Batter Up

by
Tom Haynes

Copyright 20003,2004,2006 - All rights reserved by the author.

We got back to the base and the pilot squealed his guts out. I think things would have been okay, i.e., shooting your own was the norm in the Company, except their psychs finally realized they couldn't get rid of my humanity. I was in the stockade and the Ranger survivors were being debriefed. They were being obstinate, they wouldn't buy the blood crazed manic routine about me, they knew the real score. Hell, they remembered what had happened when I was their LT and saved their asses back then. The Company was going to sit this one out and put me in front of firing squad.

Unfortunately, they forgot about the LT in the hospital ward, well hell, who wouldn't, we all thought he was going to die pretty soon. He didn't, he woke up just as Geraldo Rivera was slumming through the wards, looking for a story. When the LT woke up screaming, live on national TV, well, Geraldo had to get the story of the Captain who had come back to get his men, the one who had walked into the storm of bullets to break the Mexican standoff, yada, yada, yada.

I think the LT was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, I didn't recall it that vividly. Well, a deal was struck and the second Silver Star was accompanied with my Honorable Discharge. By the way, I think it was the shock of me never going to make it to Major which finally killed the old man.

The Yankees wouldn't touch a 24 year old has been with a questionable shoulder. I did a couple of months with a startup in Boston and one night, in a bar, I bet this jerk I could hit a ball off of anyone. That jerk was the pitching coach for the Red Sox and the next day I swatted fastballs off of several of his starters. The last guy I crushed several off over the Monster.

He scowled after the first one, but he was grinning after the third - it was Owens, whose clock I had cleaned in game 2 of the CWS my senior year - he had finally recognized me.

Owens convinced the GM to sign me to a one year minor league contract and to invite me to Spring Training. I think they mainly did it for the publicity, bring on a wounded vet and all, show the nation that the Yankees were not as compasionate and understanding. The contract was barely more than I was making at the start up. I passed the physicals and quit CoolEdge the day I signed the contract. I hustled in the spring and was sent down to the Portland Sea Dogs, the AA farm club. Then the starting shortstop cracked his knee on a routine double play, which saw me sent up to the Pawtucket clubhouse. I was doing fine there, watching the pennant races, and improving my chances at actually making it past Spring Training for the next season. I mean, the guy the Sox were starting got in a serious slump and couldn't get out of it. While they were trying to arrange a trade for a real replacement, they brought me up as a promotional campaign against the Yankees.

I hit .647 against them, with 5 home runs. Okay, 17 at bats isn't indicative for a career, but it was against the hated Yanks. I went on to win rookie of the year, batting .429. We squeaked in as the wild card, but lost to the Yankees in the ALCS.

I signed a two year $25 million dollar contract with the Sox in the off-season - they were still concerned with my durability and thought the first season was somewhat of a fluke. I swept the Triple Crown and took the MVP in my second season, we took the AL East, but lost to the Yankees in the ALDS.

My third year, well I hit for 103 home runs in the regular season and we ended up tied for the AL East with the Yankees. We had split the regular season meetings and had to play a tie- breaker in order to determine who would take the division. Jackson, who hit in the 5 spot behind me, was on the DL, so they pitched around me during my first couple of bats, but with the bases loaded in the seventh, a signal got crossed and I air- mailed one the opposite way. I think the Boss blew a heart valve then and there. Anyway, we ended up winning the East and home field against the Yanks in the ALCS. We took the Mariners in 3 and the Tigers had taken the Bronx Bombers all the way.