The team starts to come out for BP and Cross starts in, “Dude, you better stop that shit. I know she’s hot and spunky, but you’ll be hitting BP with a hard-on and I’ve already seen too much of your dick today,” laughing under his breath. Martin follows close behind him making smooching sounds at us.
Rick gives him a dirty look and realizes BP is starting. He walks me to my acceptable viewing area behind the dugout and introduces himself to all my peeps before he gets to work. Carter hooked my peeps up with caps that have Seno and the number 6 on them. Everybody loved it! Cross came up and gave autographs with Seno after BP. It was great!
After BP, my peeps and I all go to the lounge for $5 beer and free popcorn. Six “thank you” beers is too many, but I take them and drink them all. My baseball peeps are the best.
I find my seat behind home plate in time for the guys to come out and warm up. I’m in row two directly behind home plate tonight. I’m loopy from the beer. Rick waves at me and smiles when he comes out early to warm up our starting pitcher. Lots of hoopla going on pregame tonight and I’m not into it in my current state. I may need another beer. Luckily this section has seat service and I’m riding home with my boyfriend. Then it hits me, this is my first game back after leaving LA. The last couple of days have been amazing and so much has happened so quickly. What the fuck am I doing? Am I dating, no, living with a baseball player who I left only weeks ago? And, he’s meeting my Mom tomorrow! What am I thinking? This has disaster written all over it. This whirlwind of craziness is getting the best of me and I need to take control. No more following my girliness allowed! My brain is trying to take over and I can’t let that happen. This isn’t a brain situation. It’s a heart situation and I’m learning that’s ruled by my girliness. It may be the most illogical thing I’ve ever done in my life, but it makes me happy and I’m risking my heart, not my brain. Maybe I shouldn’t have any more beer.
A large choir walks onto the field and sings the National Anthem. The next thing I know Rick is standing at the net in front of me, smiling at me, and making motions at me like I’m drunk. I might be. I wave, smile, and do the sign language “I love you” back at him. Yelling, “Make it a win, babe!” He laughs and shakes his head as he turns around to get down to business.
The lineup is familiar other than they’ve squeezed Mason in. We’re playing the hated San Francisco Sissy’s this weekend. We need to get some wins and a sweep would be a great thing. Our ace is pitching tonight, so the game will probably go quick. The first five innings go by with no score for either team. Two of our players have been hit by a pitch, both Rock and Mason. The team is acting restless and defensive. They want to retaliate and are trying to keep a collective cool. Skip doesn’t allow that crap in his dugout. Top of the sixth inning with two outs and our pitcher, Grace the Ace, lets one rip that gets away from him high and inside, skimming the edge of the hitter’s helmet brim. The San Francisco dugout empties onto the field after our pitcher. Rick runs to get ahead of it and guard his pitcher. The rest of the guys on the field are there almost instantly as back up and the Seals dugout empties. Cross is at Rick’s back with Mason ready to go. It’s a rumble, except only hot muscular ball players are allowed to participate. Half of them know they’re not supposed to fight while the other half are hooligans who don’t care and want to fight—the San Francisco half. Rick has his game face on and takes control of the situation. A couple of the San Francisco guys go at him with fists ready to go, but he calmly says something I can’t hear. The umpires take forever to get out there and do anything.
The hitter takes his base, daring Grace to throw at him again. “Throw at me again, meat, and I’m coming for you.”
The umpire gives both teams a warning, and the next guy up strikes out. Bottom of the sixth was uneventful, we got a couple of hits but nobody scored. Bottom of the eighth, still no score with one out and Mason hits a home run bringing in Cross. Martin strikes out and Rock pops out. Top of the ninth, San Francisco responds with a homer and two hits. The runners attempt to steal and Rick picks the runner off trying to steal second base, ending the game with a 2-1 win for the Seals.
Hannah is on the field ready to do her thing. She grabs Mason and Seno for her post-game interviews. Seno tells her it’s all the new rookie Mason and backs off, not wanting to get into an interview about the potential fight and what he did to avoid it.
Rick walks up to the net behind home plate and I hop over the seats into the first row to meet him. He puts his hands on the net and I reach mine up to his, holding hands through the net. “I’ll be ready in about twenty minutes.” I smile
