I Bet You Never Thought

Here I was standing in the batting box, about ready to go bat. I was now a senior and we are now playing in our Second College World Series Finals. Who would have thought that after winning our first College World Series my freshman year that it would be so difficult to make it back here to Omaha? Everyone on our team thought that teams would lie down to us and we would make it here every year; however, that hadn’t been the case. The previous two years we lost each time in the Super Regionals tournaments, cutting our dream short of making it back to Omaha.
I stood here reminiscing about when we had won our first College World Series and I was driving back to Leroy with my brothers and Tiger and we were talking about how three years were a long time. However, after thinking back to that day my brother Jackie was correct. Time does pass quickly. You must cherish every hour, every minute, and every second. This time around, I’d definitely been cherishing everything about this experience.
I was thinking about how I’d been picked by the New York Yankees as their first overall pick in this year’s Major League Baseball Draft. I was selected tenth overall. I was selected early in the season to go first to the Kansas City Royals; however, I had hit a minor slump midway through the season. My family and friends attributed it to Olivia and me having personal issues again.
Olivia was jealous of me spending too much time with Pedro’s family, hanging around Pedro’s sisters. Olivia and I didn’t break up this time; however, we did come close to it. She finally began to settle down; however, it wasn’t until after I told her that if she left this time, if we broke up there was no coming back—once we were done, we were done. So we have been good the past two months.
I told my family that God has a way of working things out because if I didn’t have issues with Olivia and experience the slump, I would have gone first to the Kansas City Royals and not the Yankees (the team that I wanted to go to). I have been a New York Yankees fan as long as I can remember. Dad and Grandpa have been Yankees fans since the Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson days. They love the owner George Steinbrenner (the Boss).
Yes, I was thinking about a lot that day. Now I was up to the plate. We had two people on bases, with two outs and we were down by one in the bottom of the ninth. I felt good I was in a good place. I was planning on proposing to Olivia after the game. I was ready. I was talking to myself as I gripped the bat waiting on the first pitch. The ball zipped by my bat for strike one. The next ball zipped by as well for strike two. I asked the umpire for a timeout. I stepped out of the batter’s box, leaned down and picked up a handful of dirt and rubbed my hands together. I looked over my shoulders and could see my family patiently looking on. I picked up my bat and gripped it tightly and took a deep breath and walked back up to the plate.
The umpire asked if I was ready. I said, “Yes.”
He then said, “Let’s play ball.”
The pitcher threw another ball. This time he had switched it up and threw a fast ball, my favorite. I connected with the ball. It sailed toward the center field wall and hit the fence and fell back down onto the field. It wasn’t a home run, but it was good enough to score two runs and make us College World Series Champions again.
As the fans were bombarding the field again I couldn’t believe it. I just dropped to my knees as I was rounding second base. Then all of my teammates ran and knocked me over, yelling that we had done it once again. I had tears in my eyes; this was so sweet.
Pedro yelled, “Jefferson, we have done it again.”
I responded, “Yes, we have.”
After the game Dad invited Pedro and his family to dinner, this time his treat. So we all went to the Chophouse once again for dinner. What a way to close out a college career. While we were waiting for dessert to come, I told Dad that I wanted to speak to him. He said, “Sure, son,” so we walked onto the balcony.
I pulled the ring out of my pocket and showed him. He was like, “Whoa, that is a nice rock you have there, son. Jefferson, are you sure about this?”
“Yes, Dad I’m sure. I have already spoken to Olivia’s father. Olivia’s father said I had his blessing.”
Dad said, “Jefferson, I’m ok with you marrying Olivia on one condition.”
I asked, “What is that condition, Dad?”