4 Team meetings were optional but usually all the players went It was the captain's job to make sure the team was a special team and not just a regular team But then Coach Joe made Luis the new kid the team captain Luis Who hadn't even played for the Manatees the season before Luis Who wasn't even friends yet with the other players on the team Luis Who didn't even seem to want to be captain But Coach Joe had some kind of dumb test he used on the players to decide who was going to be captain and apparently Luis did better on the test than everybody else So Luis got to be captain For Luis the trouble was just starting How would he get the Manatees to balance working hard and having fun How would he help his teammates learn to be friends rather than always trying to compete with each other One thing was for sure It wouldn't be easy
Luis the shortstop soon made friends with Gary the catcher but he had a much harder time getting everyone else on the team to like him First there was Aliyah the speedy center fielder who felt like she should have been team captain And for good reason Most everyone liked Aliyah She was a nice person and an excellent baseball player Gary and Aliyah were best friends which is probably why Aliyah eventually agreed to give Luis a chance Then there was Roberto one of the team's best hitters The problem was Roberto wanted to be the center fielder which is why he was the only person who never really liked Aliyah in the first place Aliyah and Gary and Luis talked to Roberto about playing a different position because it would be best for the team He eventually agreed and on top of that he convinced some of the other Manatees to give Luis a chance as team captain Before they knew it Lisa the pitcher was cool with Luis being captain and that meant there 5
was only one more player they had to convince His name was Jimmie the first baseman He was the biggest player on the team and he could hit the baseball about a mile Jimmie was the exact opposite of Luis Luis was skinny but fast Jimmie was strong but slow Jimmie had friends on the team and Luis knew if he could get Jimmie on board that Jimmie would tell his other friends to join in too It took a lot of work and one really challenging hitting contest but by the time it was over Jimmie and Luis had become friends and Luis was the true team captain of the McIntyre Manatees In the third inning of the first game of the new season it started raining But rain delays were no problem for this team They just passed the time by laughing and telling stories Sometimes they told stories about themselves and how much fun they had had 6
3 building a team The Manatees had a saying Eyes up It meant that they should always be ready in case the ball came to them But it also meant that they should always keep their heads up and stay positive When the storm passed the Manatees went back out onto the field and won the first game 8 Lisa pitched an amazing game striking out 10 batters Of course she couldn't have done it without her catcher Gary who had found a lot of videos online of their opponent and studied them so he would know their strengths and weaknesses Roberto had three hits Luis had a couple of base hits but no home runs He'd never hit a home run in his life But that was OK as long as he was able to help his team by playing great defense Jimmie on the other hand always hit home runs and this game was no different He hit two including one with the bases loaded a grand 7
