Through Thick and Thin (Anthony Rizzo)

Utopia

Anthony

Zoom has kind of became a way of life for most Americans. For those of us who aren't essential the only way to see people who wasn't where you lived was over zoom. And while this baseball season is already turning out to be one of the weirdest, I still wanted to see my guys as much as I can. So I organize a zoom call with all of us to have some fun and catch up a little. It's not like we had anything to do, might as well catch up and see how everyone is doing.

"Damn Rizz, you look good" our newly appointed manager David says as we wait for everyone else to join us.

"I workout almost every day, at least the ones where I can still walk. I'm already down 10 pounds in the month we've been locked up" I admit.

"What's your secret" Jason Kipnis asks me and I laugh.

"The really cute army girl upstairs. I'm trying to get her to fall in love with me so I make up any excuse to go see her. Unfortunately she spends a lot of her time working out so that means I have to work out too" I shake my head.

"She must be something special to get your ass off the couch" Kris teases.

"Oh she is. Even in my attempts to get her to fall for me I am getting fit or I get a free meal or a cool painting out of it" I explain.

"How is she resisting all of that" Jason Heyward asks as he points up and down at his screen.

"She's got plenty on her plate to worry about. She recently got a honorable discharge for all she's done for her country and she just started living her life not as a soilder for the first time since she was 18. There is a lot there that's on her mind" I defend.

"Are you not one of the things on her mind" David asks and I raise a eyebrow at him.

"First of all, that's not true. We talked this through already and we're both on the same page. We like each other but a global pandemic isn't exactly the best time for us to try dating.

Second of all this is a baseball zoom, not love advice with the Cubs" I laugh.

"Oh yeah, baseball" Kris teases and I roll my eyes.

"You just had a kid so if anyone is going to get bombarded with questions, it should be you" I accuse.

"Yeah how is that going" Kyle asks.

"It's been great" Kris smiles. "I've never been so happy to lose sleep" he claims.

So we sit there for five hours and I don't think we talked about baseball once. That's just the kind of team we were, where we were more like a family than anything. All of the significant others hang out, the kids are best friends and we have family dinners with each other. It's just a really good feeling with this team. We're going to miss guys like Joe and Nick and Pedro and everyone else who comes and goes. But the core here, the guys who has been here since 2015 when this team first started to get good, we were all about this team and that's a advantage we have.

Eventually some of the guys had to go take care of things leaving me, David, Jon and Jason on the call. I see David just staring at the screen with a confused look on his face.

"Why do you look like that Skipper" I ask.

"I'm trying to get a good look of that picture you put up in your room. That's new" he admits.

"It's not a picture, actually. It's a painting" I explain.

"Is it one your lady friend made" Jon coos and I roll my eyes.

"It is, actually" I assure him.

"That's incredible" David admits. "It's so realistic."

"The way she explained it is that it's a utopian view of her reality. A non-realistic idea of what her life can be if things were different. And she made sure that I knew that utopian ideas are dangerous, but painting is the only way she can have a little bit of what is and add a little bit of what the world can be. She studied it a lot over seas because she saw the army as some type of utopia where they can go places and solve all the worlds problems, making America a better place along the way. But utopia is just a idea, a concept that will never be.

In this painting she put people back in the city with a beautiful sun set. She even put us both at the pier eating ice cream" I laugh.

"I'm sorry, and you guys aren't together" Jason asks again for what feels like the tenth time.

"No, we're not. Not yet at least" I defend.

"She sure sounds like she's made her impact on you. And it looks like you've made your impact on her too" Jon insists.

"Right now she's all I have and I'm all she has. We hang out every day and no two days are alike. She's missed a lot from being a little bit of everywhere for the last 13 years, I'm teaching her about Disney plus and sports teams and what to catch up on on Netflix and she's teaching me about life. Just trying to make the best out of a shitty situation. Being alone in Chicago is scary enough in itself. But she's in a new city not having been around civilized life for a while and now she's stuck in a pandemic. We just want to do the best thing for us right now and then when this is over we can talk again" I admit.

"Well I want to meet her" David insists.

"Me too" Jon agrees. "I always wanted to do something for veterans, maybe she can help me figure something out."

"I'm sure she would love that" I smile.

We finally hang up and I close up my laptop. I hadn't seen Jazz all day today so I decide to go up and give her a visit. I knock this time before letting myself in. She was still in her sports bra and spandex from her workout earlier which caused me to stop in my tracks. I admire her for a few seconds before I walk over to her.

"I was wondering when you would make your way up here" she teases.

"My zoom call with the guys took a little longer than expected" I explain as I sit myself on the counter next to where she was working.

"How is everyone doing" she asks.

"They're all good. No one on the team has gotten covid yet but one of the coaches has it. Everyone is pretty itchy to be able to play again" I admit.

"And how are you today" she asks as she looks up  at me. She smiles and that makes me smile back.

"I'm doing a little better today. The governor is trying to put a plan through to loosen restrictions a little so I am hoping that I can take you around the city soon" I insist.

"That sounds like a lot of fun" she admits.