The Baseball Father

Chapter One: The Accident

"Yes!! Go Miggy!! Run!! Make it to second!!" I shouted. Yes, I always sound like that when I'm watching baseball. Miguel Cabrera, one of my favorite players, had just stolen second plate.

"Calm down, Charlize." My father said.

"Shush, Rick, Verlander is up to bat." My mom said. I watched as Verlander got two strikes before hitting a home run.

"Yay!! You Red Sox can't do nothin about us getting two scores." I said/shouted.

"Will you be quiet? I'm trying to do homework." I hear from Matt's (not Touiasosopo) bedroom, which is next to the living room.

"I didn't know you could do homework, Matt." I said.

"Yeah, well now I care." He shouted.

"Just cause you were going to have to repeat 10th grade if Mom and Dad didn't argue with the school board." I said.

"You got it." He said. He was obviously distracted, because he never got even close to having to repeat a grade. I got up and walked to his room. I looked it and he was on his bed, looking at Taylor Swift on his phone. I looked around. His backpack wasn't even open.

"Nice homework." I said, startling him.

"God, Charlize." He said, "You scared me!"

"Good." I said.

2 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days later...

I opened another card out of its envelope. I opened the card.

"Happy Birthday." It said inside. Boring. I had felt something else inside the envelope, so I reached in and pulled out a Detroit Tigers ticket for their game against the Toronto Blue Jays next week. I screamed out of pure joy. I hugged my Aunt Katherine, who had given me the ticket.

"Who will go with her?" My mom asked.

"I only got one ticket, I thought she might be able to by herself." My aunt said.

"Yeah, I'm 30. I shouldn't be living with you, if you want the truth." I said.

"Yeah, I guess you can go by yourself." My mom said, finally giving in.

Exactly one week later...

I park my car in the only parking spot, in the area and get out. I lock it and start walking. My ticket is clutched tightly in my left hand as I walk towards the comerica ball field. I approach the gates and stand in one of the semi-short line. The gates open a few minutes later and I hand in my ticket as I walk in. The staff are handing out black baseball bats with a printed Hunter signature to all the little kids. I find my seat out by the outfield and set my stuff there. There was a growing group of people waiting near the bottom of the seats. They were waiting. I knew what they were waiting for. They were waiting for the practice hits. I grabbed my glove and headed down to where they were. I couldn't tell who was batting, but they hit the ball and it flew way high. Straight for me. I held up my glove and I heard the thunk of the ball in my glove.

"Good catch." I heard someone say.

"Thanks." I said back. I had noticed something different about that person. I looked back at him and he was still looking at me. I then noticed it. He had two different colored eyes, the left one was green, and the right one was brown. He looked familiar. Duh, he's Max Scherzer.

"Max?" I say and he nods.

"I thought you were supposed to be down there practicing?" I say, motioning to the field.

"I come up here sometimes to visit with/surprise fans." He says.

"Well you surprised me." I say.

"Just don't let management know." He says.

"I won't." I promise.

"Well, I better get going. The game's going to start soon. Hope you enjoy it." He says.

"I will." I say as he runs off.

Top of the 6th inning...

I had made some friends down by the bottom of the row, so I was sitting down by them. Someone on the Blue Jays' team had hit the ball and it was coming my way. I ran to the edge to try to catch it. I reached and reached and it hit the tip of my glove. I tried to stand back up, but I couldn't. I had leaned to far, and was about to fall into the field. As I fell, I prayed quickly that I didn't die. I hit the ground and immediately blacked out.

Matt Touiasosopo's POV

I was running for the ball, when I spotted a girl reaching for the ball. She looked like she was going to get it, but she missed. I ran to get it. I picked it up and threw it to Miguel, who was at first. He pointed to something and I whirled around to see the girl fall into the field. I ran over to her. She was unconscious. It didn't look like she had anything broken, except maybe her wrist, which was twisted weirdly.