The Workhorse, Chapter 1, Part 1

The Workhorse

By Curtis McCarthy

I. Preface

This is the retype of The Workhorse.

I was instructed to make chapters that were 1k-2k words in length, and if longer, cut them up into 1k-2k word parts! So here is the new retype of The Workhorse! The Workhorse is a piece of art come to life! While The Darling Anteater is a female-oriented web novel, this one is male-oriented! So males will love it, but everyone will, too! It has an epic story, and lovable, male, masculine main characters, and also a strong, male-dominated and oriented plot, where it is focused around male-oriented and male-dominated and even male-preferred male-activities! Baseball is a sport that everyone knows and loves. Even if you do not keep up with it, it is a male-dominated sport, and a strong fan-favorite of males everywhere! There is no gender divide as strongly advertised as in other sports that divides baseball. There is no Major League Women's baseball league, for example. So theoretically, the Major Leagues and Major League teams do accept women on the team. There is no discrimination. Discrimination is primarily a female-oriented drama plot point. In male-oriented fiction, non-fiction, and in real life, where we are now, there is no drama focused on baseball players being discriminatory about their top picks. For example, top baseball players are talked about as who they are, not who their gender defines them as. This is a work of art and is being retyped and remade to also have new content, better formatting, a true table of contents, and a more artistically integral production. It is beyond the most professional novel available now. I have over 15 years of writing, game design, book writing, novelization and professional writing and translating experience. I am also a doctor, business owner and school teacher. If you have any questions, comments, or want to shout out, thank me, donate to me, or even join my team, you can email me at cmccarthycool@gmail.com! I also appreciate you for being a fan of mine, and hope to service you forever! Now, let's start The Workhorse!

Dedication

I dedicate this special book to my no-good deadbeat father, who was abusive to me and my mother on so many levels that he even took his own life after ending hers to abuse us once again. I survive, but my mother, a lovely and beautiful and even funny and courageous woman who loved life very much, is now gone from this world, due to his abuse. I wish I could say he was still loved by us all. But even in court, where his teachers told us he was special and gifted, and even a little right in murdering several victims, including a school teacher and a young mailman who was just there to do his job, they eventually gave him a big fat fail on the good person score. He was convicted post-mortem of over 29 felonies, and to this day manages to escape justice and is on the loose in Hell. - Curtis McCarthy, The Author, The Workhorse

II. Table of Contents

I. Preface

II. Table of Contents

III. Chapter 1 - Dead Inning

III. Chapter 1

Dead Inning

Caleb walked into the auditorium. He looked around. He couldn't see very far, as it was full of shadows, but he walked into the center of it and stood on the pitchers plate. He took a stance and threw a fake ball. It was a strike-out. He left and got ready for the big game. He walked into the dome and sat down on the bench in his teams little meeting room. They organized themselves by position. He was a pitcher, so he was in the middle of the group. He was chewing something, but they saw him spit it out before he went onto the field. They got ready to play ball!

He threw the first three pitches as fast as he could. These were all strikes. The opponent left the field and didn't gain any leads. His team, the Blue Orioles, were winning, but not by much, and certainly weren't up in the points yet. He scored another strike on the big leader of the Red Bunchouts, whose name was Jim Malachi, and he was angry. He bit his lip and fired hard at Caleb's right-hand dominant pitch. He was using the knuckleball technique his father had taught him. He thought it out. If he hit the bat just right, then the ball wasn't going where the batter was trying to hit it, which was out of the park. He threw it and the batter missed. It flew, the ball that is, the batter went running for the first base, then stopped and considered his next plan of action, before he got ready to realize his foul up. He was deemed out. The ball was caught by the 2nd baseman, Craig Armstrong, who had caught the ball just as Caleb had planned. This meant Jim was out.

He angrily stormed back to his base pen. Caleb's was full when he got in there. After 2 outs, the pitchers rotated and he was content just to sit and watch this play out. Michael also got an out. This meant they changed sides with the red team and were the batting team this time, instead of the 2nd runners, who pitched first. He wasn't interested in going out there. He stayed inside and talked to his team mates and told them he was happy with the game so far. A news crew was watching from the stands. He blew bubblegum at them. Hidden in it was his desire to get back on the field. He was a pitcher, but he also played catcher. He caught the ball a few times and threw it around inside the pen. The other team was pitching, so they also caught the ball. His team wouldn't be out there ever again. Not on that side of the playing field. He caught the ball in his hand and turned it around a few times so people could see. Caleb and his team won the game. The score was 1-0, with them in the lead. They lead by 1, so they got the cup after all of that good play. They cheered and Caleb was chosen to say a few words to the fans. He told them they were happy, but needed to improve, and also that everyone out there worked hard, and to cheer for all of them, not just your favorite team. He left with his team and the coach of their team, Michael MacDonald, told the news crew they planned to buy a few new players from the Jolton Searsport Rodeo Clowns next week. They decided on picking no one new. In fact, the picks were slim to none in their favor. The Rodeo Clowns changed into their uniforms and went on to play the Brighton Matchsticks in the major leagues. The Matchsticks won, 27-13, and so they played the Blue Orioles for the Major League cup. They lost, the Orioles having beat them 23-27, with the Orioles second batting, so they were up first at bat. They kept the lead for half the game, then lost a few and got thrown down by 19, where they picked it up near the end to get 27 complete points, with one player on every base at the end. The pitcher, Caleb, studied the playing field. If he got one more guy out, they'd have to move people around the diamond. He decided to level the playing field. They threw it to the catcher, and he caught it. This meant the player had to waste time setting back up. Caleb used the fact that this player was a right-handed batter, and he was a lefty pitcher, so the batter had to work extra hard to catch the ball. In the end, the last ball went out of bounds. It failed to climb the wall, and was picked up and thrown back to first base. His team had won.

All of that made no sense. Since his team was batting, they wouldn't have Caleb as the pitcher!

No, he was just dreaming this big game up. He was actually still sitting there, chewing bubblegum and playing catch and release in the team hut. He was relieved and sent back out to pitch at the same time. He threw three outs and then a ball, but the player was out of bounds. He threw his bat to the ground and confronted Caleb. Caleb confronted him back. They got into a fight and the referee's had to break them up. Both were told to quit it and cut it out. They complied, and the player went to first base, while Caleb set back up for a strike out. He got three in and missed the fourth one. The player sent it high. But they were already ahead. This meant that the time out occurred and they could not complete the action. The game ended before the player on 1st made it to home base. He was a good runner, but he wasn't skilled enough to beat the Orioles. At the tournament meet up Caleb told the people awaiting his response that they were happy to win and grant the fans what they wanted, their win. The other team was told they were pretty good, but not that great, and that they needed to get better, or the Orioles would win easily next year as well. They left and the manager had nothing to say. He told the other team they were good players. But it was just bad play that got them this loss, and to not gamble as much next time. They celebrated and Caleb got a $300,000,000 contract to play for the Orioles for 15 years. He was 32. He accepted it graciously and decided he wouldn't try to play too hard. He was going to coast for a while. After 45, his team accepted his retirement but he came out of retirement in 2002 to play for the Orioles once again. He was 62. He played a completely mesmerizing game to the fans. He was unable to miss one strike. The opposing team was impossibly gifted as well by this mesmerizing defeat. Caleb bragged and showed his true colors. He was saying they would never lose. The coach was ecstatic and pleased so much with the teams efforts that he told everyone how happy he was boastfully. The committee granted them a 3-year term of commitment for their generosity in gifting them with this good play style. They got a 3-year contract to use the Boise, Idaho MLB stadium as their home turf. They practiced there and made it their home. Back at his home, Caleb and his wife talked to a news crew from Fox 41, who asked him what his plans were, and if he was going back into retirement. He told them he wasn't considering that. He was going to be playing for the Orioles next year as well. He waved them goodbye and they closed the segment by wishing him luck.