Summer Swing (15 page)

Tyse’s pitching continued on into the sixth inning, and only two batters had actually made contact with
a pitch. By the seventh inning everyone was yelling “No hit! No hit!” and I had to ask the
man
nearest to me why they were yelling that.

“A ‘No Hitter’,” he told me. “If a pitcher pitches an entire game without giving up a hit to the opposing team he earns a ‘No Hitter.’ It’s a pretty big deal.”

“But two players already hit the ball,” I replied stupidly.

“But it wasn’t a
hit
. If the fielders get the batter out, it’s not counted as a hit. The batter has to get on base and then it’s considered to be a hit. So if Tyse Morgan can get the next seven batters out, then he’s earned himself a ‘No Hitter’ for the game.”

“Oh.”

Yeah, I was pretty clueless when it came to baseball. I couldn’t believe that my brother had played for so many years and I still didn’t know much. I went to a lot of his games and cheered for him like the rest of my family, but I never took the time to really learn the game. I knew a lot of the lingo and the general aspects of the game, but the little things—like when players bunt and why—weren’t things that I really understood.

When there were two outs in the top of the seventh, the
Bears’
coach made a trip to the mound to talk to Tyse. I was surprised when everyone on our side of the stands began booing and getting all riled up.

“What’s going on?” I asked the guy next to me. I hoped he wasn’t getting sick of me.

“Oh, everyone just wants to make sure Coach Baxter leaves Tyse in the game.”

“Is he out there to take him out of it?”

“
Maybe, but
he’s
probably
just checking to make sure he’s feeling all right. You know, checking to see how his arm is holding up. If a pitcher is on his way to a No Hitter a coach usually won’t take him out unless his arm needs a break. That’s w
hat he’s asking him right now; h
ow his arm feels to keep going.”

“Oh.”

I returned my eyes to the field just as the crowd began cheering and the coach was walking back to the dugout. It appea
red that Tyse was there to stay
and he struck out the next batter in
four
pitches, keeping the game at 4-0.

I’d never been to a
Bears
game where the crowd was so explosive. Generally it was pretty quiet, and there would be cheers when someone did something good, but tonight was a different story. Maybe it was because we were
winning
for once!

But there sure was a lot of grumbling going on when the top of the eighth began. Tyse wasn’t on the mound, and I heard the people around me bickering about why in the world the coach wouldn’t let him keep playing.

“I’m
not sure it was really
the coach’s choice,” the guy next to me offered voluntarily. “
The kid’s
arm might have been getting pretty tired and he just wanted to finish that last batter in the seventh. It’s his first
real
game after recovering from a broken hand, so I’m sure he might not have been ready to continue on. It might not have been safe to even play him for
that
long if
he’s not used to the workload. But I’m sure he’s been putting the time in at practice, though
. I don’t know,
” he shrugged.

I nodded like I knew what he was talking about. But I had to agree that Tyse’s arm was probably getting tired or sore. Or maybe his hand was hurting him or something. I knew that
Gage
usually only pitched about six innings, and then the relief pitchers came in. He often said that he could pitch longer, but that wasn’t up to him
some
of the time.

I kind of felt bad that Gage did so well on the mound too, but hadn’t really received any run support in the past. When Gage pitched it usually came down to a pitchers’ duel (Gage’s words, not mine) and the score of the game
was pretty low, like 1-0
. I kind of got excited that the guys were finally starting to hit the ball, and I hoped that they could help Gage win a game for once.

Relief pitching for that night wasn’t perfect, and the other team ended up scoring two runs, but we still won, and I was excited for Gage and his team.
I met him on the field when he motioned me down, and after talking to him for a couple of minutes
,
he gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye. He hadn’t pitched that game, so he was heading for the bullpen to rake the dirt.

I saw Tyse and I really wanted to congratulate him for such a good game, but he seemed to have people around him doing the same. I was happy that
others
were finally starting to interact with him, and I hoped that it would be a good thing. Before I left I asked Gage to pass along my congrats for me, and even though I wasn’t expecting him to get upset over it or anything,
I was surprised when
he
only shrugged and said, “Sure.”

Gage pitched on Friday night, and I traveled down to Corvallis to see the game. Dawn even came with me, and I was really glad to have her company. Wyatt was apparently up in Seattle again for another Mariners series.

If I could have predicted the future, I wouldn’t have gone to the game at all. But life would be a little too perfect if we could predict the future, right?

The problem was the opposing team’s fans. They kept yelling things over to a group of our fans, and then those guys
would
yell things back. I don’t know if they all knew each ot
her and were already enemies, or
if someth
ing had occurred before the game
, but the game almost became more about what the fans were doing than what the players were actually doing.

Gage did great anyway, and for that I was glad, and when he sat in the dugout at the end of the seventh, we were ahead 2-1. By then two of the fans had even been kicked out of the game for shouting profanities at each other. I couldn’t decide if I felt like we were at a high school game versus our bitter rivals, or a major league game amongst die-hard fans that were drunk. It was a toss up.

I was thankful when the game was over and we were able to leave with a 3-1 victory. Dawn and I met Gage near his dugout to talk to him before he headed home on the bus, and that’s when some of those obnoxious fans ended up getting into it again. From a distance it wasn’t so bad, and a near brawl was broken up before things got too bad.

But when
my sister
and I were
walking across
the parking lot a few minutes later, an actual
fight really did break out. Dawn
and I were about
thirty
feet from Gage’s team bus when two guys pretty much threw each other against my car. The only thing I could do was
jump
out of the way, but while other coaches and players that were nearby tried to brea
k up the fight, I somehow got an unopened
can of beer thrown at me
, and it hit my right hand
straight
on. I saw who did it too, and he flipped me the middle finger right after it happened. I had no idea who he even was, but I knew he’d just broken my hand.

Someone else saw who did it too, and Tyse was right there
in his face
. At the same time the two guys that had been fighting at my car were dragged away from each other, and lights and sirens arrived on the scene to break up most of the crowd.

“Oh, Ellie,
holy crap
,” Dawn exclaimed, looking over my hand. “That
jerk!
” she growled.

“Ellie, are you okay?” Gage said, coming to my a
id.

“I think my hand is broken,” was all I said.

“I’m going to get some ice and we can take you to the ER,” Dawn said, and she disappeared.

“What the hell happened?” Gage asked me.

“Uh, some guy
pitched
that at me,” I said, motioning to the can that had rolled to the car next to mine and stopped behind the tire. “Or maybe he was throwing it at someone else…”

Gage seemed to follow my gaze across the aisle of the parking lot where Tyse was looking pretty upset with the guy he was talking to. “That guy?” Gage asked me, just as the guy shoved Tyse in the chest and said something pretty vulgar to him.

“Oh gosh,” I said, right when Tyse pulled back and
plowed
his fist into his face
. The guy went down to the ground
,
but it provoked an
other onset of wannabe brawlers
and another fight ensued.

Gage
made a move toward the scuffle but I grabbed his arm. “Gage, no.”

“Someone’s
gonna
get arrested if it continues,” was all he said, and then he left me standing there.

The police really did intercede, but by then friends had
already
stepped in and separated everyone. All I could do was groan when one officer took Tyse by the arm and led him away from the group.

“Here,” Dawn said, arriving with the ice. She had it wrapped with a
paper
towel and immediately put it on my hand. “Come on, let’s get you taken care of.”

“No, I need to see what’s going to happen,” I said.

“What do you mean?” She looked across the
parking
aisle and took everything in for a few seconds. “Oh man, is someone getting
arrested
?”

Gage had just been talking to the officer that had taken Tyse aside, and a few other people were being questioned to
o
. I knew I would be next when several different fingers pointed my way, and sure enough, the officer that had been talking to Tyse came
over to us
.

“What’s your name?” he asked me.

“Ellie Abbott.”

“Can you tell me what happened?” He glanced down at my hand and added, “Are you okay?”

“Her hand is broken,” my sister told him
angrily
. “She needs to go to the emergency room.”

Another officer joined the first and they both took a quick look at it.

“How did that happen?” the second officer asked.

“That guy threw a solid
can
of beer
across the parking lot and it hit my hand.” After I’d pointed to the moron
rubbing his
face
,
I motioned to the can that was still lying on the ground.

The first officer picked it up and held onto it.

“And then what happened?”

“Well we were trying to move away from the two guys that were fighting
. Those two right there,” I pointed.

“So how did that guy get involved?” he asked, pointing to Tyse.

I was kind of scared to tell the account because I didn’t want Tyse to get in trouble. But I had no choice when
the second officer asked, “He
deck
ed
the guy that threw the can?”

“He went over there to talk to him, and then
the
guy ended up shoving him in the chest and told
him some pretty offensive things.”

Gage came up to me just then and completely ignored the officers that were speaking to me. “How’s your hand? You need to get it taken care of, Ellie.”

“Who is she to you?” the first officer asked Gage.

He looked at them and said, “She’s my girlfriend. Look, we were just trying to get to our bus. The girls were about to get in their car when the fight started, and we were
only
trying to keep everyone else from getting in on it
.
We just got caught in the middle of it.”

The one officer nodded, but the other one didn’t look convinced. However, they decid
ed to return to the other
officers that were present
and seemed to deliberate for a few minutes. I felt bad for Tyse because he was just standing with one of the officers by himself. Gage must have read my mind because he said, “Leave him alone, Ell
i
e. It’s better if you don’t go over there to talk to him.”

“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked. “I mean does it look worse for him because…” I glanced at my sister because I didn’t want her to know that Tyse already had a record. But Gage knew what I meant and I didn’t have to finish the sentence.

“I don’t
think so
,” he replied. “I guess it just depends
on how all of this is handled, but
it just looks like everyone might be
sent on their way.”

One of the officers returned to me and, motioning to the guy that had thrown the beer, said, “Do you want to press charges? He says he wasn’t meaning to hi
t you.
”