Despite All Obstacles Part V

Baseball

Saturday, August 19th, 2006. That afternoon.

It was the final game, leading the Bald Eagles to the championship for the baseball league, running with fifteen players going to grades three to six. Straight out of Compton from South Bay, they ride the coach bus to San Gabriel Valley to West Pasadena, passing Hollywood.

The Compton Bald Eagles felt a sense of culture shock once they drove away South Bay. They felt out of place. They felt lost. They felt too "urban" in suburbia.

They entered the championship with the last league standing, the Pasadena Hawks. The Bald Eagles were ready to murder them. They were undefeatable, rough, tough, hardcore, and full of adrenaline rush. They beat other elementary teams in L.A., all around for years. They felt like little confident scouts.

After the game started, the Bald Eagles made homeruns, made no foul balls, no strikes, and no balls. They were on the roll. Yet, the Hawks had three little confident scouts themselves.

The two of the three Hawks looked weird if anyone would take a closer look at them. The last of the three had been a Hawk since last summer, making that the second year.

While the Bald Eagles were winning themselves, those three Hawks were responsible for making the home team win against their opposing guests from Compton for the first time.

Those three special Hawks made the play-offs with the undefeatable Hawks, making the Bald Eagles determined to eat them alive, making the coach warn them about sportsmanship and appropriate behavior and losing profanity.

One of the Bald Eagles also chose to listen, despite his instincts, to make his coach shove it. He was the best one, going to the fifth grade for the next academic year, his third summer to play the elementary league for Compton.

His fiery instincts made him a skillful player that made him captain, which the others (especially the coach) feared and respected at the same time. He was responsible for the league's mean streak of winning their championships, three summers in the row at the time period.

He stood with his bat in front of the catcher. He gave the pitcher the death glare, which backfired as the pitcher threw the ball in real force, which he swung less than 200 feet, where a biracial Hawks outfielder ran and caught the rolling ball.

"Foul ball!" the umpire shouted.

He couldn't believe it. He had been using the death glare to win before. The weird-looking brunette kid was reading him, which made him scowl at the kid, and the kid across him continued his determined stare with apathy for him.

The outfielder threw the ball back to the catcher behind him, who was the weird-looking blonde kid squatting beside the umpire. The catcher threw it to the pitcher, the catcher's brother.

He remained his scowl at the pitcher. The pitcher threw the ball the same way, he hit the ball the same way, the ball hit the grass and rolled on as the same outfielder caught the ball again, and the outfielder threw the ball back.

"Foul ball!"

This continued on until the audience had enough, and the teams were cracking up, laughing about the whole thing. That happened three more tries. He felt so determined to destroy the pitcher, but the umpire wouldn't allow anymore, which made the audience laugh in uproar, that most even filmed the whole thing.

The Hawks won by 12-11. The Hawks cheered and ran to each other, hopping like boys.

"ONE, TWO, THREE, HAWKS! HAWK! HAWK! HAWK!" The Pasadena Hawks chanted.

He could not believe that he lost his first game to those new players. He watched the trio choose not the move as the rest walked back to the coach.

"We beat that fool for real! I saw he was trying you with those evil stares, Matt!" the biracial outfielder, who was catching the rolling ball, taunted him.

"Right, I saw. He was trying to scare me to distract me from winning. I would not allow it. I wanted us to win," the pitcher said about him, "I think he did this before to win. Now, he feels defeated for the first time." This made him think the pitcher was a genius for figuring him out, since he never played against him before.

The three laughed really hard about it. "And he wanted to do it again! Man, that was hilarious," the outfielder joked about him.

"He better scare someone else to win his next one, because we'll get him next year too," the catcher joined in the taunting.

"He reminds me of Patricia from school. The boy version. She is always scowling," the pitcher said, making them three cracked up even more, holding onto their ribs.

He waited until the "so hilarious" trio, who won their game, rejoined their team, for him to walk away from the scene. He was actually amused by the taunts about him.

"Jeepers for the winning Hawks!" the proactive Hawks coach happily shouted. They all cheered and ran to the locker room to shower for Jeepers.

He rejoined his conflicted team. He was then amused, no longer felt defeated by the three Hawks, with his hands inside his khakis.

"Dude, what the hell happened out there?!" an African American teammate angrily asked him, which did not faze him at all. He was also the only white kid in his team, filled with black and brown teammates from Compton.

"Yeah, we got creamed by those three, that it was funny and embarrassing at the same time," a Latino teammate said with a smirk. They all surrounded him and patted him on the back.

The coach joined his players crowding him. "You did great, Josh. We'll get them next year." He might not believe that but was still determined to win the next year.

He turned around from his team and watched the trio enjoy their victory with the rest of the Hawks as the Hawks all ran to their own coach bus with their bags. He watched with a predatory stare.

Saturday, August 18th, 2007. That afternoon.

Once again, at Compton, the same thing happened as last year, except the pitcher and catcher switched places.

11-12 that time, but as the home team.

Because he was heading to middle school, that had to be his last year for the league, against the three upcoming fifth-grade Hawks, who won again, despite the sense of culture shock.

He thought about trapping them in secluded places where no one could find them, beating them physically to a pulp, getting them sick, framing them, or cheat on that year's championship.

He knew they'll eventually catch him in the act, especially the weird-looking brunette one. He forced himself to stay civil to avoid consequences, since he enjoys playing baseball.

Since he lost to those three Hawks from Pasadena, in their hometown, and his hometown, he started to remember the three players' positions, numbers, and names. As the three Hawks voluntarily forgot about him.