Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:22:46 -0700
From: Douglas DD DD <thehakaanen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Diamond Dreams  Chapter 41

Welcome back to another chapter in the lives of the baseball players
of Mayfield. Please, donate to Nifty. And be safe—always.

This chapter covers the Falcons summer baseball season as Marty's
class prepares to enter their senior year and Eric's class their junior
year. They pick up a surprise pitcher for their tournament in Reno.
Enjoy the baseball, as well as the Reno surprise.


CHAPTER 41
SUMMER BALL—THE BIGGEST LITTLE CITY...


The Mayfield High School Mustangs were disappointed they had lost
their one game in Regionals, but they were not downcast. They
finished their season with a 16-8 record, had defeated some excellent
teams in the postseason to make it to the Regionals, and had proven
to themselves that they could play with the best. Summer ball would
be the time to move from being a very good, but young team, to a
team that was ready to step up to the status of an elite team.

The first good news for the summer Mayfield Falcons was that
Rodney hadn't been seriously hurt when he stuck his hand out to stop
a line drive. It was bruised and he wouldn't be able to pitch for a
couple of weeks, but he would be fine. While Rodney was out, Eric
and Scott would become more important as starting pitchers, and
secondary starters like Lars and Vince would have to step up to a
regular role.

This would be an interesting and exciting summer for Mayfield
baseball players. There would be significant moments for individuals,
groups, and the team. What will be covered here will be just a few of
those highlights.

The biggest highlight for the team would be their July trip to Reno. No
matter what their experiences were, nothing got in the way of their
anticipation of the most ambitious trip the Mayfield travel team had
scheduled in its brief history. This was the result of the Go to State
Team's planning and fund raising for the past year.

<Noah and his siblings>

The McCall family took their annual Memorial Day weekend trip to
Eastern Washington and the lake resort where they loved staying.
Noah, Nicky, and Lisa each invited a friend, and all three friends
accepted. Noah invited Eric, Nicky invited Jeffrey, and Lisa invited
Tonya.

Saturday involved swimming, biking, boating, water skiing, and as
much other activity as the family and friends could muster. Saturday
evening found the parents heading up the road to meet with their
bridge playing friends. Mrs. McCall reminded the kids to behave
themselves. She knew there were plenty of games to keep them
amused, plus they had movies to watch.

However, once the parents left, what the teens and preteens had in
mind was sex. But they weren't looking to have a wild and crazy orgy.
Instead, they discussed about doing things they'd frequently talked
about and never followed through on.

"It would be like if we did it here, it didn't really happen," Noah said.
"In other words, there wouldn't be a memory lingering in the house
that kept saying, `this is where I took the cherry of my little brother
Nicky'."

"You're really going to do it to me?" Nicky asked. "For real?"

"If you still want me to," Noah told him.

"Hell, yes I do. I guess you think I'm ready for it."

"Well, you will be twelve on Monday."

"Hell, yes, I will be. And that makes me ready for it. My dick is
growing, my balls are dropping, and pubic hair will be on the way
soon. Time for my big brother to fuck me after promising it for..."he
took a long pause, counted on his fingers, and then raised his high
pitched voice..."FOR ALMOST FIVE YEARS!"

"Can I watch?" Jeffrey asked.

"Well, you are only ten," Noah said.

"Like you didn't know about fucking when you were ten," Nicky told
his brother. "You are such a hypocrite sometimes, Noah." Nicky and
Eric were the only two who could completely stand up to Noah as
equals, mainly because they were each extremely smart and not
intimidated by his intellect.

"I'm almost eleven," Jeffrey said. "Besides I've seen Marty and Rich
do it."

"You have?" Eric and Noah asked at the same time.

"Yep. And more than once, too." Ever since Jeffrey walked in on them
fucking in Marty's apartment, he would beg to watch Rich and Marty
have sex. Usually he was turned down, but he accepted the rebuff
gracefully when Marty explained about how sex was usually a private
thing. He explained to Jeffrey that he probably wouldn't want people
watching the two of them exchanging blow jobs.

Jeffrey agreed, but said Sammy could watch them suck if he wasn't
so young. "Maybe in a couple of years, when he's nine or something.
That would be fun."

But on a few occasions, Rich and Marty allowed Jeffrey to watch
them give each other blow jobs and let him participate. It was the first
time Jeffrey ever swallowed cum other than Marty's.

After a while Marty relented some and let Jeffrey watch them fuck.
Jeffrey would sit on the floor, legs crossed, with Mortimer and Teddy
to either side of him as he jerked off, saying nothing and staying out
of the way. He didn't ask to take part, but he knew in his preteen mind
that one day he would start being a part of the fun.

Noah and Eric kept getting surprises from young Jeffrey. "I'll leave it
up to Nicky." Noah said.

"Jeffrey is my best friend. Of course he can watch," Nicky said.

Nicky, Jeffrey and Noah disappeared into the bedroom being used by
the boys. Jeffrey grabbed Teddy, his "Freddy" bear, and set it on the
floor. The three boys then undressed, all of them displaying teen and
tween boners. Noah's, at fifteen, was the biggest one, of course. He
was five inches hard with a sprinkling of hair in his pubic area.

Nicky, who was two days short of twelve, was just under four inches
with no hint of pubic hair, although he claimed otherwise. "You just
gotta look real close," he insisted. Both Noah and Jeffrey did, but
neither saw a thing.

Jeffrey was almost eleven, and sported a thin, three inch boner. His
entire body was totally smooth. He sat cross-legged as he set his
bear next to him.

"Why do you keep that bear around?" Nicky asked every time he
visited Jeffrey.

"Because he's a friend of Mortimer. Mortimer and me help keep Marty
sober. Marty is seventeen and Mortimer is good for him, so Teddy is
good for me and him both. That's why." After hearing that, Nicky went
through some chests of old possessions and pulled out Growly, his
tattered old Teddy bear, and had it with him whenever Jeffrey came
to his house to visit. He hadn't brought it with him to the lake,
however.

Noah explained to Nicky what was about to happen and how he was
going to make it happen.

"I've seen guys fuck before," Nicky said, "so quit talking and do it."

Noah decided to take his brother's cherry doggy style, although
Jeffrey told Nicky he should be on his back with his legs up, which is
how Rich and Marty usually did it when he watched them. Noah said
that was something he could do another time. The teen eased his
cock into his brother's ass and was soon at work. This was all about
sex, and not about love making. Nicky felt some sharp pain to start,
but he'd practiced for this by often fingering himself and stuffing
various objects up his ass. He let Jeffrey finger fuck him as well.
Noah lasted close to ten minutes before he emptied his loins into his
brother's bowels.

Jeffrey casually jerked himself off as he watched. After Noah
disengaged himself, he suggested that Jeffrey and Nicky should suck
each other off. They had a spirited sixty-nine, both of them having a
quick, satisfying dry cum.

The four teens who had been left behind in the living room didn't just
sit sucking their thumbs. Eric was afraid that Shane would want to
have sex with Tonya, which would leave him with Lisa. While he was
not unhappy he had let Lisa take his cherry, he didn't necessarily
want to do it with her again. Even worse, however, would be Shane
pairing with Lisa, leaving him with Tonya, a girl he barely knew.

What happened, however, was the best case scenario as far as he
was concerned. Lisa, sensing Eric's reluctance to pair with her or
Tonya, said this would be a good time for her to have some girl on girl
fun with Tonya, and they retired to the girls' bedroom. That left Eric
with Shane. Eric gave Shane a shy, embarrassed smile, wondering if
Shane, who he knew was very straight, was horny and wanted to do
something—anything.

"So, does the gay boy want to try sucking me off?" Shane said. "It
would give you three of the four McCall boys. Nobody else could brag
that."

"I guess. I didn't ask Noah if it was okay with him."

"Get real, Eric. Your boyfriend is on the other side of that door fucking
his little brother. He can't complain about you giving me a blow job.
And I'll give you one back as long as you promise not to cum in my
mouth."

"Deal," Eric said, his grin widening.

The two of them stripped. Since they were just wearing t-shirts and
underpants, they were quickly naked. Eric got on his knees and gave
what Shane called an expert blow job, as Eric licked and sucked and
petted Shane's six inch, sixteen year old teen cock. Eric swallowed
Shane's thick cum eagerly.

Shane asked Eric to give him a few minutes to recover his breath. He
then did a decent job on Eric, bringing him close to orgasm. He pulled
off when Eric said he was ready to cum, but didn't flinch when Noah's
boyfriend unloaded over Noah's brother's chest and belly.

"That was fun," Shane said as he wiped himself clean. "Thanks for
helping me out."

"You did pretty well, yourself," Eric said.

"I'd do it again, but tomorrow I want to fuck Tonya."

That never happened as Noah's parents stayed at the cottage and
the group played cards and board games for the evening. They got to
bed late and that, combined with another long day in the sun, had all
of the teens and tweens sound asleep in a hurry. Noah couldn't help
but wonder if his parents did what they did on purpose; one night for
them to play around and one night for family fun. He wouldn't put it
past them.

<Baseball>

By the time school let out on June 15, the Falcons had already played
six games, winning all of them. They were a team with a real sense of
mission, a team that knew it was good, a team that had confidence in
itself, almost to the point of cockiness.

For the most part, the boys were good at policing themselves to make
sure they didn't get too cocky. They'd had a few good lessons on
what happened when they lost sight of their mission. They
remembered that maintaining a level of humility helped keep them on
track. But they also understood that when they set foot on the
baseball field, it was for the purpose of winning. They felt that they
were as good as or better than anybody they played and that they
could defeat anyone in their age group.

Up until this year, they'd had that winning feeling against good and
not so good teams. But now they saw themselves as one of the elite
teams, and their confidence of being able to compete and win held up
against whomever they played. They hadn't felt this way since they
had put together that magical undefeated season in middle school. A
lot happened since to cause them to forget how good they really
were. But growth and maturity had returned that sensation of near
invincibility, only this time they were playing teams that covered a
much wider geographical range than their little middle school league
had.

There was one more thing that kept their egos in check. Coach Miller
monitored them closely, and while he allowed them to police
themselves up to a point, he also knew he was dealing with boys in
the sometimes volatile fifteen to seventeen age range. Occasionally
they simply needed a reminder about who was boss. Added to that,
they all knew Coach Sanders was always lurking in the background.

On the Saturday after school was out, they were able to display just
how good they really were. They left Mayfield early in the morning to
play a doubleheader against a team from Beaverton, Oregon, a
suburb of Portland. The Beaverton team was a good ballclub, having
lost just one game so far. They also thought of themselves as a big
city team, as opposed to the small town Mayfield Falcons. They
couldn't help but look down at a team from a town they had difficulty
finding on a map.

Rodney started the first game, his hand recovered from the bruising it
received at the end of the high school season. He had trouble getting
his rhythm to start the game. Following an outfield fly out, a pair of
singles and a walk found him in a bases loaded jam with one out in
the bottom of the first inning.

The Beaverton Dodger dugout was brimming with confidence. The
upstarts from the small town in Washington were already in trouble.
The Dodger players had talked before the games about how
confident they were that they would sweep the doubleheader, maybe
even ten run them in one or both. The bases loaded situation did little
to ease their overconfidence.

The number six hitter in the order slapped a hard hit ball to short.
Rich had to take a couple of steps to his right to field the ball. The
worst case scenario, as far the Beaverton players were concerned,
was a force at second or the shortstop making the long throw to first.
Either way, the runner from third would score on the out. They all
thought that the Mayfield team had been dumb not to play their infield
in for a play at the plate.

What they didn't understand was that Coach Miller had complete
confidence in his team. When the infielders were drawn in they could
not cover as much ground as they could when they played back. If
the infield had been drawn in, the ball hit to Rich would probably have
gone past him for a hit. While there were situations the coach would
play his infield in, this was not one of them.

What the Dodger players didn't know was how good the Falcon
middle infield was. At this age level, a 4-6-3 double play (second-to
shortstop-to-first) was much more common than a 6-4-3 double play
(shortstop-to second to first). On the 6-4-3, the second baseman had
to catch the ball with his back to the oncoming runner, and pivot to
throw the ball to first while avoiding the runner from first sliding into
second base. It was a much more difficult play. On top of that, Rich
had to move away from second to field the ball, giving him a more
difficult angle with less time to make the throw.

But Rich and Eric had been playing shortstop and second base as a
team since Eric was in sixth grade and Rich was in seventh. They
were both skilled ballplayers, they worked on their plays with
dedication in practice, and even worked on things together outside of
practice. Rich knew where Eric liked the ball tossed in order to handle
it smoothly, while Eric knew where Rich was going to put the ball. Of
course they weren't always perfect at executing the play, but they had
done it together often enough to be much better than average.

Rich fielded the ball, turned quickly and side-armed it to Eric, who
caught it with his foot on the base for the first out, then pivoted toward
first in almost one motion. He fired a bullet to Scott at first to complete
the double play. The imagined rally was over with no runs scoring,
and the Beaverton Dodgers became quickly aware that this was not a
run-of-the-mill small town team they were playing. The Falcons were
as good as their record said they were.

Rodney settled down and pitched five innings of shutout ball. That
was the second thing the Dodgers learned—Rodney was as good as
any pitcher they'd face that summer. Since Rodney hadn't pitched in
awhile, Coach Miller monitored his pitch count carefully. He brought
Rich in to pitch the last two innings, with Justin taking over at
shortstop. Justin was the lone incoming sophomore on the team.

Offensively, Rich rocketed three hard singles and scored two runs,
Marty had a two-run double, and Scott knocked in two runs as well.
The Falcons had a 5-0 lead after five innings. Rich allowed a run in
the sixth, but it wasn't enough for the Beavers, who were surprised by
their 5-1 loss.

Coach Miller was saving Eric and Scott for league play, so he started
Lars at pitcher in the second game, followed by Hunter, Kraig, and
Vince. He called it his pitching by committee. It worked well enough in
the second game as the Falcons hammered out ten hits in an 8-5
win.

The Beavers picked up a whole new respect for the upstarts from
small town Mayfield. They had expected to sweep the doubleheader;
instead got swept themselves. There was no doubt in anybody's
minds that this had not been a fluke.

The Falcons continued with their winning ways, although they didn't
win every game, of course. But the games they lost were to teams as
good as they were, teams with talent and discipline. That included the
team their friends from Tacoma played on. The Falcons split with
them on the Mayfield High School field.

"No doubt you guys are good," Shelby said after the game. "You're as
good as anybody we played this year. We were lucky to beat you in
that first game." The Tacoma team won the first game 4-3, with the
Falcons recovering for a 7-3 win in the second game.

<Monday, July 18>

The season got into mid-July and the Falcons had a 19-3 record.
They had a game coming up on Tuesday and then would be
preparing for their big trip to Reno for a weekend tournament. They
would be flying out of the Portland Airport on Thursday morning. The
Tuesday game would be their second-to-last league game. If they
won, they would clinch first place. There would be one more game
after they returned. The following weekend, they would be in the
Western Washington Area tournament for their age group program.
They won their Tuesday game 7-2 and were ready for their big trip to
Reno.

All of the players on the roster were going to Reno along with a pick-
up pitcher. However, the pick-up pitcher would not be Austin. Austin
couldn't get released by his coach to go because his team had a busy
schedule that weekend. Austin and the Mayfield boys were both
disappointed by that. But the disappointment was negated by a great
piece of news from Coach Sanders.

Ben, the Kentburg ace pitcher, hadn't been able to play any summer
ball because his parents took him on a trip to Scandinavia to visit
relatives. Ben at first objected to going because it interfered with
baseball. He wondered why they couldn't go in August, after baseball
was finished. The answer was that this was the time his father could
get off work. His mother told Ben that this was too good an
opportunity to miss and he was going.

He ended up enjoying the trip. He missed baseball, but he met five
boy cousins aged twelve to sixteen, all of whom spoke fluent English.
Two of the cousins were brothers. They were all soccer players and
taught Ben a thing or two about the game.

Even better, they taught him a thing or two about sex. He ended up
doing something with each of the five boys before he left. He lost his
boy cherry to a cousin who was fifteen, his age. He also ended up in
the ass of the twelve year old cousin and a cousin who was fourteen,
as he lost that part of his virginity. But even more exciting, his fifteen
year old cousin set Ben up with his girlfriend, and he lost his
remaining virginity. He loved how casual everyone was about nudity,
sex, and drinking alcohol. He found sex outdoors incredibly
enjoyable, and enjoyed sex when he was buzzed on booze. He
decided he didn't miss baseball that much after all.

When he got back to Kentburg, he started working out with the
Kentburg team, getting his arm back into shape, as well as his hitting.
He wasn't placed on the roster right away, however. Coach Sanders
was acquainted with the Kentburg coach and asked if he could take
Ben to Reno, where he could get some live action before being
placed on the Kentburg roster.

"Sounds okay to me," the Kentburg coach said. "I was going to call
his name in to the league tomorrow and place him on the roster. We
could use him in the outfield. Ain't nothing wrong with his bat. Now he
can get lit up pitching for you guys instead of for us and be ready to
kick your asses in the area tourney." Mayfield and Kentburg were in
first and fourth place in their league, with the top four teams going to
Area.

"Coach Miller told me he is okay with picking up Ben. I'll tell him
you're good with it, too, and he can get Ben on the tournament
roster."

Ben was excited about the prospect of playing with the Mayfield
team. He liked how they played ball. Coach Miller seemed to be a
much more positive coach than his own summer coach. Plus he
really liked the Mayfield boys. It made no difference to him that half of
them were gay. He'd messed around with his peers and teammates
since he was in sixth grade He'd also gotten into some really serious
sex while he was in Sweden. He had to admit that sex with guys was
almost as good as the afternoon he spent in bed with Astrid, who had
been one hot blonde fourteen year old girl.

The team rented two large vans for the trip to Portland. Flying from
Portland had two advantages over flying from Seattle: it was cheaper
and had easier access. At seven o'clock sharp, Thursday morning,
the Mayfield Falcons left the Mayfield Community Center for their big
trip to Reno.

<July 21-24, Reno, Nevada>

The trip to Reno was everything the team thought it would be. They
played top flight baseball teams and held their own. They spent a lot
of spare time lounging at the hotel pool. Some wandered and
explored on their own, like Eric and Noah. They were excited about
seeing the Reno trench, a cut through the north end of downtown
Reno where trains went under city streets while running through a
double-track concrete trench. Both of them were ready to do some
serious train watching and photography.

Quite a few boys on the team enjoyed their first plane ride on the trip.
Vince, Connor, Marty, Justin, Danny, and Jerome flew for the first
time. That first flight added to the anticipation before they left. All of
the newbies made sure they had window seats reserved.

Connor had a moment when they were landing that would become
the stuff of legend into adulthood for the Mayfield boys. Connor had
never flown before, and was afraid to admit he was nervous about the
process. That would not be a macho thing to say at all.

As the jet approached Reno, he was looking out the window.
Suddenly, he turned nervously to Kevin, saying, "Um...the ground
looks like it's getting fucking close."

"That would be because we're landing, Connor," Kevin said,
surpressing a laugh.

It was a moment that Connor would never live down.

And of course, being who they were, there was also sex. They were
more than pleased to find out that Ben, while he let them know he
wasn't gay, had no problem sticking his dick into a guy's mouth or
with returning the favor. Ben became particularly enamored with Eric.
Their birthdays were only two days apart. They had become very
competitive rivals on the field and had a healthy respect for each
other's pitching abilities. But through the years they had developed an
affinity for one another. Eric saw Ben as a Kentburg player who
wasn't a jerk, and Ben saw Eric in the same way, with an added dose
of esteem added in. He confided to Eric that he no longer had a virgin
ass, but that he didn't want to mess around anally on the trip.

The Falcons had a six o'clock game on Thursday against a team from
Sacramento, so they spent most of their time lounging by the pool or
napping in their rooms. Planning for the Reno trip had started at the
Salinas tournament two years before. The Reno coach invited Coach
Miller and Seth McCall to have lunch with him.

"I like how your kids play," the coach told them. "They play hard and
smart, plus you have some very talented kids. We have a big
tournament out our way every summer. We invite some very tough
teams. I'd love to see that group play in it before graduation hits
them. I think it would be a great experience for them."

Seth agreed, Coach Miller agreed, and, most importantly, the Go to
State Team's board agreed. And now, two years later, they were
enjoying weather in the upper 80s in "The Biggest Little City in the
World."

Coach Miller decided to start Rodney to open the tourney for the
Falcons. He intended to pitch him for three innings in order to have
him available for one more game. Rodney pitched three shutout
innings and left with a 3-0 lead. Vince came in next and gave up two
runs in two innings, leaving with a 5-2 lead. Rich finished the game
with two scoreless innings and the Falcons had themselves a 5-2 win.

There were college coaches and scouts in the stands; Rodney, Rich,
and Marty all caught their eye. None of them had ever heard of
Mayfield, Washington and they knew nothing about it. Some quick
Googling surprised almost all of them. Considering the talent level of
the team, they thought Mayfield had to be a suburb of a larger city,
not a small rural town out in the sticks.

That night, Ben got a literal taste of what playing for Mayfield was
like. He roomed with Eric, Noah, and Justin. The board decided to
return to four players to a room in order to afford the trip. By doing so
they needed one fewer room, which was close to a $500 savings over
four nights.

Ben wanted to bed with Eric, so Noah slept with Justin, who had
turned fifteen the month before. The two of them were very close in
age even though Noah was a grade higher than Justin.

"Damn, I get put into a room with three gay guys. You know your
team has a reputation all over the league," Ben said as he undressed.
It was the first time any of the three Mayfield boys had seen Ben
naked, and they were impressed. The sixteen year old had a very
athletic body, with well developed musculature, including an obvious
six-pack. His cock hung down almost four inches and his ball sack
hung lower. He had a thick crop of pubic hairs, with a scattering of
hairs on his scrotum, as well as a very light treasure trail from his
bellybutton to his pubes. The rest of his torso was hairless except for
his underarms. He had fairly thick hair on his legs, but none on his
face, except for a light shadow of a moustache on his upper lip.

"And a very good reputation it is," Noah said. "What other team in the
state has four and a half gay couples on it."

"How can you have half a couple?" Ben asked.

"Justin's beau is on the JV team, so I guess that makes it half."

"Well, at least you guys aren't all fucking your sisters, which is the
other thing everybody says about you Mayfield dudes."

"I thought it was you Kentburg guys who fucked your sisters." Eric
said.

"Trust me, if you saw my sister, you wouldn't be saying that." Ben's
sister was thirteen and was fighting a weight problem.

"Are you saying you haven't messed around with your sister?" Noah
asked.

Ben's answer was evasive. "If you tell me how much you guys fuck
your brothers, I'll answer that."

"We all know it's the Clark Pass dudes who fuck their sisters and
cousins and moms and who knows what," Justin said. "That's why
they suck so bad at sports, because they're all inbred."

"And you know this because?" Eric asked.

"Because Toby has a cousin who lives there. He says it's incest
heaven."

"Well, I hear Mayfield is blow job heaven," Ben said. "So are any of
you homos gonna help a Kentburg dude out?'

Ben then ended up in bed with Eric, who noted that Ben's cock was a
very large tool indeed. When fully hard it was well over six inches.
Eric gave Ben a good example of how Mayfield boys suck cock. Ben
found nothing to complain about.

"You're as good as my cousins in Sweden. And you suck better than
any girl or guy in Kentburg. What a bunch of sexual losers in that
town, let me tell ya."

While Eric sucked Ben, Noah and Justin had their first and last sex
together with a very satisfying sixty-nine. They both watched as Ben
sucked Eric off, impressed by the fact that he had no problem with
Eric cumming in his mouth.

"Not bad for a Kentburg amateur," Eric said as he recovered.

"It got you off, so I know you got nothing to complain about," Ben
said. "Tomorrow night, I'm taking junior over there." He was pointing
directly at Justin.

"You guys are the juniors," Justin said. "I'm gonna be a sophomore."
Noah gave Justin a friendly punch on the arm as he enjoyed Justin's
attempt at punning.

"I'm sleeping with your boyfriend, tonight," Ben told Noah, "with your
permission, of course. I don't get to sleep with anybody else much,
and when I do it's usually a guy—but I have slept with some girls. If
guys had boobs, they would be way more fun to sleep with and have
sex with. "But, if I'm gonna sleep with a guy, I'd like him to be a cute,
sexy one like all of you." Hell, I might even let him fuck me."

"That's how we gay boys feel about cocks," Noah said. "I need my
partner to have cock for me to have good sex."

"I got nothing against cocks," Ben said. "I've done all there is to do
with one. It's just that pussy and boobs are the wave of the future."

"You're crazy," Eric said.

"He's from Kentburg," Noah said. "What do you expect?"

"And you all know you love it," Ben said as he crawled under the
covers with Eric. While he and Eric didn't fuck, they did enjoy dry
humping and spilling their seed over each other and on to the sheets.
Ben did let Eric kiss him, and they both enjoyed it.

The Falcons' Friday game was at ten. The tournament had sixteen
teams, divided into four divisions, who played each other in a round
robin. The four first place teams would play for the tournament
championship, while the remaining teams would each have a
consolation game. The game was against the Reno team coached by
the coach who talked Seth McCall and Coach Miller into coming to
the Reno tournament.

The Falcons knew the story and couldn't help but wonder if the Reno
coach might be wishing he'd kept his mouth shut after the Falcons
beat them 5-4 in eight innings. Ben started the game and went two
innings. Coach Miller didn't want to push him in his first outing since
the end of the school season.

"Damn, coach," Connor said. "What you fucking want to do is to pitch
him into the ground. We might have to face his bleeping ass in
postseason."

"It's all about integrity," Coach Miller said. "I promised his coach I'd
take care of their star pitcher. The coach didn't have to loan him to
us."

"I don't know nothing from integrity," Connor said.

Coach Miller laughed. "Tell me something I don't know, Connor."

If anybody was getting bored, Seth McCall and Mr. B flew in
Thursday night with the solution. Of course, they brought their
preteen sons along and Nicky and Jeffrey never tired of letting the
players know they had arrived, which was a sure cure for boredom.
They were also their loudest cheerleaders at the games and also
served as batboys. The two weren't certain what was more fun,
cheering for their favorite players, or hanging out together at the pool.
Since they each shared a room with their father, they couldn't enjoy
the sexual side of their young friendship.

Ben gave up two hits and no runs in his two innings. Eric pitched
three scoreless innings as the Falcons took a 4-0 lead. But Lars and
Hunter both struggled over the last two innings, and the Reno team
scored two runs in each inning to tie the score. The Falcons were the
home team. After Vince held the Reno team scoreless in the top of
the eighth, Marty settled the issue with a long home run to left-center
to end the game. Once again the eyes of the college scouts lit up.

The Falcons didn't play again until seven, so the boys had the
afternoon to themselves after the team had lunch together. Eric and
Noah went to check out the Union Pacific trench, which was only a
few blocks from their hotel. They stood on an overpass that crossed
the trench near the Amtrak station. They got shots of a freight
passing underneath them as they poked their camera lenses through
the chain link fencing. They were just about to leave when they saw
the lights of a westbound train entering the trench and ducking under
some streets.

"That's the `California Zephyr'," Noah said as the entire train could be
made out in the shadows. The `Zephyr' was the Amtrak train running
from Chicago to the Bay Area. It was the train on which Liam had met
Mason a few years back. Eric had ridden it westbound with his father
on their train excursion a couple of years before.

"It appears to be a little late," Eric said.

"A little?" Noah checked the time on his cell phone. "It's two-thirty,
which would make it six hours late."

"Like I said, it's a little late. I mean if a train is on the same day it's
scheduled in the timetable, it's close to being on time."

"That's an exaggeration," Noah laughed, "but not much of one."

The boys took some pictures, then hustled into the train station and
went down the stairs onto the platform, where they shot some more
pictures. They left as soon as the train pulled out in order to get back
to the hotel to eat dinner with the team.

"Well, it was nice of it to be late so we could photograph it," Noah
said. Since the eastbound was due in around four, they would not
have had a chance to see it.

"We should send Amtrak an email thanking them for running the train
at our convenience," Eric said.

The Falcons swept their division with a 7-3 win over a team from Salt
Lake City in a game that started at nine in the evening. Eric and Scott
each pitched three innings with Rich pitching the seventh. Marty had
three more hits, including his second home run of the tournament.

On the second night, Eric and Noah slept together which put Ben in
bed with "junior" Justin. Justin showed Ben that Eric wasn't the only
Mayfield gay boy who knew how to suck dick. Ben didn't say
anything, because while Justin was good, there was no question Eric
was better. He was going to find out on Saturday night that Noah was
the best of the three. He also let Justin fuck him, much to the surprise
of the three Mayfield boys.

"I wasn't kidding last night," Ben said. "Why go have sex if you gotta
hold back?" So much for not wanting to get involved in anal sex, Eric
thought to himself.

The Falcons played a different Reno team in its first elimination
game. Rodney, Ben, Kraig, and Jerome split the pitching. After
Rodney and Ben pitched five scoreless innings between them, but
Kraig and Jerome gave up five runs. The Mayfield bats were able to
score enough for a 9-5 win.

The championship game on Sunday was a little tougher. Eric and
Scott split the pitching and comported themselves well enough, but
some very tough pitching by another Sacramento team sent the
Falcons to a 3-1 loss and second place in the tournament. The
Falcons were disappointed that they didn't win the tournament, but
they knew they had played well and had lost to a deep, talented
team.

They spent one more night in Reno. The team took in a movie on
Sunday night, and flew out Monday morning. They all agreed the trip
had been worth disrupting their league season for, but then they felt
that way about every trip they took. The new flyers tried to act like
cool veterans on the flight back, instead of like small town rubes.
However, they had a hard time hiding the fact they were still excited
about being 35,000 feet up in a jet powered aluminum shell, and
behaved like the naďve boys many of them were.

<Postseason Baseball>

The Falcons went to the eight team area tournament as the number
one seed from their league. Two teams represented their league in
the Western Washington area tournament. They had gone 14-2 in
league and were 25-4 overall. The team was brimming with the kind
of confidence that only an elite team can feel. They also realized that
they would be playing other teams with the same attitude—teams that
were as talented as or more talented than they were.

The tournament was being held at the Puyallup Valley Sports Center,
a three field complex. The complex was a two hour drive from
Mayfield, and they stayed at a motel nearby. They once again placed
four players to a room in order to save money on their postseason
accommodations.

The Falcons were at the peak of their game in the opener on Friday,
July 29. Eric started and went the distance, beating a team from Port
Townshend 6-2.

On Saturday, they found themselves in a first class pitcher's duel
against a team from Kirkland. The good Scott showed up for this one
and kept good command of his blazing fastball. They were seeing this
Scott more often as he learned to keep better control of his emotions
while he pitched. But Coach Miller still watched him carefully,
knowing it didn't take much to push Scott's competitive nature over
the edge to the point he forgot to keep his pitching under control.

The game was scoreless through five innings. Back-to-back doubles
by Rich and Marty in the top of the sixth gave the Falcons a 1-0 lead.
That ended up being all of the scoring in the game. Scott pitched into
the sixth, but gave up two walks with one out. Scott pitched his way
out of the jam, but because of the two walks, Coach Miller decided it
was time to change pitchers. But, as he usually did, he got Kevin's
take on the state of the pitcher.

"He's toast," Kevin told the coach as the team entered the dugout.
"But he won't tell you that."

That clinched the decision for Coach Miller and he brought Rich in to
close the game. Mr. Automatic, as his teammates were fond of calling
him. He lived up to his name and retired the Pt. Townsend team in
order in the seventh as the Falcons picked up a hard-earned 1-0 win.

That evening at the hotel, it was time for Coach Miller to ask Kevin
the tough question. Kevin, Vince, and Carl had split up the catching
chores in the Reno tournament. Coach Miller knew it was tough for a
catcher to do his job for three straight days, even at age sixteen. He
needed to know if Kevin felt he was ready to catch the championship
game the next day.

"Of course I am, coach," Kevin told him. "This is what I do."

"You're sure? You're not bullshitting me the way some of our pitchers
do?" Coach Miller had no problem using strong language when he felt
it was necessary and if he knew it wouldn't bother the player he was
talking to. He understood Kevin and knew Kevin saw the word bullshit
as simply a piece of baseball jargon.

"They're pitchers. Bullshitting about being tired or not is their job.
Catching them is mine." Kevin didn't come right out and say so, but
he knew he was a far better catcher than either Vince or Carl, and he
understood that Coach Miller knew that as well.

Rodney pitched the title game on Sunday. They were playing a team
from Mount Vernon. The winner would be going to the program's
state tournament, which would be played in Bellevue. The loser
would play a loser out game against the winner of the Sunday
morning game, with that winner going to the state tournament. The
winner of that tournament would go to the Nationals in Kansas City.

"Why the fuck are the nationals always out in the fucking middle of
nowhere?" Connor asked in his usual understated style. "At least I
know where Kansas City is, not like that Des Moines place, which we
never went to."

"And just where is Kansas City?" Noah asked innocently during
breakfast as the team talked baseball.

"Shit, Noah, everybody knows it's in fucking Kansas."

"Well, one of them is."

"You mean there is more than one Kansas City?" Noah flashed
Connor one of his knowing grins. "Shit, I'm never leaving Mayfield
again. At least when I'm there I know where the fuck I am."

The Mount Vernon team was an excellent ballclub, which was to be
expected at that level of play. Both teams had saved their ace for the
title game. The thinking was if they made it to the title game they'd
have their ace to improve their chances of winning and thereby
avoiding a loser out game. And if they lost beforehand, they had their
ace available for a loser out game in the double elimination
tournament.

The Falcons won the flip and elected to be the home team. The
Mount Vernon River Hawks would be the visitors. The pitchers for
both teams would be seniors and both of them had college coaches
and scouts looking at them already. After four innings, the score was
1-1, with the River Hawks getting a fourth inning home run from their
cleanup hitter. The Falcons scored on a third inning walk by Eric,
followed by a steal of second, and then an RBI single by Rich.

Coach Sanders sat in the bleachers behind home plate, enjoying the
game with Seth McCall and George Bednarzyck. He and his partner,
Coach Miller, both felt good about how the team was playing, both
during the spring and during the summer. But they felt especially
good about the summer, because they were competing against the
age group that was mostly juniors and seniors—in other words the
type of player they would be seeing next spring during the school
season.

As the game entered the fourth inning, a man with salt-and-pepper
hair, wearing a Mount Vernon River Hawks baseball hat, moved
down a couple of rows and sat next to Coach Sanders. "You guys
seem to know your baseball," the stranger said to the group.

"We've been around it awhile," Coach Sanders said with a grin.

"Good ballgame out there. Your Mayfield kids are a good team;
talented and fundamentally sound—a tough combination to beat."

"We're proud of them," Seth said.

"Are your sons playing out there?" the man asked.

"One of my boys is on the team, but didn't start this game, and my
youngest is one of the batboys," Seth said.

"And mine is eleven and sitting in the dugout being the other batboy,"
George said. "He has a chronic case of hero worship for the team,
and especially for the third baseman, who is currently living with us
and under my guardianship. So, I suppose you could say my boy is
playing."

"What about you?" the man asked Coach Sanders, who looked a little
young to him to have a boy in high school

"All of the boys are his," Seth said.

"Oh?"

Coach Sanders decided to explain Seth's comment. "I'm the Mayfield
high school head coach," he said.

"Oh, my." The man stuck out his hand. "I'm Colin Palmer, the head
coach at Mount Vernon High."

"Larry Sanders." Coach Sanders shook his hand. "A pleasure
meeting you."

"Are you guys One-A or Two-A?" Coach Palmer asked, inquiring into
their classification.

"One-A."

"And they are all from the same high school?"

"That they are."

"That is one hell of a group of kids you have for a One-A school. Are
they mostly seniors?"

"We have six seniors and a sophomore. The rest will be juniors."

"I take it your pitchers are seniors. They have all but dominated this
tournament." Just as he said that, the Mount Vernon batter sent a
Rodney pitch over the right field fence. "Nice shot, Thad!" he yelled
out. Coach Sanders smiled, knowing how the Mount Vernon coach
felt at that moment.

"Rodney, who is pitching, is a senior. The rest of the kids we've
thrown in the tournament are juniors."

"Well, we're a Three-A school. These kids went to regionals this last
spring, so they know how to win. And you're sure giving them all the
competition they could ask for. I'll tell you this, Larry...I will be for sure
following your team next spring. I have a feeling they're going to go a
long way."

"Well, you know what coaching kids is like," Coach Sanders said.
"You never know for sure what you're going to get and what's going
to happen."

"That works at every level. But I do know this; talent tends to rise to
the top. And talent with good discipline and fundamentals like your
kids out there—well, that's a tough combo to beat. That is a state
tournament level team out there."

"That's the stated goal of those kids, and has been since they were in
sixth and seventh grades."

"Indeed. So, we can throw `motivated' into the mix. I wish you the
very best of luck. From what I've seen this weekend, you have what
could be a dream team. Like I said, I'll be following you."

The two coaches found themselves liking each other and chatted
throughout the rest of the game as the "dream team" from Mayfield
ended up beating the River Hawks 4-2. Rodney went the distance
and Scott went deep for the Falcons with a three-run blast that
carried over the left field fence. The next weekend the Falcons would
play in Bellevue for a shot at the program's National tournament.

But, once again, a trip to the mysterious Midwest was not to be for
Connor and his teammates. The competition stepped up another
notch in the four team round robin tournament. Only one team would
go on to the Nationals, and it wasn't the Falcons.

They won their first game against the Yakima team. Eric pitched six
strong innings in a 9-3 win. Rodney lost to the Spokane team 5-2. He
wasn't at his sharpest and the Spokane team had the bats to take
advantage of that. Scott went up against the same Mount Vernon
team they'd faced in the Area Tournament. He wasn't able to
dominate them like Rodney had. They faced the same pitcher they
had seen in the regionals, and this time it was his turn to dominate.
He shut the Falcons down on three hits, as their season ended with a
very disappointing 3-1 loss.

Summer baseball was over. The Falcons finished the year with a 29-
6 record and had established themselves as an elite program. Except
for the monthly meetings of those on the Go to State Team board and
bi-monthly meetings of the group as a whole, baseball would go on
the back burner until February. Until then soccer, football, and
basketball would beckon various boys, not to mention extracurricular
interests outside of sports.

Next: Junior Year Relationships-1