FWB Friends With Baseball

I Felt The Air Off That Last At-Bat From Here.

Christian~

Laughing with Ryan, we get back to the clubhouse, and I'm able to check on my phone again. The handful of notifications all pertaining to JJ catching my eye. Reading the first one, I furrow my eyebrows over its contents, "@JailynJames: Every home run I hit this season, I'll donate $15,000 to PADA, The Hotline, and other organizations to help in the fight against Domestic/Sexual abuse. My 46 last season was as many as the MLB leader had in more than sixty less games. My goal this year is at least 50." Where did that come from? She'd never mentioned wanting to do anything like this.

Scrolling to the next, there's some context to back it up, "@JailynJames Quoted @BauerOutage's tweet; 1- My career .839 batting average speaks for itself. 2- One game, especially the first, doesn't define my season. 3- 'It's about time we get back to the big leagues.' Do you mean a place you haven't been since June??? We don't have to go there, though." The addition of the emoji covering its mouth makes me laugh as I like the tweet sill not sure what Bauer had said in the first place. Dudes always been a dick. He deserves to be called out.

"Hey Yeli," Ryan calls, getting my attention, "You see this?" Looking towards where he's got the TV on, there are replays of JJ's at-bats playing. They're not pretty, to say the absolute least. She doesn't even look like she was watching the ball. It's hard not to chuckle seeing how pissed she looks in the dugout, even if I do feel bad knowing how much pressure she's under. She's in a frustrating position. I can't say I blame her for being upset, seeing as she's got more eyes on her now than she's ever had for a regular-season game.

Following the replay's and breakdowns of her three at-bats, the presenters go into talking about her Twitter interactions from today. Finally, I get to see what Trevor actually said in his now-deleted tweet, "@BauerOutage: Quite the tantrum by Jailyn James. Yeli better watch out. It's about time we get back to the big leagues and quit acting like she's doing anything special." Scoffing, I shake my head. What a fucking tool. The dude's one to talk about people having to watch out.

"What a dick," I comment out loud, laughing a little as I see JJ's reply pop up next.

"I gotta say," Ryan starts, chuckling himself, "Her reply beats 'Relax Roxanne.'" Laughing, as he references my 2019 response to a random woman on Twitter, he continues, "She got Trevor Bauer of all people to delete a tweet. That's pretty impressive. Fucking douchebag. Child's play, as if Jai didn't tear her Achilles and keep running, not to mention that picture from barely two weeks into her season last year."

"JJ could hit circles around Bauer, not that she'd ever give him that platform. Even if it was just to embarrass him." Ryan nods, "I should probably call her, though, make sure she's not beating herself up too hard, even if she's diverted most of the attention from her shitty game."

Ryan lets out a loud laugh, "Let her know I felt the air from that last at-bat from here."

"You've got her number," I reply, chuckling as I find her contact, "You can stir that pot on your own."

Jailyn~

"Hey, what happened to not sucking?" Christian laughs after I greet him.

"Ha," I say, rolling my eyes as I pause the episode of Grey's Anatomy playing on my TV. "I'm going to blame you for that. You psyched me out."

Christian's scoff makes me smile as I sit up on my bed while I get to talk to him finally, "Right," he laughs, "You diverted that attention pretty nicely." It's my turn to laugh as he brings up my Twitter moment, "It's pretty impressive that you got him to delete his tweet. It's not an easy feat, but he set himself up for your response."

"Dude is a fucking asshole," I reply, chuckling to myself. "Sorry I didn't run my donation plan past you first."

"Don't even worry about it," Christian tells me, "You've got plenty of your own money to do what you want with, and pretty soon even more with your first Adidas drop. You can do what you want with your money. Fifty homers is $750,000, but I bet you can hit more."