"Here we go again," groans senior Brett Goff already dripping in the afternoon heat of late August on the University of Louisville baseball field. "It's a clusterfuck when they alternate right and left side infield practice."
He was right about the complexity of simultaneous grounders with two receiving first basemen. It took concentration to follow the baseballs criss-crossing the grassy infield. Fortunately, intense focus was one of my strengths.
I’d had a similarly complicated first practice two days earlier on the football field. I'd joined the line of receivers, thinking there'd be a better chance of making the team at that position even though I'd been a running back in high school. The first few drills found me matching the five other freshmen on post and flag routes that have a simple cut and sprint for the ball. Then head coach Vince Gibson called for a quick out pattern from his mid-field pedestal.
The other freshmen receivers were from Florida where they'd played five-on-five all spring, a fast game of precision passing football. Their routes were quick with crisp cuts and precise yardage that the talented quarterbacks hit perfectly with timed passes. My inexperienced patterns were clunky with choppy cuts and arrival too late for the sideline passes.
Two embarrassing performances in two days on the weight bench and now as a receiver - that was enough for me to seek out the baseball coach on the third morning.
"I can't tell you who's next," smirks Goff after a perfect throw as another freshman and I both step into the vacated shortstop position.
"I've got the scholarship," grins little Richie Cunningham dropping into his fielding stance as a third baseman gloves a grounder and tosses it to first.
"We'll see," I mutter, following suit with knees bent and hands ready.
"Cunningham," calls Coach Zerilla tossing a ball and hammering a fungo right at his chosen shortstop of the future.
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