Grand Slam Read online

  To kick things off, Lakeland was offering an all-you-can-eat buffet at the Campus Center. All the tournament teams were invited.

  “Don’t tell me. You can predict their bat speed by the way they eat a hot dog.”

  “You’re the magic man,” said Gertzy. “Naw, I just like to get a look at them so I’m not spooked when some jacked-up giant steps out of the dugout.”

  “What, like Fanny?”

  “Ha!” Gertzy barked. “There’s guys you’re gonna see who make Fanny look like a Little Leaguer.”

  “Oh, come on.” Jalen grabbed his sunglasses and red Bronxville Bandits cap. “Who our age could be more intimidating stepping out of a dugout than Fanny?”

  “Guys who do serious lifting. I mean, sick. I’ve seen kids our age with guns like Luke Voit. Massive!”

  “Okay. Ready to find out?”

  “You’ll see for yourself,” Gertzy said.

  Jalen opened the door the instant before Daniel had the chance to knock. “You guys ready to eat?” Daniel asked.

  “I thought I was supposed be looking for something coming around.” Jalen stared at Fanny, in the hall wearing a pair of mirrored Ray-Bans, like Jalen’s.

  “Nah,” said Fanny, pointing to his sunglasses. “Just look at your handsome grille.”

  “Good.” Jalen stepped into the hallway and Gertzy closed the door behind them.

  Fanny slipped onto the elevator and stood with his back to the wall, hands behind him like a soldier at ease. He waited until they stepped on and the doors closed before he said, “It’s what goes around.”

  “What?” asked Gertzy.

  Jalen looked over his shoulder.

  Fanny stared straight ahead, as if he were disinterested. “My man said he was watching for what ‘comes around,’ but he doesn’t have to.”

  “Yes, you were kind enough to tell us already,” Gertzy said.

  “That’s not the same as what ‘goes around.’ ” Fanny now added a leering grin to his mirror glasses. “What goes around is another matter entirely.”

  “Fanny,” Jalen asked, “what’s behind your back?”

  51

  FANNY LUNGED, BARKED, AND FLASHED his hands.

  Everyone jumped.

  Fanny, whose glasses were now wildly crooked, burst out laughing.

  “You know we got a game to play.” Gertzy glared.

  “Yeah,” said Fanny, “that’s why you gotta loosen up.”

  Gertzy clenched his teeth and shook his head. “Do you have any idea what’s going on here? I’m serious. Do you know who we’re gonna play later?”

  “OMG, Lakeland!” Fanny pushed the glasses back up his nose, and his smile melted. “So we’re going to play the home team. Big deal. They’re probably soft.”

  “Yeah, they’re only the best players picked from all fifty states and who knows how many foreign countries.” Gertzy explained.

  The elevator stopped on the ground floor and they all got off. The lobby was a madhouse. Kids their age wearing their team colors clustered in small groups, talking. The room was filled with nervous energy.

  “Bottom line.” Gertzy poked a finger in Fanny’s chest. “We got into this tournament only because someone canceled last minute, and they needed to fill the space. Our team was probably one of the very few who could organize a trip like this overnight.”

  “So?” Fanny stuck out his chin. “Now we’re here, where we belong anyway.”

  “I love the confidence, Fan,” said Gertzy, “but these teams are the best of the best—the top players from all over the country. They are all juggernauts.”

  “What is that?” Fanny asked. “Some kind of candy bar?”

  “It’s like a battering ram,” said Gertzy.

  “A powerful force,” Jalen added.

  “Oh, so I’m outclassed by a wise guy and a genius.” Fanny snorted. “I’ll just think of them as a candy bar until I know different. Who knows, maybe someone else knocks them off before we have to face them.”

  “That’s what I’m getting at, you meathead. We’re at the bottom of the bracket, you understand?” Gertzy said. “We’re sixteenth in a draw of sixteen teams. We’re circling the bowl waiting for the number one team to flush us.”

  “C’mon, Gertzy,” Daniel said. “We’ve got a great team. We can beat anyone. We gotta believe.”

  “I do believe we could beat anyone, but we need to know what we’re getting into.” Gertzy threw up his arms. “As the lowest-ranked team, we play the number one team in our first game, and that’s Lakeland.”

  52

  THEY DRIFTED TO THE CAMPUS Center for food, with more than a little tension dampening the conversation. Fanny insisted they all go to the Brick Oven Pizzeria, where you could “build your own pie.”

  “It’s free, right, so I think triple meat and double cheese on my pizza. No, four meats and some fish. That’s dope,” Fanny said, as the counterman shook his head in disbelief.

  Gertzy went for a meatball sub with mozzarella, Daniel picked a chicken Parmesan, and Jalen stared at the menu before ordering a Philly cheesesteak.

  “I can’t see eating Italian food here when my dad makes the best Italian food there is.”

  As they searched the cavernous Campus Center dining hall for seats, Daniel said, “Maybe your dad can open a Silver Liner Diner here at Lakeland.”

  “There’s some seats, right there.” Gertzy had both hands on his tray, so he angled his head toward an empty table. Nearby was a table with four players in white caps with blue Lakeland flame logos and a lone kid with long blond hair wearing a bright orange cap. Their nearly empty plates said they were just finishing their meal.

  “They don’t look like anything so special.” Gertzy declared.

  Fanny’s pizza was a sight to behold. “I should have told them to put some of the meat on the plate, like a side dish.”

  Jalen sat with his back to the Lakeland kids. He understood that Gertzy, as a pitcher, wanted to size guys up, but as a second baseman, he preferred not to try and guess. He’d wait until he saw them in action. That would tell him everything he needed to know.

  Jalen turned his attention to his Philly cheesesteak; it was pretty tasty.

  Gertzy, Fanny, and Daniel continued to banter about Lakeland. Then Daniel’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. “No way is that kid twelve. Uh-uh.”

  Fanny squinted. “Probably a coach.”

  “Nope,” said Gertzy. “No one throws a cupcake at his coach like that guy in the orange cap just did.”

  Jalen had to spin around to see, and when he did, the giant in a Lakeland cap was right behind him. The guy bent down and grabbed the thrown cupcake off the tiled floor. He looked right at Jalen and smiled before taking a quick glance around, then tossing the cupcake in the air like an apple.

  What happened next was a blur. The boy spun around, catching and throwing the cupcake so fast and so hard that it sent the orange cap flying from the blond boy’s head like a startled bird. The table of Lakeland players exploded with laughter.

  The giant licked his fingers and sauntered back to his seat.

  Daniel was the first to speak. “Oh. Hot. Sauce.”

  Fanny snorted. “Big difference between a baseball and a cupcake. But I wonder where that kid got a cupcake. It looked so good before he trashed it.”

  “Some arm, though,” Gertzy said, before taking a bite of his sub.

  “He’s gotta be over six feet.” Jalen didn’t try to hide the admiration in his voice.

  The tall boy sat back down to his last bite of lunch as if nothing had happened. The din of festive chatter and laughter only increased.

  “There they go,” Daniel said, watching the Lakeland players leave their table as a unit.

  Suddenly and without warning, Fanny dropped his pizza, quickly wiped his hands, and jumped out of his seat. He surprised the player in the orange cap by blocking his path.

  “Hey,” said Fanny, extending a hand. “Justin Fanwell. I’m the catcher
for the Bronxville Bandits.”

  The player stopped in his tracks. He looked at Fanny’s hand as if it were covered with slime. “You mean you’re not the Tampa Bay farm team? You had us all worried.”

  “You might think that when you see us play.” Fanny’s look was dead serious. “But the guy who threw that cupcake and knocked your cap off? He’s not twelve, right?”

  The blond kid snorted. “You wish he wasn’t twelve. That’s Biruk Royal. He used to play with my team before Lakeland gave him a scholarship. He deserted us. Go ahead and google him, but don’t worry, he won’t pitch against you chumps. The Lakeland coaches will save him to pitch against a real team like ours, or for the championship game.”

  Fanny nodded. “Good. That’s what we were hoping they’d think.”

  “What?” The kid wrinkled his face.

  Fanny shrugged. “It’ll make it that much sweeter when we flatten them. Keep laughing, but when you google ‘the Calamari Kid,’ you’ll be crying.”

  “Yeah, right, Fatso.” The blond kid pushed past Fanny without another word.

  “Calamari Kid. You were warned.” Fanny raised his voice so that his words chased after the kid. “And I’m not fat! I’m big-boned!”

  Jalen looked through the fingers where he’d buried his face. He watched the kid go and turned to Fanny. “Calamari Kid? Why?”

  “You wanted me to let him disrespect us?” Fanny scowled. “I don’t think so. We could end up playing those guys.”

  Gertzy looked up from his phone. He held it out to Jalen. “You guys need to check this out.”

  “What is it?” Jalen asked.

  “I did what he said.” Gertzy waved the phone. “I googled Biruk Royal. You want the good news first, or the bad news?”

  Jalen looked to see if Gertzy was kidding. When he saw that he wasn’t, Jalen pushed the phone back. “Give us the good news.”

  53

  “GOOD NEWS IS THAT HE’S not six feet.” Gertzy raised his phone to offer his proof. “He’s only five feet eleven and a half inches.”

  “That’s the good news?” Daniel asked.

  “Bad news is that he’s so good. A finalist for SI Kids SportsKid of the Year, and the University of Miami already offered him a scholarship.” Gertzy placed his phone in the middle of the table so anyone could look.

  “You can’t offer scholarships to kids,” Daniel said. “He’s not even in high school yet.”

  Jalen was already searching Royal on his phone. “Umm… Yeah. You can. Not MLB contracts, but listen: ‘It is illegal for colleges to recruit student athletes until their junior year except for football, basketball, and baseball.’ And ‘scholarship offers have been made to athletes as young as nine years old.’ ”

  Daniel said, “Wow. He’s got to be something else.”

  Fanny had taken his seat and had a giant mouthful of pizza, which he spoke through. “Yah bu oo erd um, eez na pithen against us.”

  They sat silently, first to figure out what Fanny had said, then to think about what it meant.

  Gertzy laughed. “Ha-ha. If it’s true, we might surprise them, and never have to face Biruk.”

  “If we surprise them the first time,” Jalen said, “we won’t surprise them the second.”

  “Second?” Daniel said.

  “It’s a double elimination tournament,” Jalen said. “If we win, and keep winning, and if they keep winning after a loss to us, we could face them again in the championship. I know that’s a lot of ifs. But ifs are possible.”

  Gertzy wore a big grin. “And I know if you’re talking about the possibility of us upsetting the number one team in the country, you, my friend need to share your baseball genius with the whole team. Am I right?”

  “Exactly right. The only reason I wanted to keep the whole genius thing down low was because of JY and the Yankees,” Jalen said. “Now that that’s over, I don’t care who knows.”

  “You should be SI’s SportsKid of the Year,” Daniel said. “Baseball Genius.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not going to wait for the phone to ring about that, but I wouldn’t sleep on a scholarship offer.” In fact, Jalen’s blood raced at the idea.

  “That’s what playing in these tournaments can do,” said Gertzy. “Scouts know the kids in a tournament like this are gonna be the cream of the crop, so a lot of them show up, especially for the championship game.”

  They finished eating and huddled with the rest of the team in a corner of the lounge for a brief team meeting. The coaches sat on a leather couch and the Bandits circled around.

  Coach Allen stood. “All right, guys, I hope none of you overdid it at lunch. Our first game is on field one at five p.m. I saw some of you eyeing that pool, but it’s off-limits until we have some downtime. If we have downtime. I want you fresh for this game. So get to your rooms and get off your feet so we can give it everything we’ve got. Drink plenty of water.”

  Jalen looked around to see if anyone had questions, but every mouth might have been drawn with a ruler. His arm stiffened as he argued with himself. Gertzy sounded convincing, but he may have been wrong. And in other tournaments Jalen had been in, it was normal for the lowest seed to play the top in round one. But if they were playing Lakeland, you’d think the coach would talk about it. Jalen kept his arm down, determined not to ask a stupid question.

  “Okay, that’s it then.” The coaches stood to go. “Back here at four fifteen, dressed and ready to go. We’ll walk to the field and have a half hour to warm up.”

  In small groups the Bandits headed back to their rooms in the dormitory. Jalen dragged his feet until he was even with Coach Allen. “Uh, Coach, can I talk to you?”

  Coach stopped and turned to his assistant. “Miller, I’ll meet you at the gift shop in two. What’s up, Jalen?”

  “Um, Coach, I was just wondering if it’s true that we play the Lakeland team tonight.”

  “I thought you knew baseball better than that.” Coach Allen scowled. “In the MLB divisional round, the wild card plays the top seed. In the Road to the Final Four, the sixteenth seed plays number one, number fifteen plays number two, and so on.”

  “I get it!” Jalen felt like he was falling backward off a ladder. “I just wanted to tell you what we heard during lunch—in case you wanted to make some adjustments.”

  “Adjustments.” Coach Allen stared.

  “If they save Biruk Royal for what they might think is a better team—which a kid who probably knows said they’re doing—maybe we could surprise them.” Jalen met his coach’s stare. “Also, I was thinking. I don’t have to worry about keeping my… thing a secret because of JY’s trade to Atlanta. So, I could maybe help the whole team with batting.”

  Coach Allen’s face softened. “Of course I’ve been thinking about your genius ‘thing.’ I haven’t pushed you on it because I don’t know if it can even work at this level. I know it helped in Boston, but you knew that kid’s pitching style forward, backward, and sideways. And, the guys you were helping were two of our most advanced players. So I appreciate the offer, but you need to tell me if my concern is real.”

  Jalen nodded. “You’re right. I don’t know if it will work at this level, but I’m up for trying if you are.”

  Coach Allen tapped the bill of Jalen’s cap. “Let me think about it and talk it through with Coach Miller. You don’t need to know this minute, do you?”

  “Do you know when they’ll warm up?” Jalen asked. “Seeing some pitches before the game will help me get in the zone.”

  “From four o’clock to four thirty, but don’t plan on anything yet. I’ll figure things out and text you.” Coach Allen held out a fist. “And Jalen, I like where your head’s at.”

  Jalen bumped his coach’s fist and felt much better on his way back to the room.

  54

  BACK IN THEIR ROOM, GERTZY already had the TV on and was watching MLB: The Rundown—a preview of the night’s upcoming games. “They haven’t gotten to our game against Lakeland yet,” Gertzy j
oked.

  It wasn’t long before Fanny and Daniel arrived, all hyped up.

  Jalen looked up from his phone and sniffed. “Why do I smell puke?”

  Fanny wore a grin made for mischief. Cradled in his arm was the airsickness bag. “Don’t worry, my friend, this treat is no longer meant for you.”

  “For me! Why would that be meant for me?”

  “I said it’s not, so let’s let sleeping dogs lie, no?” Fanny raised an eyebrow.

  “Yeah,” Jalen grumbled. “All right. So, what’s it for?”

  “I think I’m a pretty swell guy,” said Fanny with a humble sigh as he sat down on the desk chair, blocking the TV. “And I think I’m somewhat flexible with my humor. No one laughs more at himself than Fanny.”

  He showed his smile all around to prove it. “But even a big-boned, gentle Funny Fanny has his limits, and I don’t think it will shock anyone to learn that one of those limits is ‘Fatso.’ There is nothing, and I mean nothing, funny about ‘Fatso.’ It’s just rude.”

  “Totally rude,” Daniel agreed, rubbing Fanny’s wide shoulders like he was a boxer preparing to fight. Not that Fanny needed encouragement. “I’m in your corner, champ.”

  Fanny cranked his head around, showing appreciation for Daniel’s fight theme. “So Fanny has a plan.”

  “You mean Daniel has a plan,” Daniel joked.

  “When Fanny approves a plan and Fanny is taking all the risk, it’s a Fanny plan.” Fanny gave Daniel a dark look until his roommate agreed.

  “What’s the planny, Fanny?” Gertzy asked.

  “I followed Blondy to the Legacy Hotel—”

  Gertzy shrugged, confused.

  “The kid in the orange cap who punked Fanny,” Daniel explained. “You know, his team is from some town in Arkansas I can’t remember the name of, but they call themselves the Dirtbags.”

  “No way,” Gertzy exclaimed.

  “Daniel does not lie. I found it on the Internet. They are the Something, Arkansas Dirtbags.”

  “I can see why they don’t have any logo on those orange caps,” Jalen said.