Married To Baseball

Achievements.

Jailyn~

"Congratulations, of course, to all of you, but Jailyn, Carly, Sydney, Elena, and Erin, you five have been on this team since the 2020 Olympic season making this your fifth consecutive gold medal. What's that mean to you guys being able to hold onto the World Champion title for the last five seasons?" The first reporter asks at our victory press conference. The eighteen of us are sat across two long tables for the panel Ken and Tammy both sitting in with us.

Glancing at the other four, it's obvious they're waiting for me to take it, "I guess I'm taking this," I laugh. "It's an incredible thing to be able to do. We've had exceptionally talented women on this team throughout the years, and it's been fun to be a part of it. Obviously, the goal going into every season is to come out with a gold medal, and to have been able to do that the last five years it's almost impossible to put into words. Everyone knows that this season was different than the last four since Tokyo, but I think that just makes this one feel that much more special."

The girls seem to agree with my answer enough that we move on to the next question, "There was quite a shift between the first game of this tournament, and you could even say the rest of this season and the last few games. What sort of happened to make such a drastic change in the team dynamic in that short break between games?"

Glancing around again, I notice Taylor lean forward, ready to take this one. To be fair, I'm probably the last one who should answer this one. "Now that the season is over, I think it's fair to say that the last few months we've played like trash," Taylor comments, laughing slightly as she gets a few chuckles from the rest of us, "We lost Maddy and then almost immediately after we lost the one person that I think the team just expected to carry us in Jailyn. She'd kinda done so up until that point, so we weren't prepared to not have her there. Not as a team, anyways. That lingered a little bit through that first game, even with Jai back."

"We, as a whole, never took the time to be a team from day one, and no one really stepped up to show us that," Taylor continues, "After that first game, Jai took the opportunity to address us and acknowledge what the issues were, and more or less forced us into fixing them. She could've very easily come back and ignored the last three or four months. She wasn't a part of that; technically, she wasn't even part of that first loss this season. Yet she still came back and took accountability for it, and I think that kicked us into gear."

"We also got a bit of bonding in before the second game that really helped," Taylor explains, "Then Jai started the chants and cheering up, and I think that was the spark we'd been missing this year. We probably should've figured it out sooner, but I guess better late than never." We all chuckle a little, nodding before fielding the next question.

Glancing the room, I find the next reporter as they ask, "You'd mentioned Maddy before, that, of course, being Maddy Sanchez, one of the returning members of the Olympic team who started this season with you but left early on due to becoming pregnant. She's just publicly confirmed that she miscarried about a month ago," there are a few murmurs between the girls, most of them I'm sure having no clue about that. Holding my tongue in cheek, I wait for him to finish his question, "How do you guys handle heavy situations like that regarding your teammates?"

Holding my hand up, I indicate that I'm taking this, knowing I'm probably the only one who knows short of Sydney and Carly. "I'm going to just let you know that none of us have been on our phones for much longer than to send a text or two today. So, I don't know how much most of us know about it." Looking directly at the reporter, I try not to sound as annoyed as I am with him dropping that on us in this setting. "With this particular situation, it's incredibly personal and something that you have to process on your own before letting other people know about it. Honestly, I'm sure the only reason she posted about it as publicly as she did, is because of how high profile this career has been and confirming it is easier than being asked about it. We all love Maddy and are sending that all her way. This also isn't a subject that isn't our place to talk about. So, I'm going to ask we don't push it any further." Getting a few nods, I lean back in my chair again and pull out my phone under the table.