My Crazy Baseball Tryouts

Tobias 1153 April 16th, 2046

Sora tosses the ball at Sara, but for some reason, she puts her arms up to try and block it. I reach out and catch it easily. Why would she react like that? She caught plenty of balls coming a lot faster than that. I turn to her and see she’s become beet red. Was she really that nervous about the ball? “Are you ok?” I ask. She pauses for a moment as if frozen. “I’m uhh… I’m fine,” she finally stammers out. That can’t be true. You’re acting weird. “Are you sure?” I ask a bit more pressing now. “You uhh… My- My makeup is messed up now, so I have to go fix it,” she says as she grabs her bag and rushes out of the room. When did she start caring so much about her make-up? I think before Sora walks up next to me. “I didn’t throw it that hard, did I?” He asks.

“No, I don’t think so,” I respond. “She’s been acting weird all day. When did she start caring so much about her make-up?” I ask.

“I didn’t even know she wore make-up,” he responds.

“Hrm...weird...” I pause for a moment.

“So, baseball?” Sora says, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, definitely,” I say.

We make our way out to the courtyard, which is now crawling with club stands and freshmen going from one stand to another. Again the variety of languages I can hear is astounding. A mix of Japanese, English, French, and so many more that I can’t understand. Sora and I weave our way through the crowd before making it to the baseball field. There we see a fit tan man, who I presume to be the coach, having the students group up. We join the group and listen. “Ok, those who are trying out for pitching split off to my right, your left. Batters go to my left, your right. Catchers and field men stand fast.” he says in a booming voice. Sora and I split off as I head with the two others trying out as pitchers. We’re greeted by a tan boy wearing the school baseball uniform. Again the design is simple with a plain white shirt and pants with thin black lines going down. I look on his right and see a flag I don’t know. I have to learn my flags better, I think. He looks the other two boys and me over before speaking. “¿Alguno de ustedes habla español?” the other two look shocks and confused, and so do I for a moment before saying back.

“Un poco de mi abuela”. He looks at me and then to my right side.

“Of course, the American would speak Spanish. I’m not so great at Japanese yet, so would you mind translating?” he asks.

“I’ll do my best, but I’m not that great.”

“Ahh, you’ll be fine. A lot of people on the team are from the Caribbean, so you speaking it at all will be good” As he says this, we notice the other two students looking more confused now than before. “Should probably start translating for them before their faces stay like that,” he laughs before walking off. I explain I’ll be translating, and we follow him. He introduces himself as Pablo Ferrant but says to just call him Pablo. No need for honorifics. He thinks it’s weird. He’s the current pitcher, but he isn’t that great, so the coach is hoping for someone to be the new ace. He takes us to the mound where the batter and catcher are already set up. He grabs a few balls and says for us to give it a shot. He says to have the other two go first because he wants to talk to me for a bit. He asks about my family history, and I explain the story of my Abuela coming from Mexico with her family as a little girl, meeting my pépé in college before they moved up to Michigan to live on an orchard one of their uncles owned as well as I can, but I don’t know the whole story. He says he has some family in the US and that he enjoyed visiting them then in Florida and asks if I’ve ever been. “No, I’ve never been outside of Japan.”

“What? You’ve never been to the US? How can you call yourself an American if you’ve never been there- oh, it’s your turn.”

I turn and take the mound. I get in position and launch the three balls I was given. I steady myself and am just about to launch the ball when I hear a scream from the stands. “THAT’S MY BOY TAKE EM OUT!” The call scatters my focus, and the batter hits it easily. I look and see my father still in his suit and ten-gallon hat, cheering like a lunatic. I can suddenly feel every eye in the diamond looking right at me.

“That your father?” Pablo asks, “You didn’t say he was from Texas.”

“He’s not. He just wears that to make sure everyone knows he’s American. It’s embarrassing the length he’ll go to fulfill every stereotype at once.”I say back, “And he has to include me in everything too I don’t understand” I take my position back and try my best to ignore all the eyes. Still, I can’t focus and throw a foul ball second.

“Come on, son; you can throw better than that. I know I taught you,” he again calls out.

“I’m surprised he comes. The event is open to parents, but most don’t come. Since they’re so busy.” Pablo says

“I wish he didn’t,” I say

“I wish my parents would’ve made time to see my tryouts.” I take a deep breath and clear my head. I focus hard on the ball and go into my pitch. I launch it and see it fly. He’s gonna hit it, I think.

But then a voice booms out. “STRIKE” it’s so loud the batter loses focus, and it flies right past him. I look over and see my father smiling smugly. He throws a thumbs up and makes his way out of the stands. Pablo pats my back. “Glad he came now?” he asks. “All of them would’ve been strikes if he hadn't distracted me.” I say back.” Suuure,” he says. “Well, let’s go see which of you the coach and captain wants.”

The three of us go up to the batter and catcher along with the coach. “Well, what do you boys think?” the coach asks. The batter speaks,” Well, the first two were decent, but the third was the only one to get a strike. He’s got more power than Pablo, but the first is a switch, so we could use either of them.” says the batter.

“I definitely felt that on the last one especially, he could be a good power pitcher.” says the catcher

“He speaks Spanish too, so that would be a help,” says Pablo

“You speak Spanish?” asks the coach

“Si, pero no bein mucho” I say

“Well, captain, it’s up to you. Which one do you want to be our pitcher?” asks the coach.

“Hrm… I’ll take the Yankee and the first pitcher.” says the catcher before putting his mask back on and heading out for the batting tryouts. I sit and watch with an Australian kid already on the team. He also asks me about a state, this time New Mexico. I have no idea where that is, but I manage to stall until the rest of the tryouts are finished, and the applicants are grouped.

Sora 1213 April 16th, 2046

Tobias heads off with two others to try their hands at pitching. I stayed with the main group. And watch as Tobias and the other two pitch. I see Uncle Sam in the stands and think how nice it must be to have your parent so excited about what you do. Tobias is the only one to get a strike, so I’m sure he’ll be chosen, meaning I just have to hit a good home run. About a dozen guys were trying out with me. I went 4th and managed to hit a double and then steal a base, so I’m confident I made the team. The captain, who is actually the catcher, I’d have never guessed that, gathers us all up with the coach. They say we all did well, but they only have so many slots available, so they can’t take everyone yada yada. Both Tobias and I were picked. Tobias’ name was called first, then mine. We celebrated and cheered. We were taken to the rest of the team to do introductions. It seemed like a lot were from the Caribbean; most people spoke Spanish. Luckily Tobias spoke it well enough to translate for me. We did a few introductions, and the coach told us practice would begin next week.

We both left with smiles on our faces. “Can’t wait to tell my dad I made the team,” I say

“Was there ever any doubt that we’d make it?” He says back

“Nah, but now what should we do?”

“Go home, I’d think, ah wait; we need to find Sara, don’t we?”

“Oh yeah, we should grab her. Our dads would get pretty miffed if they knew we left her to walk home alone. What club was she going to join?”

“Your own sister and you have no idea what club she’d pick? Forshame,” he says tauntingly.

“Oh yeah, then, smart guy? Then where is she? The Astronomy club?”

“Yeah, that would be my first guess. She likes stars.”

“Oh,” I say rather meekly. I know I’ve lost this one.

We head over to the club stands and make our way through quickly enough. We look for a while before seeing the astronomy club banner, and lo and behold. There’s Sara holding hands with a blond girl. “Hey, sis!” I call as we walk up. Both turn and the girl’s bright blue eyes perk up. “You Sara-sans brothers? You also join Temgakutt club?” she says in horrible broken Japanese.

“Uhhhh.” We both stare at her for a moment before the boy sitting at the stand speaks up.

“Forgive her, her Japanese isn’t very good, and she gets overexcited,” he says

“Ah, sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to be so forceful,” she says, bowing politely. “Where are my manners? I’m Alice Paul, president of the astronomy club.”She gestures to the boy sitting at the stand. “That is the vice-president Murakami Genjo.” He waves as she introduces him. Sara steps up to introduce us.

“This is my twin Sora and our childhood friend Tobias,” she says. “They’ve probably just come from trying out at the baseball team, so I don’t think they’ll be looking to join the club. Unless they washed out, that is,” she says with a smug grin.

“I’ll have you know that I personally hit a double and stole a base. And Tobias here was the only one at pitching to throw a strike,” I say, patting him on the back. It’s at this point that Alice-san looks down at Tobias’ flag and gets a bit giddy. “Oh, Tobias-kun, you are American?”

“Yes,” he responds

“Yay,” she cheers before switching to English. I only catch every other word but can get the gist. He doesn’t look like what she thought an American would. She thinks he’s cute. She asks what part of the midwest he’s from, She’s very much shocked when he says he’s lived in Japan his whole life, and she wonders if he’d be interested in coming to thanksgiving. Not sure how much of that I got right, but it makes enough sense to me. The vice-president asks when she plans to switch back to Japanese saying. “I can’t help you get better if you don’t speak it.”

“I know. I was just so excited to meet an American. I do hope that even if you don’t join the club, you’d be willing to stop by once in a while for star gazing Tobias-kun.”

“Sure, Have Sara tell me, and I’ll see if I can stop by,” he says. Alice-san does a little cheer. She thanks us for stopping by, and we take our leave.

Tobias 1309 April 16th, 2046

The three of us head back home. Sora and Sara were talking about something I wasn’t interested in, so I mostly just thought about Alice-san. She and so many others thought the world of me because of the flag on my right. They all asked about the US, but nobody asked about the same part. Pablo asked about Florida, Alice-san about the Midwest, Cook-kun about New Mexico. Are they all really talking about the same country?

My thoughts continue to scramble until I hear Sora. “Earth to Tobias, are you there?”

“Huh, what?” I ask

“Were you listening? I asked if you wanted to come to hang out for a while?” I look around and realize that we’re standing at our houses.

“Ahh, no, not tonight. Dad said he wanted to hear all about the first day, so I have to go do that.”

“Oh ok then see you tomorrow then,” he says as he and Sara-chan walk to their door. I turn and enter my home to find that I’m the first one there. I change out of my uniform and into jeans and a T-shirt before starting my chores. I’m about halfway through sweeping when the rest of the family gets home. My father, carrying Yuukie on his shoulders with drops of her melted ice cream in his hair. “Ok, Yellow rose, go finish your ice cream at the table” he sets her down, as mother removes her headscarf and takes Yukie into the kitchen once she takes her headscarf off, leaving just me and father in the hall. “Have a good day?” He asks as he takes off his shoes.

“Good enough,” I respond. “I made pitcher.”

“Ahh, knew you would. What about Sora? Did he make the team?”

“Yeah, he made it.”

“Anything else exciting happens? Meet any cute girls?”

“Sora seemed to think so, oh but this Canadian girl from the Astronomy club Sara joined, Alice Paul, invited us to Thanksgiving.”

“Oh, that’s nice, but they celebrate it in October, so we may have it twice,” he says, laughing a bit.

“They do? Then why do we celebrate it in November?”

“Because they do things differently. You know how I say Aussies are British in body but are Texans at heart? Well, Canada is like New Englanders. For the most part.”

“Funny you say that there’s actually an Australian on the team.”

“Oh, is there? I knew an Aussi once. Great guy, did I tell you the story-” he says, telling me a story. One story leads to another, and then he realizes I don’t know the map of the US as well as I should, so he hands me a map and begins to quiz me on them till dinner’s ready. I enjoy mom's cooking, but she has this weird habit of cooking Japanese food when she really isn’t very good at it. Dad insists that we have Japanese food at least three times a week to “keep ourselves immersed in the culture.” I don’t see how that pertains to Yukie and me because we’ve never known any land besides Japan.

The rest of the night goes by like any other. Dad plays with Yuukie for a bit after Mom and her clean up after dinner while I go to my room and read the latest issue of Kodansha. All quiet when I take my bath and head to bed. I stay up for a while thinking about how I’ll manage without Sora and Sara. I’ve never been in a class without them, and now I have almost a whole day separated without them. We always say we don’t need each other but truth to be told, I’d be lost without them. My mind wanders before falling asleep later than I should.