Swing Away

Written: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Swing Away by Christopher M .Bohan

The anxiety was causing his tunnel vision to reappear. Deep breaths only made his heart beat faster and he could feel his pulse throbbing in his hands as he gripped the bat. He raised his left arm slowly, the ump called ‘time’, he took a step back out of the batter’s box with his right foot.

The “boo” from the hometown crowd was deafening. Fritz Cornbloom hated playing on the road. The hotels. The buses. Everything went by so quickly. Some days he longed to be an accountant.

He shook his head, adjusted his helmet and stepped back into the box. His vision seemed to be restored – he could see the whole field. His heart, however, still wanted to leap out of his chest. Fritz looked down to the first base coach for the sign – ‘swing away’. The distance to first base seemed insurmountable.

‘Swing away’. Okay, no pressure. He focused in on the ball. He quickly lost it in the unorthodox wind up of Tommy Stonewater, but found it again just as it was released toward him at 98 miles per hour. Fritz raised his right leg to begin his swing. Just then, the ball took a hard right turn and collided with Fritz’s right temple. He could hear the cheer of the crowd, but couldn’t see a thing.