Chapter Seventeen
Next Play
Jebediah released the ball from his fingertips, and it hurled forward, screaming through the air. It traveled at a terrific speed, spinning as it went. But though the ball reached an impressive velocity… it came nowhere near the strike zone.
It went so high, it traveled well over the heads of the catcher and the umpire alike, and collided with the backstop, rattling the chain link fence.
“Ball One!” called the umpire.
Upon seeing the wild pitch, Neil raced from third base, making a mad dash for home. He slid into the plate amid a plume of dust and dirt, and the umpire signaled that he was safe. He stole home easily, while Cletus was busy chasing after the errant ball.
The lead of the Summer Squashes was now cut to only one run. Additionally, the base runners each advanced. Sara moved to third base, and Maria went to second.
“Confound it!” cried Jasper. He grasped at his hair with one hand, and with the other, he seized his broom so tightly that his knuckles turned white. “What was that? Focus, boy, focus!”
Jebediah fumed, and hung his head, and kicked at the dirt of the mound with the toe of one cleat. He caught the baseball as it was thrown back to him, after Cletus had tracked it down by the backstop.
Meanwhile, Neil jogged back to the dugout. He received high-fives from his whooping teammates, and his dad playfully slapped him atop his batter’s helmet.
Jasper glowered at their revelry, and then hollered at his son. “No mistakes!”
But Jebediah’s next pitch was no better than the first. This one went into the ground about six feet shy of home plate. The ball skipped off the earth and bounced wildly, and Cletus once more went scurrying to the backstop to chase it down.
As the catcher was trying to corral the wayward baseball, Sara sprinted from third base in an effort to steal home. Jebediah ran to cover the plate, but his brother was too late retrieving the ball and getting it back to him. Sara dove headfirst into home, and avoided the tag that Jebediah belatedly tried to apply.
Sara dusted herself off and returned to the dugout. It was now a tie game, and the Beans were going wild! They engulfed Sara with bear-hugs and high-fives, and Nibbler scurried about everybody’s knees, woofing with excitement. The spectators who watched from the bleachers applauded and cheered.
Maria had advanced from second base to third on the wild pitch. The way things were going, there seemed to be a good chance that she was going to be able to score on yet another wild pitch, and secure a win for the Beans.
“Codswallop and hickory sticks! What’s going on out there?” Jasper demanded.
“Aw, take it easy on him, you’re being mean. You’re being a big meanie,” Coach said, and the Beans giggled.
“Jasper’s a big meanie!” Lefty confirmed, calling out from where he leaned against the fence.
“It’s true!” Chief Fresco wisely opined. “He’s a first-rate meanie, all right!”
Jebediah’s third pitch was a continuation of his downward spiral. He pulled it so hard to the left that it ended up skittering into the dugout of the Summer Squashes. As bad as the first two pitches had been, this was the least accurate pitch he had yet thrown during the at-bat. It might have even been the worst pitch of his entire life.
Fortunately for his team, the ball ricocheted off of a water cooler, and bounced back into the field of play. It came right toward Jebediah, who quickly scooped it up with his bare hand, preventing Maria from advancing to home from third base.
“Sweet sassafras, boy!” Jasper cried. He grasped his mahogany broom between both hands, and the muscles of his forearms rippled and twisted, as he flexed his might in pure exasperation. A lesser wood surely would have snapped at the applied pressure. “Your next pitch had better be a strike, or I’ll pull you out of this game right now! Don’t think I won’t!”
“Meanie!” Lefty commented.
Jebediah lowered his head and fumed. He muttered under his breath as he tried to gather his confidence, which was generally ever-present, but had dwindled considerably.
Unfortunately for Jasper, there was a terrible irony to his demands for perfection… The more pressure he put on his players, the less likely it was that they would perform with that desired level of excellence.
But this escaped Jasper entirely. Though the Summer Squashes were a good team, led by his strong sons, the players were pushed too hard, and conditioned to believe that any mistake they made was unforgivable. As a result, they played tight, and they were prone to making more mistakes.
Instead of thinking positively about what lay ahead, the players would remain hung up on the last mistake they had made. When a player was thinking about a previous bad play – instead of focusing on the play at hand – they were apt to commit yet another error, and get bogged down in a negative cycle.
By contrast, the Green Beans played with a complete absence of such pressure. Coach had not conditioned his team to play under self-imposed anxiety, as Jasper had. Instead, he had emphasized the fact that baseball should be played for fun, and only fun. It wasn’t about winning, but about having a good time with friends.
Following in this positive mentality, the Beans had recently adopted a new motto. In light of the bad turn of events that had transpired, concerning Jack’s dad (and their assistant coach), they had found themselves getting unusually down. This negative energy had been sapping the Beans of their good vibes, and their positive perspective on life. They had been too glum, and they had not been having nearly enough fun. Consequently, they had been playing sluggishly, uninspired, and without their usual level of energy and enthusiasm.
In response to this dilemma, Coach introduced the new team motto: “Next Play.”
It was not just a sports phrase… it was a life philosophy. Recently, they had spent far too much time worrying about what had gone wrong. About what could have been. About what they should have done differently.
One day not long ago, Coach had gathered his players at the end of practice. He had told them that there could be no changing of the past… It was in the history books. It was pointless to dwell on those earlier mistakes. Ruminating upon those errors only served to make them prone to make more of the same, as well as diminishing the quality of their lives.
It was necessary to learn from their mistakes, for those who failed to do so were doomed to repeat the errors of history. But there was a great difference between remembering past errors, and obsessing over them. They could not afford to let those past failures prevent them from focusing on the present moment, and what awaited them next.
So Coach had gathered the Green Beans, and told them their new motto: “Next Play.” They would not focus on a past mistake, no matter what it was. Instead, they would purge their minds of those negative thoughts, and focus only on the next play.
If you made an error in the field – no worries. You didn’t dwell on the past mistake. You focused on the next batter, and how you would do your part to contribute to the team defense. If you struck out at the plate – no problem. You wiped that memory from your mind, and focused on your next at-bat.
If they spent their minutes and hours and days focusing on things that had gone wrong, they would become paralyzed with doubt and despair. They had to look forward. The choice – between wallowing in past failures, or committing to their futures – was up to them.
They would focus, Coach decided, on the next play. Past mistakes were of no consequence, for they were in the rearview mirror. There was only the next play. The Beans would devote their energies not to a past error, but on what could be done to create a positive outcome for the present moment.
“You’ve made enough mistakes this inning, boy!” Jasper hollered to his son. “I’ll yank you right out of this game, and don’t you make the mistake of thinking I won’t do it!”
“Lighten up, will ya?” Coach asked of Jasper. He then directed his attention to Jack. “Take a swing, if you see something you like. No pressure, J
ack. Just like in practice!”
Jack dug his cleats into the batter’s box. Jebediah ground his teeth and glowered. Jasper shook his mahogany broom from the dugout of the Summer Squashes, and Nibbler woofed happily from the bench of the Green Beans.
Having already thrown three wild pitches, Jebediah felt the pressure mounting to deliver a solid strike. He had a wicked fastball, but he was not known for his finesse. Now that he was experiencing a first class meltdown, he could no longer hurl his best pitch with confidence. His coach was threatening to remove him, and the game was on the line.
As a result, Jebediah did something that he very rarely tried… he took some muscle off of his fastball. He felt that he had to do everything in his power to ensure that the next pitch did not fly wild. Rather than winding up for his customary heater of a pitch, he threw the ball softly, as if in a friendly game of catch. He sacrificed speed, in the hopes of gaining increased control.
Terrified of making another mistake, Jebediah held his breath as the ball traveled toward the catcher’s mitt of Cletus. It floated over home plate, and Jack, liking what he saw, took a swing. It was a hearty cut, and as Lefty had suggested, Jack swung for the fences.
The Green Beans, Volume 2: The Strange Genius of Lefty O'Houlihan Page 17
