Today is the day. Its game day. Today is

Today is the day. Its game day. Today is the most important game day there is. Its the opening game. Our very first game. I'm ready to play some ball.

struck out like nobody's business. I dragged ass back to the dug out and slumped next to "Chippy" the bat boy. I was in a nose dive. I let the sunflower seeds in one cheek drift ov

er to the other. Then back to the first. I couldn't decide. Left or right? Which was better? Perhaps neither? Was that possible? The dugout was a lonely place, at bat now was

making me consider that the dugout was a better place to be. I decided to go right. All of a sudden,

Along came Jones. Slow walking Jones. I saw his head just over that mesquite. I knew right off that that was Jones because his yellow hat. I also knew that meant I would bleed out.

My body always reacted like that when I saw yellow or ten gallon hats. Jones jeered at me. I ran to the nearest medicine cabinet. "What sort of first aid kit is this?" There were

Horse remedies and goat remedies. Nothing for humans. I grabbed my hat and ran to the nearest general store. They had quinine. I took it and felt better. Then I left town.

I hopped aboard a slow moving steam train rolling just past the edge of town, and swatted away the mosquitoes swarming all over. A voice called out in the dark... "if you're going

to squish one of us, you're going to have to squish us all." It was the mosquitoes. They only way out was to apologize and to stop swatting, but instinct got the better of me.