I finally was able to get a word in edgewise. Considering my two choices of who to defend, myself or Ethan, I decided to go with Ethan and said "Steve and I both feel Ethan is a contributor to the team". This seemed to take some of the wind out of his sails, but he did go on for maybe 30 seconds more. The whole time his father is doing this rant, Ethan is just standing there uncomfortable with this painful smiling grimace on his face.
After Ethan and his father leave, with Ethan saying, in a very upbeat manner "I'll see you Tuesday" the librarian I was working with just went off on his dad. She talked about how he's missing the whole point of playing. How the kid is 12 years old so of course his mind is going to wonder. How it's supposed to be about fun and the kid is never going to be a major league player so he should just lighten up.
As for me? Well it made me mad. After the incident with Jim's dad I was upset, but not really at him, but at Libby. This made me mad. The way he went off on his son, right in front of him and another adult is completely unacceptable. Threatening to pull him from the game is completely unacceptable. Implying that Steve and I are not teaching these kids who to square around to a ball? Completely unacceptable. But the worse part of it was is that Steve and I PREACH the need to run to the ball. To get there quickly so you have time to setup. And if this asshole would attend more then an inning or two of our games he'd hear that. Even typing this now my blood is rising, I am still upset about the whole thing. I haven't talked to Steve about this yet, and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to convey how completely unacceptable what his father was saying was with Ethan standing right there.
The funny thing about all of this? Ethan was throwing dirt, but he was more aware of the game then he normally was. Steve and I both commented on it. I think that perhaps we'll put together a "curriculum" of what we've done with these kids. I've written cirriculums before so I can make them fancy and impressive and so perhaps that's the way to go. I'm not sure really what I think the next step is here, beyond saying something, though what I don't know, to Ethan on Tuesday.
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