Smile (Kris Bryant)

Chapter Twenty Eight| Shitsburg

Kris

The team and everyone else in the organizations sits in Pittsburg getting ready for the wildcard game. If we win, we move on to play the Cardinals. If we lose, the season was over and it would suck majorly. This team, we weren't the Yankees. Not yet at least. But we were still really good. We have two amazing starting pitchers and the other ones we're still pretty great. We are young as hell, Dexter being the oldest in the outfield and he's still pretty young. It was just a matter of time before we started to do some damage in the post season.

I sit in the dugout and watch Addison have a push up contest with Alex on the grass between the third base line and dugout. He was stupid and told the team he could beat her in a push-up contest just to protect his manlyhood and naturally I told her he said that. I wanted to see what would happen. So she challenged him to one in the front of the team just for shits and giggles. For every one push-up he does she does two and I couldn't help but feel proud. My girlfriend was kicking ass right now. Eventually he falls flat on the ground in complete exhaustion and the boys go crazy as she kept going. She jumps to her feet with the biggest smile on her face as the boys hype her up. No one knew she was pregnant and no one could really tell so I see nothing wrong with her kicking a little ass.

"That was amazing. Are you like bionic or something" Kyle ask. Swarbs was the last of us rookies to get called up so he was still learning his way around the team.

"Nope. I just looove push ups" she claims.

"Well I know not to mess with you" he laughs.

"Good idea" she winks. I go over to Addi who was still on the ground crying because either his arms hurt or because his pride hurt. Probably both.

"Rookie mistake bro. Never accept a work out challenge from her unless you want to be completely embarrassed" I suggest. I've watched Anthony make that same mistake plenty of times.

"Now you tell me this" he laughs getting up.

"Yeah, I kinda wanted to see if you would do it" I shrug.

The game gets started and as expected Jake is dominate. He's throwing straight fire and Kyle is hitting baseballs into the river, always enjoyable to watch.

I sit next to Alex and watch the bottom of the order bat with a comfortable 4-0 lead. She smiles up to me and as always that makes me smile back. She pats the seat next to her and I happily take it.

"How are you? Do you need anything? Do you feel alright" I ask.

"I'm great. I don't need a thing and I feel good" she responds.

"Okay then, now that's settled. How are you enjoying playoff baseball" I wonder.

"It's amazing. All the guys are so enjoyable and this atmosphere is so cool. I like how quiet it is here because all these fans have to watch their playoff dreams be thrown into the river along with Kyle's baseball" she sighs.

"Oh my god... that was by far the meanest thing I think I've ever heard you say" I laugh and she shrugs.

"It's hard to be competitive and nice all the time. Shit happens" she claims. As if on cue I hear a bunch of yelling and see Jake walking to first base, but not before staring down the pitcher he was facing. He stops to exchange some words and the benches erupt quickly. At first I wasn't going to go out there but eventually both benches clear and everyone was meeting on the first base line. I wasn't sure what I thought I was going to do but I was out there. I look back in the dugout and I could tell Alex didn't like this, she worked with baseball because it wasn't physical. She's seen enough beatings in her life she really didn't want to see another one.

"Alright boys break it up" the umpire yells from the middle of the group. I try pulling guys back and it actually works for a little. Most of the guys from our team was just jawing and Jake was removed long before it got this far but it still wasn't that good of a situation. Anthony was as kind as can be until someone messed with someone he cared about. Then he gets angry and he'll let you know he's mad, kind of like this.

"Hey, why don't you go baby sit your girlfriend and let the big boys figure this out" someone calls out and I see Gerrit Cole staring me down. I really didn't want to engage but there's no reason he brings her into this. I get we were all over the news, but that in itself was enough of the public talking about our relationship, I didn't need shit from this prick too.

"Why don't you worry about your team getting on base because I'm pretty sure my girlfriend can get a hit off Jake before any of you guys" I bark back. Now I was the one getting held back. After jawing back and fourth we all separate and I get sat in time out.

"This isn't hockey. You can't put me in the penalty box" I laugh looking at David as he tries to cool me down.

"It's not hockey. If it was you would have dropped your gloves and Cole would have dropped your ass" he claims and I laugh.

"Yeah that wasn't a good guy to pick a fight with" I admit.

"You were fighting with someone" Alex asks sitting next to me.

"Not really, just arguing. They're just mad they can't do shit against Jake so they plunked him. I don't think they were expecting us to defend him like that. But he's our guy, he's been dominating this game and he's our teammate. We won't allow them to intentionally hurt him and get away with it" I defend.

"I've never seen you this mad before over baseball. It's kinda hot" Alex says and David nods.

"She's not wrong" he claims and I roll my eyes. Not helping.

The game continues and we end up winning behind two long home runs and nine strong innings from Jake. Our next stop was St. Louis for what is sure to be a good series.

"Want to know what I'll remember most about this place" Alex asks as we board the bus to head back to the hotel for the night.

"What" I wonder.

"It's not the beautiful stadium or the great game. It's the fact that while walking onto the bus a Cubs fan yelled "fuck this shittsburg team" to Jake and now I can never call this place anything else" she claims and I just look at her.

"You are so weird" I chuckle and she shrugs.

"There no fun in normal" she reminds me. That is not wrong.