Dougie Walsh, fresh off his cured hands and conscience, walked into the boys baseball office to seek out his Head Coach. Coach Wilson greeted Dougie with a big smile and a big handshake and invited him into to sit down. Dougie’s face was serious and Coach Wilson caught it as he was sitting down. “What’s the matter, kid?” asked Wilson. “I have something to confess,” started Dougie “I wasn’t completely honest about my hands at the investigation.” Wilson stood up and started pacing. “You know you could potentially have cost us the season, I mean they could forfeit your win and we would be out of the playoffs.” Wilson continued to pace waiting for Dougie to explain himself. “Well, what is it, Kid? You have my full attention.”
Dougie stood up and extended his hands over the HC’s desk. “What am I looking at?” asked the now pissed off HC Wilson. “My hands were stung by about a hundred wasps or bees a few weeks ago. Remember I couldn’t throw strikes in that game? My hand was still swollen from the stings.” Dougie sat down. “Then, my Mom took me to a clinic, I got better, and when I took the bandages off, there were still stingers in my hand. And those stingers helped grip the ball at a ridiculous rate.” HC Wilson, not far above the average mental capacity of many, shrugged his shoulders with disbelief. “What the heck are you saying? You have little tiny stingers inside your hand? That’s not illegal.” “Did,” corrected Dougie, “I had them up until this past weekend. I found a cure to get them out of my hands and now I’m 100% clean. Hands and conscience. So, if you want to suspend me or kick me off the team, I will understand.”
Wilson thought about it. “Let’s go out to the field and see if you still got it, I have an idea for a suitable punishment if you will.” Dougie followed Wilson out to the field where an assistant coach was working with a JV catcher. “Eddie, get that kid behind the plate, I have to see if Dougie here can still cut the mustard.” The Assistant nodded, the JV catcher moved behind the plate, Dougie threw a few warmup tosses, then proceeded to throw all of his pitches one by one for strikes. Fastball was crisp, slider was sharp, hang loose was spinning, change up was moving. Convinced, Wilson waved off his assistant and motioned Dougie to walk with him. “One week, you are suspended one week for not disclosing this. I have to report it to the league and hope for the best. You did the right thing coming to me. If we are cleared to play, and we win out this week, most likely you will face Bellman in the finals next Tuesday night. Deal?” Dougie raised his hand and shook his coaches hand. “Deal.”
After returning home from school, Dougie found his Mom in the kitchen and told her about the meeting. “Great news,” she said as she flipped the chicken over on the stove. “Yep, now I get to play cheerleader and hope my team makes it to the finals.” And that is just what Dougie did. After Coach Wilson got word that the league would not be imposing any sanctions against him, the team was set for the playoffs, Dougie Walsh on the roster was well. Dougie went to every practice, every pre-game, every game with a renewed enthusiasm. And his teammates did not disappoint, racking up three impressive wins to land in the finals against Bellman. Dougie Walsh was named the starter, as per the deal with Coach Wilson. “I’ll give you my best effort,” said Dougie to the team and his Coach. “That’s great, Dougie, because it is going to be a hostile environment in that stadium for sure.”
And hostile it was. From the moment the Bellman Baseball team walked off the bus, to the meeting of the coaches at home plate, the boos and jeers and yelling did not stop. Instead of bringing out the lineup card, The Bellman Coaches brought out the video evidence of Dougie’s hand to the umpire. The umpire looked at it and called Dougie over to home plate. “I had stingers in my hand,” exclaimed Dougie, “I didn’t mean to lie. I wasn’t lying.” Diekman was relentless. “This guy is a cheater, show me your hands, someone get me a baseball.” The umpire tossed Diekman a ball. Diekman handed it to Dougie. “See, look at his hand,” Diekman pointed to Dougie’s hand, which was now devout of stingers. “What am I looking at, the kid admitted his fault, his team suspended him, the league cleared him, what am I looking at?” asked the umpire. Dougie showed Diekman his hand, with the baseball in his hand, no stingers.
One of the assistant coaches grabbed Diekman and motioned him out of the umpire’s ear. “If this Walsh kid has no stingers, he has no game. He is “human” no pun intended. We can rip this kid. Let him pitch Coach, we got this.” Diekman thought about it and agreed. He walked back to the dugout with his coaches, grabbed the lineup card and walked back to home plate. Coach Wilson motioned Dougie back to the dugout and the two HCs exchanged lineups. When Diekman returned to the dugout, he shared his assistant’s thoughts with the Bellman boys. A cocky wave swept through the dugout, armed by the knowledge that Dougie Walsh of old was going to be pitching against them.
On the other side of the field, Dougie Walsh was energized to prove his critics in the other dugout wrong. “I’ll prove to you Coach you made the right decision,” yelled Dougie just before he hit the field. “You have 10 pitches to convince me, this is the finals, this is it, don’t let your team down again.” Dougie nodded and sprinted out to the mound. And proved his coach right by tossing a complete game, 5 hit shutout to secure the title. Pitch after pitch after pitch, Dougie Walsh threw strikes. And Bellman had no answer. 79 pitches in a complete 7 inning masterpiece, an honest day’s work on the mound.
After the game and all the photos and all the applause, Dougie and Coach Wilson had a moment. “Nice game,” said the trying not to get emotional Coach Wilson. “Thanks Coach,” said Dougie, “and thanks for sticking up for me.”
The Rhiter 
Leave a Reply