Rehab 2 (cont 6) Sundays @ Narco

I had a little bit of respect since throwing the football around on Christmas Day. But now it was Sunday, all everyone talked about was Sunday softball. Each year Narco would get two Newport Beach city league softball teams. One was for the students and one for the staff. The staff team was always decent and the student team always and I mean always sucked. Every Sunday everyone loaded up in vans and went to a park and played softball. Most of the staff that wasn't working would even show up, it was a big deal there. On the way to the park I new this would be another good chance to make some friends and get some respect. I was very nervous about one thing, Equipment. I didn't have my glove, my cleats anything. I didn't even feel good.
We get to this park and immediately everyone lights up their smokes and start talking shit. All the students thought they were awesome. It was surprising how many were remaining from last season. I would have thought they would have graduated and gone home by now. My thought turned to that since I was just finishing up rehab. What the hell have I gotten myself into, I thought again. Am I going to be here a freaking year? A lot of the guys were surfers or skaters, so they were a different kind of athlete. I knew I would be one if not the best player out here. I did scout out a few who looked like they could play. I was definately scared for our student team. I hoped the league was okay with no shirts, no shoes and smoking while playing and cool with extremely foul language. There was about 18 of us there including probably 5 girls who just wanted to watch. We had about six gloves and one ball. One of the gloves was a staff guy named Joe who wouldn't let anybody use his piece of shit Rawlings that he thought was really nice. Then Jack pulled up in his big, black Dodge. Behind him were three more low-rider cars and one crotch rocket motor cycle. The rest of the staff jumped out and we had us a game. Jack had a big bag of equipment. He walked up and dumped the contents of the bag on one of the floor of one of the dugouts. He then announced to everyone, "this is my new bat, you can use it but if you ding it or break it you replace it." He then grabbed an older bat from the floor and yelled "this is the bat that I used when I hit two balls over the fence while I was still on detox. As far as I know that has never been done or never will be done again". Man he was a cocky sucker. However, the challenge was out. I looked at the fence, it wasn't that far. I knew I could jack a couple out. I just didn't feel good and I hadn't played ball in quite a while. It would be a challenge. Then I watched Joe pitch. This was after he announced that he should pitch for both teams today to get ready for the season, as he was the pitcher. It might be tough to hit one out on Joe. He really sucked. Jack put an end to that idea luckily, "Joe, shut the F___ up. Each team will have their own pitcher you stupid mother f_____!" Jack said, thinking he was really clever. For some reason everyone laughed whenever Jack said stuff like this.
"Shut the f___ up and listen. Duga and I will pick teams", Jack yelled. Steven Duga was a longtime student who was always talking shit about how good he was. Warming up it was obvious that he couldn't catch, but he claimed that he played All-Stars in little leage. He was atleast 35 years old. Back then he played first base so naturally that is where he was going to play now. Seriously, he couldn't catch. Luckily in Jacks bag there was a bunch of old fielders gloves so we would atleast have enough that we could all have one on defense. They started picking teams. It was grueling, I wasn't getting picked. I thought Jack would take me early but he didn't, he didn't even look at me in the first five picks. I didn't want to be last. Kind of towards the end, Duga said "You know what, give me the big boy, I think that som-bitch can probably put a good ol whoopen on the ball" and he pointed at me. Thank you. I thought Duga was an ass hole. He was from Georgia and I think he really played up his accent big time, especially when girls were around. He also acted real tough around new guys and tried to intimidate them and make it harder on them. He really pissed me off. In fact, if I got a clean shot I was going to drill him in the back during the game. But now it looked like we would be on the same team. When Duga picked me Jack said "Ah shit, I forgot about Sammy. Shit ya, he's a F_ing player". The worst case scenario happened, Jack took Joe. That meant I would have to try to get a pitch near the plate from Joe who I had watched warm up. He was brutal. After the teams were picked it was mostly staff against students so someone said "let's just play staff vs. students" Jack was all over it.
We were up first. Like I predicted Joe walked about five of us in a row before everyone started yelling at him. "Just throw f___ing strikes". Jack quickly changed the rules to everyone hits. No balls and strikes. Now we were dead. My first time up I got up there and really tried to stay relaxed. I really wanted to mash one. I knew it was impossible, all the balls were really old and mushy, I don't think Barry Bonds could have hit one of those old balls over that fence. I waited for a decent pitch and ripped one down the third base line for a single. Not impressive. Especially not to these guys. A long fly out would impress these guys more than a line drive in the gap. It's like if you hit one really high and kind of far, they thought it was awesome and you were just a power hitter from hell. I was like okay, I can do that. Next time I was going to fly out deep. That's easy. So we got out and went into the field. Immediately Duga took charge. "Where do you play, dude" He said to me. "Infield, anywhere in the infield". Problem was all these guys thought it was an insult to play in the outfield so they all wanted to play infield, "Dude, you go to center, cool?" he said. "Whatever" and I ran to center. He went to first. His roommate and best friend Chris Marino was pitching. My detox buddy Danny went to second. He was buff so they thought he must be really good at softball. An older Cocaine addict from Phoenix named Mark went to shortstop. Mark was old, maybe 45 or older but he could play atleast. At third we had a brand new young kid named Danny as well. He went by D though. He talked like he was black and had been raised on the streets of LA, but he was really raised a rich little shit in Huntington Beach. The little shit could play ball. If Duga could catch we would have been alright. The pitcher Chris Marino was one of my favorite people of all the people I met at Narco. He was by far the most hardcore alcoholic I have ever met. But he took time to get to know me right from the start. He was a beach lifeguard from Hermosa Beach and just a real cool guy. He is one of the class room directors at a Narco in Nevada.
So two of their first three guys got on base because our first baseman failed to catch the ball. Jack was hitting cleanup for the staff team. So as Jack is walking up to bat he says "Here, I want to play with my own personal ball when I am up to bat", and he throws a brand new ball out to Chris to pitch to him. I start yelling "hey, that's bullshit! don't thow his a strike" I think that pissed him off. He hit one over our left fielders head and made a triple out of it. He then said "Okay, please put my ball in my bag". The son of a bitch wouldn't let anyone else play with his new, hard ball. what a dink. Our outfield was brutal. They scored about twenty runs on us that first inning. I was the only one out there that could catch and I can barely catch in the outfield. I just have a real hard time judging the ball but I did okay. All of out decent players were in the infield.
After maybe three innings Duga said "hey, why don't you come and play first. I think I need to sit out for a while". Part of the reason he had been at Narco so long it he had to have rotator cuff surgery about three months before I came. He took some pain killers so he kind of had to start the program all over. Now however, he was just embarrased and he could tell that I kind of knew how to play. As soon as I took over at first the game changed a lot. I dug a couple out of the dirt, both of them were pretty lucky but everyone was really impressed. All of a sudden we were a pretty good team. Even Danny at second base did alright. He never did get his glove on the ball, but he would always knock it down with his body and hustle and get and throw it to first. No matter who was on what base he would throw it to first as hard as he could. He was really funny.
So we played about seven innings. I didn't hit any homers, nobody did. Even Jack with his brand new ball couldn't knock one out. I kept hitting balls with topspin. They were all hit hard and nice line drives so I atleast got on base everytime. The really surprising one was the young, wanna-be tough kid "D". He was awesome. He almost hit a couple of those old mash balls over the fence and he made some amazing plays at third.
After that game Jack announced "Okay, let's switch it up a little. I'll take um, um sammy and D and Marc and you guys can have Chuck, Joe and tony". Joe wined a little so they traded him out. The student started bitching and moaning like crazy. "This is bullshit Jack, you took out best players. They F___ing play with us during the real season". Jack agreed that we would play with the students. During that game he let me play shortstop, he put Marc at second and D at third. We were tough. Jack was at first and he could play. He even let me hit his special ball. I was able to jack a couple balls out of the ball park. So I mentioned to him "Looks like I hit a couple out while still on detox Jack, just like you". His reply, "No, F___ that. That was the second game, a practice game and you had a brand new ball. It's also a blue dot ball" I guess those flew further, he said he hit his with Gold Dot balls. Whatever, what a dick, Jack is a dick. I really had no respect for him. Even before softball. Just because of how he treated people. I don't think someone in that position should act so much cooler than other people and try to put others down with sarcasm. 
So I was in with that group of staff of students, the group that liked softball. On the way back to the house one of the staff mentioned that since I was a little older perhaps I would rather play with the staff. "Dude we'll make it worth your while. Movies after the games, restuarants after the games, we have fun. You need to pick the staff". I almost answered Hell Yes right then. However, one of the shitty student caught wind of it. It was Paul one of our muscle bound outfielders who sucked. He was a loud dude who was always trying to score with the ladies, and I think he did alright. He pitched a fit "No F_____ing way, that's bullshit. He's a F___ing student. He can't play with the F___ing staff you Mother F___ers!" Paul yelled in the van. Staff member Tony responded even louder "F___ you, he can do what ever the F___ he wants. I can have him do what ever the F___ I want. I am staff, and you are a F___ing student so shut the F___ up". I knew this was going to end badly for me no matter which way I went. Paul just sat there and mumbled "this is bull shit, this is bull shit. That is such bull shit, what an asshole" I was sitting next to him and I wondered if I was the ass hole. Paul was one of the guys I wanted to like me. He was a fun guy, who was always laughing and in a good mood. He was a funny dude and he wasn't into skateboarding or surfing. He was just a regular guy like me. He was from So. Cal. and he had even done some electrical work in the past. Now I think he was installing cabinets. Problem was he liked to shoot pure cocaine directly into his veins. So every time he got paid he would buy some blow, rent a shitty motel room and start slamming coke. He would run out and go buy some more, run out and go buy some more. Pretty soon he was completely out of money and he was making some pretty good money. Eventually he moved home and started stealing from his house when he would go broke. TV's, stereo's, furniture, appliances, you name it he took it. Even jewelry from his mom. But he seemed like a pretty cool guy. It's amazing what this disease will make you do. I think that I can usually talk to someone and tell if they are a bad person or if the disease just took over everything. I think that happened to Paul. Unless you have been there I don't think you could ever understand that. It's wierd. 
So anyway, I was going to have to decide which team to play for. I asked if I could play for both teams. Tony said that I couldn't because they were in the same league. For one thing we would play each other, and the league wouldn't allow one person to be on two rosters in the same league. Atleast everyone was learning who I was as news of this situation got around. I would difinately have to choose the students but I needed to drag it out and make it dramatic. See if I could get some perks from the students and staff before I made the announcement. But if I would have chosen staff it would have sucked being with the students all the time, they were serious about softball. 
Peace.