1st Base|| The Sandlot

one

With only two more weeks of school left, we have all been preparing for the rather intense California weather that we need to play in this summer. Stocking up on soda and trying to fix up the overhang to sit under at the Sandlot. It kinda sucks having to wear jeans and high tops in 100° heat.

"Mom?" I called poking my head out of my doorway.

"Yes Blair," she replied from the kitchen.

"I'm gonna go play ball is that alright?" I asked. At this point, I don't even know why I bother to ask. She always says yes, I think she's just happy I'm not into drinking with all the stoners. It is 1962 after all, those are quite common these days.

"Yeah that's fine, just be back by dinner, okay?"

"Yep, no problem," I replied pulling on my old PF flyers from the 7th grade, as well as grabbing my glove off the table.

I was one foot out the door before my mom called my name, "Wait! Blair."

I turned around, "Yeah?''

She came to the door with my LA Dodgers hat in hand, "You almost forgot this."

I laughed, throwing the hat on backwards and shooting her a 'thank you' before running out the door and to the Sandlot.

When I was in the 5th grade, I met Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez. Who ended up becoming my one and only best friend until this day. He's the one who thought it'd be a great idea to teach me to play. At the time, I was dead set on hating the sport but I them decided that wearing dresses and playing with dolls wasn't the most entertaining hobby for me.

We soon started to meet all the other boys in the neighborhood, they were all 1-2 years younger than the both of us but as long as they liked ball, nobody really cared. Of course, some moved away and others have moved in. Currently, we have myself, Benny, Squints, Ham, Yeah-Yeah, Tommy, Timmy, Kenny and Bertram.

As I entered the Sandlot I heard a course of "Finallys" and "there she is" from everyone.

"We've been waiting here forever Blair where have you been?" Benny asked standing up from the bench.

"Yeah-Yeah, we've been here for at least an hour!" Yeah-Yeah agreed.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm 20 minutes late not an hour Yeah-Yeah, and I was asleep thank you very much."

"Whatever she's here now isn't she? Let's play some ball!" Kenny yelled charging out to the field with everyone following behind.

"Blair, youre up to bat," Benny said tossing me a bat before walking out to the field.

"PLAY BALL!" Ham yelled from the pitcher's mount.

The only thing that goes through my head during a game is to 'keep an eye on the ball'.

Swinging the bat, the ball goes flying and I start running to hit all the bases I could.

"Mercer hits it! She's runnin' first! Second! Third! AND SHE MAKES IT HOME!" I tell throwing my arms up as I step on home.

"Blair really?!" Bertram asked from the outfield.

"Yeah, yeah now we can't play no more! It's only 3:30!" You can guess who said that. The school day just ended at 2:00 earlier today.

"Oh boo-whoo, it's hotter than hell out here anyways," I replied rolling my eyes. Turns out I hit the ball over the fence, into the Beast's backyard and there is no way that ball is coming out.

They all groaned just before Squint's spoke up, "wait! I hid an extra ball in the cooler."

Everyone started yelling at em' to go grab it, and Squints being the team player he is, he walked extra slow just for our benefit.

They quickly got irritated with squints walking at six inches an hour and started throwing their gloves at em' as well as shooting a course of "Come on!" and "Hurry up!"

"Alright! Alright!" Squints said taking a jog to the empty cooler underneath the overhang.

Of course Squints decided to hide a ball, it is pretty smart. We can't even count how many times we've hit a ball over the Beast's fence not even ten minutes into the game and having to go walk around town and hangout by the trash cans behind the drug store and eat candy bars.

"Let's play!" Timmy yelled running back to his place on the outfield.

"Let's play!" Tommy copied running after his brother.

I laughed shaking my head now taking 3rd base as Squints hits.

Kenny pitched the ball and looks like Squints nearly made it over the fence but lucky for us, he didn't.

As Squints ran from base to base, I spotted a boy with a plastic glove and a God awful hat near the fence. He must be the new kid who just moved in. He only lives two doors down from me.

Everyone else soon spotted him as well considering they all were yelling for him to get the ball, "Okay! I'll get it!" he yelled turning his back to us and fishing around for the ball underneath a bush.

They all were telling at him to hurry up when the Beast made a sound behind the fence, making him jump back. I cracked a smile, we've all gotten used to it by now.

He tried throwing the ball but it kinda just fell in front of him gaining an eruption of laughter from all the boys other than Benny and I who glanced at each other just as the kid muttered something to himself and ran away.

We continued on our game until around 6:30, which is when my mom wanted me to be home by anyways.

As we all left the lot, we broke off one by one down different streets until Benny and I were just left considering we do only live one door down from one another.

"Meet tomorrow at 9:30? Don't be late this time," Benny laughed.

I playfully rolled my eyes, "I'll do my best Rodriguez."

He nodded his head at me, "Later Mercer."

"See you Rodriguez," I replied before we turned to our houses.

Before I went inside, I looked over at the new kid's house, their garage was open and who I'm guessing was to be his mother was opening up some boxes.

I smiled, and walked in through the door excited for tomorrow to be Saturday and a new game.

Authors Note• PLEASE READ// Yes I know a proper baseball team is 9 players but let's make it 10 for the sake of the story. The Sandlot is one of my favorites and I love writing so I thought I'd try out writing a fan fic about it. Little back round on Blair. Her name is Blair Mercer, she's Benny's age, 14 and the movie is set in the year 1962 (i googled it, even though it was made in 1993) so softball wasn't a thing back then, therefore Blair is playing baseball with all the boys. Thanks guys I really hope you enjoy and I plan for future chapters to be longer than this.