Ryan, Can You Come Here Please

It was another beautiful day at Kapps Field and first pitch was about to take place. It was a 2P.M. start to the game, but we always insisted to turn the lights on to make it feel like we were in the big leagues. It was the classic matchup between my best friend Schuyler (pronounced Skyler), who now attends Gould Academy and I, against my Dad. We had just had a 3-0 victory the day before, so Dad, who we all call “Brick” was hungry for a win.

Play Ball!!!! We took the field ready for an easy win. After the first inning, Schuyler was dominant on the mound allowing one hit, and two strikeouts. Since we have short numbers, we only play two outs an inning. When Brick took the mound, he was not his usual self. His usual happy smile was replaced with a motivating grin. Schuyler led off expecting to reach base easily. For the first time all season, he struck out. I was then up and also struck out to end the inning, something was not right.

Schuyler let up two his in the next inning, but still no runs. When we went to hit in the bottom of the second, we were confident we would do better. Two up, two down, two strikeouts for us. Brick was throwing “heat” and we did not know what to do. We were getting embarrassed, outplayed, and started to turn on eachother.

We reached the bottom of the 5th and we still did not have a hit. It was still a 0-0 game, but Brick had runners in scoring position every inning. In the top of the 6th, is when things took a turn for the worst. Schuyler walked the first batter. I began to get annoyed and started yelling mean comments to him like “Are you kidding me, you are the worst pitcher ever” and “why are we on the same team ” Now, these do not seem like overly mean comments, but we were only ten years old. Schuyler continued to throw balls and his attitude slowly started to turn until I pushed him over the edge. I do not remember exactly what I said, but he looked at me and said “fine, why don’t you just pitch then?” and threw the ball hard off the ground and ran away crying.

At that moment, I did not realize I had done anything wrong and threw a strike. Brick did not say anything, he just gave me one of his “are you kidding me” looks where you know you did something wrong. Schuyler had just run off to the trampoline so I went to over to join him. As soon as I did, I heard the old sliding side door of our house be pushed open by my mom who yelled “Ryan, can you come here please?” My Mom rarely calls me Ryan, it is usually “honey”, “sweetie” or “Kapp”, so when I heard her yell “Ryan” I knew I was in trouble. As I ran from the field to the house, I realized I had just inadvertently hurt my best friend.

After the long, very scary talk with my Mom, I ran back to the trampoline where Brick was throwing Schuyler a football. I apologized to him and explained how I got carried away in the game and did not mean any of what I said. I realized that words said initially in jest can still be hurtful. He forgave me and we quickly went back to being best friends.

We were then able to finish our intense game. I do not remember the outcome of the game, but I learned how to be a better friend/ person and knew I would never hurt anyone like that again. I’m sorry Schuyler.