A High Five for Glenn Burke: Chapters 1–9

But I’m wearing my Renegades uniform today because today’s the day.

“Unlike his Dodgers teammates, he hadn’t been slugging home runs all season. The rookie was still looking for his very first home run in the big leagues.”

“When Glenn Burke reached the dugout, his teammates greeted him with handshakes and helmet rubs.”

Webb doesn’t like it when we taunt the other team, and the only reason he’s letting us is that the Titans have been taunting us since the first inning of the opener.

Coach Trent, his brother and the Renegades head coach the last four seasons, has always been our third-base coach, but between games of last week’s doubleheader against the Fury, he blew out his Achilles tendon and had to have surgery.

Coach Trent, his brother and the Renegades head coach the last four seasons, has always been our third-base coach, but between games of last week’s doubleheader against the Fury, he blew out his Achilles tendon and had to have surgery.

Webb’s coached only three games at third, and I already know he’s a much more aggressive coach than his brother. Make the fielder make the catch, and make the fielder make the throw—that’s his approach to the game.

Theo taps the plate with his bat and gets into his stance.

“Your best friend builds robots and programs computers,” she says. “You know all about private browsers, going incognito, deleting your history, and doing whatever you need to do to hide where you’ve been the instant your father or I appear.”

“I think this one’s different. She’s showing more initiative than the others. A lot more initiative.”

Semaj was supposed to be a boy—at least according to every sonogram—and my parents were going to name her James.

I shake my cleats off my hands and strum the front console with my sock-covered fingers.

“Three weeks till the big tourney."

“I love finding anachronisms in movies and shows.”
“Anach-cro-say-what?” I ask.
“Anachronisms,” she says. “Chronological errors. Like in the movie Back to the Future, in the scene where Marty McFly plays ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ the Gibson guitar he’s playing didn’t exist in 1955. Anachronisms.”

Ben-Ben, Jason, and Luis are sitting on the grass along the first-base line, while the rest of the Renegades, including Webb and Coach Rockford, are behind the backstop.

For hamstring stretches, one person lies on the grass on his back with his leg straight up, while the other person leans in and slowly presses the leg a little higher.

“Hitting, agility and speed, infield, and outfield,” he says. “As you go from station to station, we’ve targeted specific skill areas we want you focusing on. Put in the extra work this afternoon.”

“Hear, hear,” Coach Rockford says. “Perception is reality.”

I run my fingertip along the parquet wood floor.

“I didn’t want anyone barging in on our conversation.”