SCENE : Several years ago, American Legion baseball game
Trenton Acadians hosting Piscataguis Navigators (let's just call 'em 'Gators)
ACT I : Upon arrival ,we were greeted by a gentleman with a foreign accent, yelling : DE UMPIRES ARE HERE, LET'S ALL CHEER FOR DE UMPIRES !!!"
I soon found out he was an Israeli doctor working at a local hospital .. He had twins playing for the 'Gators- sibling (boy-girl) twins. Let's call them Joseph & Josephine
.
ACT II : The 'Gators had but 11 players, the twins remained on their bench eagerly pounding their gloves in unison.
.
ACT III : Top of the 9th, 'Gators trailing 16-0, coach announced his pinch hitters : "Joseph will bat second, Josphine will bat third.
"
ACT IV : Joseph swung wildly and struck out on 3 pitches.Teammates started packing their equipment. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
ACT V : Little Josephine, dug in and bent over hoping to walk, frist pitch- "STR I K E O N E", I YELLED .
ACT VI : Josephine looked back at me with fear in her eyes
.I then had a flashback to several years prior, my kid sister had called with a delima. Her son, Avery, had
just returned from his little league game. "How did it go, Avery? " ,she inquired. He burst into tears :'( and said : " I made the last out
". " How bad was that?",
she asked
.I responded : "It doesn't get much worse than that,Sis,...but a cure could be a trip to the Dairy Queen
!'.
ACT VII : Back to Trenton, I muttered to the catcher : "Unless she swings at it, catch, she's not going to strike out." He responded : "Fine with me, ump
!".
Next pitch was right down the middle,"BALL" I yelled. Pitcher scowled, catcher responded "Little low, Lefty"
Following pitch was the same. Catcher, giggled and said : "little high that time, Lefty
" Lefty smiled
Leftly just lobbed in the next two, I yelled : "BALL FOUR..TAKE YOUR BASE
"
Josephine yelled "WHEE.." and skiped down to first .Her teammates all started cheering her..
ACT VIII : I was thru with Josephine, but Lefty wasn't as he threw the ball 10 feet over the firstbaseman's head. Her teammates were screaming : "RUN, JOSEPHINE,RUN !"
Her coach asked her to just stay at second. The new batter asked me if he got the same strike zone ,I said he might make the last out. He responded that he wanted to
make the last out. Swinging at a pitch around his eyes and popped to short. All the 'Gators rushed from their dugout, led by her dad , to greet Josephine. Her dad picked
her up and placed her on his shoulders, yelling : "HOW YOU HUSTLE...HOW YOU HUSTLE
!"
ACT IX : A few weeks later, a Bangor Daily New reporter interviewed her. She said that on the plane ride over , she wanted to Americanize herself and read that baseball was
America's National Pastime. She knew that she would be playing softball in high school, but by playing on the American Legion team would help her to learn some of the
basics. The scribe then asked what the highlight of her season was ? She replied : "That was easy, IT WAS DOWN IN TRENTON WHEN I WALKED AND STOLE SECOND "
