Page 56 of The Yips

Me: Are you hungry? I picked up some chicken and made a salad.

Sam: I’m starved.

Me: Ok, I’ll start cooking now.

Sam’s oven was more complicated than it looked, but I’d been able to preheat it and had the chicken breast ready when he walked in the door. While researching, I also realized that it connected to WiFi and had an app, so I downloaded that and wondered what I would ever do with wireless access to an oven.

“Sorry, it’s not that creative. I wasn’t sure what you would eat, so I stuck with the leanest meat I could think to make.”

Sam made a plate piled on several chicken pieces and scooped out an oversized salad. “I usually have meals premade for me. This is perfect. Thank you.”

“My book was great, thank you.”

“Please don’t thank me for buying you a book.”

“I’m not, but I’m thanking you for suggesting that I take time to read. I used to love reading. I lost that part of myself, and it felt great to get it back. I also made great headway on the proposal.”

“Can we look at it together later?”

“Of course. Oh, why did Colby throw the change-up to Peterson? He should have known that it wouldn’t go well.”

“Did you watch the game?” Sam asked, as he barely contained his excitement.

“Yeah, I figured I would try to learn a bit about your work. That was a tough loss tonight.”

“Well, we’re not quite halfway through the season. There’s still some time to get it together. If we can do well against New York this week before the break, we’ll be close enough to them in the standings to be competitive.”

“But what about Baltimore?”

“Yeah, probably not going to happen. But the wild card is still on the table.”

“If you had to look back at the end of your career and determine whether it was good, what would you want to have accomplished?”

“Every pitcher dreams of a perfect game.”

“You did that. What’s next?”

“I want a ring.”

“Because your dad has four?”

“No. My career stopped being about my dad a long time ago. The sports shows will compare us, but there’s a fundamental difference in how we play the game.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll show you videos of him playing. He played most games hungover, which is scary because he dominated thegame in the 90s. Had he quit drinking, he would have been able to continue playing much longer. He also wasn’t afraid to play dirty. One of his records was for the most ejections in a single season. Who knows what records he would have broken if he’d been able to quit drinking.”

We finished eating, cleared the plates, and stacked everything in the dishwasher.

“Shower with me?” he asked.

“Absolutely.”

“Is it me or my shower you love so much?”

“Can I plead the fifth?”

Sam chuckled as we made our way up the stairs.

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