Just One More Batter

The most exciting baseball game that Rick Cooper could remember wasn't played by professionals. It wasn't played in a big stadium and watched by thousands of fans. The best game ever was the 1996 11-12-year-old Burnside Rec Council championship. In Rick's young mind, his route to the MLB went right through this tournament.

The game had everything. There were amazing plays by Rick's teammates, and lucky plays by the opposing players. A comedian of an umpire whose main goal seemed to be getting home to eat his dinner. There were long time outs caused by 3 or 4 injuries and one stray cat. Most memorable of all though was when Rick's best friend, John, a player who didn't have one single base hit the entire season, became the team hero. Twice. Rick is confident of victory until the 3rd inning when he gives up a grand slam homerun, crushing his visions of the first-place trophy and a future in baseball. Things slowly improve as his team makes a one run at a time comeback, finally bringing the score to a tie with one inning to go. As the last inning approached, along with Rick's turn at the plate and his chance at redemption, the umpire yelled the unthinkable, "That's it for tonight, boys!" The game wouldn't be won or lost that night. Trophies wouldn't be handed out. And Rick wouldn't know for a full 24 hours whether he could save the day.