The Cleanup King - 1389 Words

The Cleanup King Once upon a time, in a place not so far away called Overland Park, Kansas, there was a boy named Billy. He loved baseball. Really, he loooved baseball. He knew every statistic (piece of data) there was to know about baseball, including all of his own stats. He batted right-handed, threw right-handed, weighed 130 lbs. and was 5 9† tall. He also played first base and batted fourth in the order; cleanup. He had a .515 batting average and was nicknamed, â€Å"The Cleanup King,† by his teammates. He was only 14, and he had scouts after him! Everyone had high hopes for him, and many thought he had a good chance at making it to the MLB. His concussion changed everything. It all happened on Billy’s 15th birthday, July 2nd, during†¦show more content†¦They were down 6-4 with 2 outs, and Billy was up to bat. Billy knew he had to hit a homerun here, since it would probably be his last at-bat of the game. So, Billy walked up to the plate and started the at-bat. Before he started to hit, he walked over to the third base coach. He asked, â€Å"What should I do?† The base coach, George, said, â€Å"Don’t worry! Just stay calm and let the bat do the work.† The first pitch was a 74 mph fastball that whizzed by him for the first strike. â€Å"Man, he pitches fast!† Billy thought. The next pitch was also right down the middle, just a little slower, but had slowed down enough that that he swung and missed by a mile, being way ahead. He thought, â€Å"Yikes! I need to step up my game a couple notches.† The next pitch was outside, maybe to try and throw him off. The count was now 1 and 2. Billy was determined to make the big hit happen. The next pitch was a slow pitch right up the middle, and he knew it was now or never. To say the least, he crushed that ball, though not as high as he would have preferred. Billy practically screamed, â€Å"Home run!† but its trajectory kept getting lower and lower in the sky until he realized he needed to run a lot faster, or he had no chance at the big one. It would have been an easy double for a slow kid, and said no. At his speed, it would not have been a hard triple, but again, he would have refused to stop at anything short of a home run. As he rounded second and headed towards third, he saw the