The New Guy...

[AstrosFan183]

(Note: This is heavily influenced by the works of John Tunis, a sports author that wrote around the 40s. This takes just a bit after his books take place, in the 40s. And, its the same team. But completely different players)

(Also, this is not based on the NBL, or any historical players...though one or two real players may be mentioned, they won't be a main character)

Chapter 1

"Times not treating ya good, Joe?"
"Well, its not that..." Joe replied, shrugging.
"Well what is it then?" The store clerk asked.
"Well, I got payed OK last year with the Yanks..."
"I heard you ain't got nothing since your glory days on the Cards" The clerk interrupted
"Well, It wasn't league minimum. But, I have to send some money off to my family, you know? They are going through rough times." Joe said, sadly.
"Oh, sorry to hear that"
"Yea, it doesn't leave much money for me, but enough to live on" Joe said
"So, I heard you got picked up by Brooklyn. Any truth to that?" The clerk asked.
"Yea, Im heading over there tomorrow to meet up with the GM."
"So, how much you getting payed there?" The clerk looked up from his register
"Well, a little more than at New York"
"So a little more money for yourself?"
"Well, maybe"
Joe left the store, to hear a "Your a good man Joe" behind him, from the store's clerk. He went his way, before a car pulled over.
"Hey Joe, you wanna leave tonight?" It was one of the Dodgers scouts, they had sent him over to give Joe a ride from St. Louis to Brooklyn.
"I got some stuff to do, Dave, maybe tomorrow." Joe headed home, and unpacked some of his groceries, and made a sandwich. He ate it quickly. He would be glad once baseball season started, when he could eat with the team for free. But for now, it was cheap lunches.
He washed his hands and started packing. The first two things he got was his homerun ball, donated to him by a fan, that he had hit during the world series. He was only 27 then, now he was 33. He also grabbed his glove, it was one of the only nice things he had. And the extra padding was needed for when they hit those hard line drives to him at second.
He packed a few small items, then went on to bed. The next day, he would meet some of the people from his team. He only hoped they were as nice as the Cards management...or at least as nice as Dave, the scout. He drifted lazily into sleep. He dreamed of him being MVP and more. If only that dream could become reality....




I know, its short. But oh well. I wanted to save the next day for another chapter.

[AstrosFan183]

I don't know who's reading this, but I wanted to continue it. I forgot my original ending idea though, but I'll improvise, if I get to the ending.

Chapter 2

"Miller, get your lazy ass over here!"
"Yes sir!"
The Dodgers coaching staff wasn't exactly...
"Now give me 20, slack off"
"But sir, I was just helping the rook..."
"I DONT GIVE A DAMN"
You know..nice
Joe didn't know what he was expecting, but now this. He dropped down and gave the coach 20 push-ups. He felt disgraced, doing this as a grown man. But hey, he was getting payed. The season was a week away, and the team was working hard to get in shape.
Joe wasn't nearly as fast as he used to be, but the coach wasn't taking that for an excuse. He was having Joe miles and miles every day. He was making Joe work out harder than ever too. It would help him hit home runs and steal bases at least...
The coaches also made him take batting practice every day. In his prime, he was a 320/25 homer hitter (Though, his prime had only lasted maybe 2 years). The year before he was a .243/11 homer hitter. They wanted him to be a 350/35 Home-run hitter.
"That's ludicrous!!!" he said when he first heard.
"Do you want to be on this team?" the coach retorted
Joe kept quiet after that.
And so, he was working harder than ever to get in shape, to be ready. Three fifty and thirty five homers seemed impossible. Hell, it was impossible, at least for him.
"Psh, they don't pay me enough" Joe muttered, and got back to work.



PS. this one is going to have pretty short chapters to make it easy to read and to agree with my attention span

[Triforcemaster3]

Perhaps its a good idea to go with short chapters, like you said.

The story I'm writing wouldn't make any sense with 3 paragraph chapters though. Not like this. This looks to be a good honest baseball story. Compared with the epic adventure I'm attempting, its simple. But its good, and I hope you can stay with this along with your other story. I do like the difference in writing style, its almost like a scene out of post-WW2 middle class America.

[AstrosFan183]

BTW, I wrote the 3rd chapter in school, just have to type it up. Maybe later today