All To Myself//Christian Yelich

Practice

July 29, 2019- O.CO Coliseum, abandoned raider locker room 

"I'm honestly worried about working with you Mattie." 26-year-old Roosevelt Olson commented to her brother as she began to carefully realign his back.  Her strong hands quickly made adjustments while releasing the various points of tension in his body. 

"Why?" He asked as he shifted from some pain from the re-alignment process. 

"It means I'm finally settling down, and you get grumpy when I'm around for too long." Partially a joke, partially not. She'd been on the road, playing beach volleyball tournaments with her Olympic partner, Betty Phillips, since their first Olympic run 7 years ago. She'd decided to settle down for a bit before making the call if she wanted to compete in the 2020 games. Team USA had already promised the duo a spot. However, Roosevelt wasn't sure she wanted to continue to play. Her left knee had been giving her problems since the last games where'd they taken home the gold.  Was blowing out her knee worth another gold? 

"Pfft, for the summer and potentially fall. Hardly call that settlin' down, but Chappy will be happy to have you around. And I will not get grumpy." His muffled reply caused her to smirk at the mention of the star third baseman.  Aside from her brother, he was her best friend in the Bay. They currently had a two-year snap streak going. But her mind flashed to all the other times in the past seven years where she had lingered longer than a week around her brother; while the siblings loved each other, both were stubborn and spitfires. Usually, their combined fire ended up burning down their relationship for small amounts of time. Apologies were rare for the two; it would only take look.

"Yet!" She chimed in, grinned , and confirmed, "Tis true! We get up to shenanigans. Think I'll get to peg him with a ball again?"

Both shared a laugh at the thought.

 "Ready?" She prompted as she moved to adjust his hips and lower back. 

"Ugh." Was the reply. Shrugging, she moved to perform the more uncomfortable part of the adjustment, but it'd be worth it. 

By the end of session, he felt much more limber but also slightly drowsy.
First baseman Matt Olson glanced at his older sister; he had to admit he was glad she was with him. The Bay was very different from their little hometown in Georgia. When he'd graduated high school, it was a no brainier; he'd gone straight to play baseball for the Athletics, while Rosie had gone to Long Beach, going into chiropractic and sports training while playing beach volleyball for Long Beach and then for the US. 

"I'm coming to BP; gotta see how the boys' backs are doin. Game tomorrow?" Roosevelt murmured as she packed up her table and prepped her training bag. 

"Yeah, Milwaukee." Matt confirmed with a slightly worried expression. She'd recently joined the A's organization as she and her teammate both decided that they needed a break after winning Worlds in early July. There weren't many women working for MLB teams—Oakland and San Francisco pioneering the way—and he didn't want any of the other players messing with his sister. For good or bad. 

"I know that look. Don't worry. I can take on any dude, including that 6'6 pitcher from the Dodgers." She laughed with a mischievous look in her eyes.  "Also, for the love of God, stretch! Half of your issues are from NOT stretching enough."

"I don't doubt it." He conceded with a small smile. Stretching was always her recommendation.

Every. Single. Time.

The Olson duo left the abandoned Raider locker room and headed for the field. A part of her felt stressed; she'd be head trainer for this series as the head trainer was down with a bad summer cold.  As she stepped out onto the coliseum grass and inhaled the moderately warm air, the sounds of bats cracking against cowhide reached her ears, and pings and thwacks relaxed the Olympian as she watched the various players take their turns batting. Standing near the Skipper, Roosevelt briefly heard him gruffly answer a phone call and then mutter to one of the batting coaches, "The Brewers are requesting practice time."