Not behind the mask!

got to the game at Round Rock’s Optimist Park; my partner, an older gent, told me: "I always take the plate." Sounds like my editor. "Besides," he said, "I heard that neither team wants to see you on the plate." He said he didn’t feel like getting into trouble.

About 10 years later, I got a 1A [smallest school in Texas] high school game in Florence. My partner drove. That time I got the plate because my partner told me that he did the driving and would buy me a burger with some of the mileage money. His last words before we went onto the field were: "Don’t screw up!" I knew he was worried about what would happen that day. "Got your cup on?"

Moving from one high school chapter to another, I found that my reputation always followed me. People seemed to know about me before I got there. After a while, you grasp that stuff even if you’re as hardheaded as I am.

Continued...