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
M slam And Aliyah played great too She made a running leaping catch in center field at the end of the game just when it looked like the other team might try to make a comeback The new season was off to a perfect start The Manatees had lost their playoff game last year 8
but this year they were sure to go farther than they had ever gone before Nothing was going to stop them This was going to be the best year ever Hey everybody said Coach Joe moments after the game was over before the players had even stopped celebrating Everybody stopped and looked at their coach I've got some news he said And you aren't going to like it 9
