Week 3 Travel Tone

We put the equipment under the bus. It was our baseball team's first games of the year. Unlike previous years, we had a black player on the team, named Marcus.

"What are these for?" he asked. The back of the seats on the bus had things that looked like handles.

"I don't know," another player said.

"Hey Winston! Wake up!" Markus said, pulling on the handle and shaking the seat ahead of him. Winston woke up abruptly.

After laughing for a bit, "I was right at that point where I was about to fall asleep," Winston said.

"Your eyes were as large as dinner plates," Marcus said. "But anyways, what are these handles for?"

"Probably for old people to be able to stand up," I said.

"Ah, yeah that's probably it."

Later Marcus moved back. The coach came back to count.

"Where's Marcus?" he asked.

"In the back of the bus where he should be," a player said.

Marcus doesn't mind these types of jokes.

After our first games, which we lost, we headed to the hotel. The coaches said that they would order pizza, and each room would get one. Instead, they ended up just setting them all in the lobby and everyone just started eating there.

I went back and told the person I was rooming with, Bobby, who was in the shower. I ended up managing to get some for him, since it all disappeared rapidly.

We walked to the store later. Last year, some players walking to this store were accosted by a homeless man who said he was living in a cardboard box, and asked for money. Nothing of the sort happened to us, and we headed back.

The person I was rooming with, Bobby, tried to make a call with the hotel room's phone. It said outside the hotel, start the number with 9, and then add 1 for long distance. Then he did 1-207... But it didn't let him get that far, since he had just put in 911. He was connected to emergency services, and had to give his name and address. Five minutes later a police officer showed up at our room and asked him the same questions.

Our games the next day were against the University of New Hampshire, which of course were expected to be difficult. We played on their turf soccer field with collapsible fence and wooden mound. Heavy winds played with the ball, and there were a few fielding mistakes on the day. We lost the first game badly, we were actually getting no hit until I hit a double in the last inning before we were mercied.

In the second game, I went 2-3 with an RBI. After my second single, our Puerto Rican recruit doubled the deep right center, and I scored from first. The catcher tried to block the plate with his foot, but I slid into it and tipped him over.

This was more fun than I had in most wins that we had. We were still down 15-6, but I was more excited than I had been in any other game before. I accidentally high fived our equipment manager in the face.

On the bus on the way back, Marcus woke up Winston again. Then Marcus stuck a chewing tobacco sticker on the Puerto Rican's head. The Puerto Rican stuck it on Winston's head.

"What's this?" Winston said.

"Put it on the Jack's head," I said.

"Yeah, do it," Bobby said.

"Good job today Jack," Winston said, patting the equipment manager's head.

"Thanks Winston, so did you."

The equipment manager never noticed the sticker being placed on his hat. He went for maybe another hour talking to people with a sticker on his hat.

"He still hasn't noticed," I said.

"Hey Jack, I like your hat," Bobby said.

"Thanks Bobby, I like yours too," he replied.

"I like the top of your hat," Bobby said.

"Thanks?"

"I like the button on the very top of your hat."

Jack finally took it off and looked at it.

"Oh, wow, how long has that been on there?" he asked.

"All day," Bobby said.

"Seriously?!"

"Yeah, someone put it on you this morning," I said. "I didn't see who."

"That was me," Bobby said.

"Wow, I've been walking around with this on my hat all day? I feel like an idiot now," Jack said.

Later, I said to Bobby: "He probably never would have noticed if you didn't point it out."

"Yeah, he's so dumb, watch this," Bobby said. "What did Winston say when he put the sticker on?"

"Good job today Jack," I said.

"Okay," Bobby walked over and sat next to Jack.

"Good job today Jack," he patted the equipment manager's head.

"Same to you Bobby," Jack said.

Bobby laughed and looked back at me.

"Does this seem familiar?" he asked, patting Jack's head still.

After a minute- "Oh, it was Winston that put the sticker on," Jack said.

It was all good natured playing with him, he doesn't mind either. And even though our coach always says that it's never fun to lose, I think it can be more fun than winning sometimes.