Power Pros Forum

Berkley, California
Draft Day, 2006
7:30 A.M.

"Carlos, wake up."

Why now White?

"Carlos, let's go! It's 7:30"

"You and your 7:30 can go play Ultimate Frisbee with Nessa. I'm going back to sleep."

"That's so funny I forgot to laugh. It doesn't matter that it's Draft Day, we still gotta go train."

"Can I get some slack?" I slowly rose up, tilting on the pillows. "We're about to spend the rest of our lives playing this game, can I at least have one day off? We just beat the Gators and partied all night. I want to SLEEP."

"Well that kind of attitude is going to get you stuck in Double-A for the rest of your life."

I quickly grabbed my plushie baseball and threw it at White. I jumped on his back in a piggy-back form and said to him, "If you want to train now, you can start by running up the apartment stairs 30 times up and down."

"Get off me man!"

I jumped off his back.

"Can we at least get some breakfast at Denny's?"

"You know it's junk, right?"

I softly shoved him.

"Grab some street clothes and let's roll."

We hopped in my 2005 Nissan Altima and drove to America's Diner. It was a good five minutes away and it was practically my sanctuary. When we got there the line was short, as usual. Me and White walked in and greeted our favorite hostess (as his girlfriend), Vanessa.

"Hey Ness!" White said to her.

"Hey boy!"

She kissed him on the cheek and led us to our usual table, good old number 2.

"You guys getting the use?" she asked us when we sat down.

"Yeah," I said.

"Just cut down on the bacon and sausage for today," White said. "I want to look good for tonight."

"We still going to Carlos's parents house in SF?" Vanessa asked.

"Yeah we're still going," I said. "My parents are decking out the place in black and orange."

"Can't wait!" Vanessa grabbed walked and handed the order to the chef.

"Man, I'm hecka nervous about tonight," said White. "I mean, the Giants. They traded some players in order to get the both of us. Those are some high expectations."

"Don't sweat it man. We got a couple years in the minors and then we'll be golden. Me and you patrolling center with our golden arms. Maybe we could even get Ernie when he enters."

"I doubt it. He's really good." White took a sip of water. "Hey look, you're on T.V."

TV Announcer: Now in case you didn't see this game from yesterday, you missed out on a lot. The Florida Gators facing up against the California Bears, a David and Goliath story considering the Bears shouldn't even be here. But thanks to the golden outfield of Carlos Richardson and Rex White they have not only put the Bears on the map, but in the 2006 College World Series.

I didn't really listen to what the announcer way saying about recapping the first couple of innings. We had a back and forth match-up. The Gators were a strong hitting team and they pounded us early, but we have some strong hitters as well and pushed our way back. They were up the entire game, but we always came close to coming back.

The only part I listened to was the bottom of the ninth. We were losing six to nine and the Gators had their star closer on the mound, McGregorson. He threw hard and played hard. He was also, DIRTY. He threw at me in a past game in a couple years back.



The past was the past, but I wanted to destroy this dude. I know he's as scared of me as I am of him. He's walked me a couple times and I've only gotten one hit off him, a screaming liner that knocked his cap off. I was ready to make him cry.

Announcer: Here's the first pitch to Richardson, HE BELTS IT! RIGHT CENTER FIELD GAP! GONE! GONZO! GOODBYE! THE CALIFORNIA BEARS HAVE JUST UPSET THE FLORIDA GATORS IN A CINDERELLA STORY AND THEY'RE MOBBING RICHARDSON AT HOME! BEARS TEN, GATORS NINE!

Announcer 2: As you can see its 'hit me if you can' right down the middle and Richardson blasted it. He knew it, McGregorson knew it, and sure as heck everybody in this place knew it.



Announcer: Let's go down to Dorris Burke to see Carlos, Dorris!

Dorris: Yes I am standing with the Man of the Hour, Carlos Richardson. How can you describe this?

I was trying not to smile.

Me: I cannot describe it, it's surreal. It was a showdown you see in all those baseball movies and video games. I was nervous. Before I got into the box I was shaking like crazy. I guess to generically say it I stayed calm and drove it...

GATORADE + WHIPPED CREAM C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER

Nice! Is this a season log? Are you going to be the Giants?

Yeah this is a season log about the Giants, but it is going to be through Carlos's perspective rather than all of the players of the GM.

Cool, I like it so far...!

"Hey 'Ness, we'll see you tonight," said White we were while leaving Denny's.

"I'll see you there boy!" said Vanessa. "Don't break anything at the field."

"We won't."

"You got the keys to the field?" I asked White.

"Yeah I got 'em right here. Anybody else practicing with us?"

"Nope. Most of the team went home for the summer."

We hopped back into back into the car and headed to the field, about a ten minute drive today. On the way, we saw some of the usual sights. The under-rated restaurants that are often overlooked, the apartments connected with music stores, the "plant" stores. Berkeley is pretty weird, but I love it to death.

When we got to the field, we did our usual routine. After playing catch, we loaded up the pitching machine and angled it to the outfield so it would shoot us popups. We didn't to anything special, just get under the ball and make the routine catch.



After about thirty minutes of that, we put out the bases and did a little bit of running.



We didn't want to overdo it for the day so we skipped the weight training (but if you ask me White needs it; only 5 home runs in his college career isn't going to cut it.). All we did was a couple of push-ups then we headed back to the apartment to shower.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

San Francisco, California
Draft Day, 2006
3:30 PST

Everybody in my and White's immediate family came out to watch the Draft. Like he said, it was supposed to be something very special. The Giants had paid top dollar in order for both of us to get drafted. They were also supposed to draft some short fireballer named Tim Lincecum, but I don't think he's go what it takes. Now instead of the 8, 9, and 10 picks going Reds, Orioles, and Giants, Brian Sabean is going to snag all three of us.

The house was decked out in everything that we could find that was black and orange. There was a Giants cake and my mom even bought some Giants caps for us to wear when we get drafted. Needless to say, this was a pretty big deal to our families.

Baseball Tonight sent in a group of cameramen to film our families reactions when we got drafted. It was to be sent straight to live TV once our names were called.

Speaking of, we tuned into Baseball Tonight were they were holding a special addition of the draft. At 4 o'clock on the dot, the Kansas City Royals were officially on the clock for the first pick.

I didn't really remember who got drafted by what team. I would occasionally remember someone who I played against (and crush). The picks seemed like they took hours, but then they finally got to pick #8. The San Francisco Giants representative called in and Bud Selig made his announcement.

"With the eighth pick in the MLB 2006 First-Year Player Draft, the San Francisco Giants select Carlos Richardson from Cal Berkeley."

Mass hysteria. Everybody in the house went crazy. It seemed like a sigh of relief, that all my hard work finally paid off. I found myself being hugged and kissed all around. White came up to me and hugged me like a brother. I think he was even crying. Before we knew it, Bud Selig was back making his announcement for the ninth pick.

"With the ninth pick in the MLB 2006 First-Year Player Draft, the San Francisco Giants select---"

All I remember was never hearing who the Giants drafted. All I remember was the door slamming down.

"EVERYBODY GET DOWN! EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" There was a group of several men holding assault rifles. They were wearing bullet-proof vests and their helmets said "S.W.A.T."

They grabbed a hold of White and took him, they walked right out of the door. And Baseball Tonight was filming the whole thing.

Wha-! What's happening to White!

Nice update man!

You gotta save White!

Assault rifles?

Too soon for some people, man.

*sigh* Really Brewers?

Nope. Just kidding.

"Rex!" What the hell just happened? I ran out the door, jumped down the stairs. The S.W.A.T. were just had just jumped back in their "Enforcer" as they called it and started to speed away. I had never seen one before, but from the looks of it White had gotten himself into some serious trouble.



I didn't even think, I just started running. I didn't care who was watching me or the consequences, I just wanted my friend back. I started sprinting down the street and turned the corner. This thing was pretty fast. I saw that the Enforcer was headed down a busy street, but I saw that right when it turned on the sirens everybody stopped right in their tracks.

I assume the Enforcer was hard to turn with because it stopped right along with the cars in order to prevent from hitting one. I saw myself getting closer and closer to the car, but then it started to move again. It swereved inbetween cars and slowly the cars started backing up to make room, but there were a lot of cars. I now had to be at least 100 feet away from the Enforcer, but the cars had started to make a clear path and it started to drive away. 50 feet. I felt so close and was not going to let them get away. 10 feet. So close that I could hear the chatter within vehicle. One foot. I dove for a handle on the back of the car, my eyes closed.

"UMPPH" My body hit a surface, but I didn't know what. My had was grabbing something. It was the handle. I was on the back of the Enforcer. I put both hands on the handle and held on for dear life. This thing was going at least 50 MPH now and it felt like I was going to fall of any minute. I looked in one of the windows of the two back doors and I saw White in handcuffs surrounded by S.W.A.T. officials. I started pounding on the door.

"OPEN UP!"

Everybody in the back heard me. One of the men opened the door, but not to let me in.

"GET THE F*** OFF OR I WILL SHOOT!"

"You have my friend in there and he is innocent!"

"I WILL GIVE YOU TO THREE!"

Oh geez, what did you do White.

"ONE."

Okay jump or get shot. Jump or get shot.

"TWO."

We are going pretty fast, but a bullet might hurt more.

"THREE!"

JUMP!

I was pushed off the car with the assistance of the S.W.A.T. man. He threw something at me. It was a can. It was gray and black. Oh boy.

POOF.

"AH!!! SON OF A B*****! IT'S IN MY EYES!"

I ran to the sidewalk then went down to the floor. White better write a nice apology letter when I see him.

Hey this a well put together log man! Keep up the good work

I walked back to the house about a good mile away to be greeted by me and White's families. His mom was crying and she was holding on to Vanessa, also crying. I felt an anger building up inside of me. The Baseball Tonight camera crew had packed up and left with what I assume was at least 30 minutes of video. A video that included me running after a S.W.A.T. Enforcer. Oh joy this was going to be a whole lot of fun.

Vanessa ran down to me looking terrified.

"What happened to Rex?!?!?" Her voice was all out of proportion, tears running down her eyes.

"I...I don't know. I ran after him for about a mile. I jumped onto the car and asked them to free him, but them kicked me off the car and threw tear gas in my eye."

I saw the camera crew of several San Francisco news stations driving down the street.

"We better go inside," I said. "Everybody inside!"

A female news reporter jumped out of the car. "Wait Mr. Richardson," she said. "A minute of your time!"

I looked at Vanessa. "I'll handle this, just go back inside."

Everybody started to walk back inside while more reporters started to show up. Before I knew it there was a ton of reporters in my face and for the wrong reason. I was hoping I could at least start the season before this happened.

"I'll take questions, but only five minutes." I pointed at the female reporter that jumped out first. "You."

"What could you tell us that happened today without stating the obvious?"

"How could I not state the obvious. My best friend got taken away by the S.W.A.T. team. I ran after him and jumped onto their vehicle, demanding for them to open up and free Rex. I was pushed off the car and tear gas was thrown at me. That's pretty much all there is too it." I pointed at another reporter.

"Is this going to cause any damage to your career?"

"Um, not really. I mean this is really shaky... I think that this is just a huge misunderstanding because Rex has never done anything this crazy in his life besides stealing a few candy bars when he was little." I pointed at one last person.

"Have the Giants contacted you at all yet?"

"No they haven't, at least not to my knowledge. When I ran after Rex I left my phone on the table. They probably will contact me at some point, if not right now. Um, that is all I can reallly answer right now. If I have more news about the situation you will be contacted." I turned around and walked back into the house.

"One more question Mr. Richardson!"

"One more here Carlos!"

SLAM!

I grabbed my phone and walked into my old room. What was I going to do? I checked my phone.

1 MISSED CALL: Brian Sabean (GM of SFG's)

I called him back.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP

"Hey Brian, it's Carlos."

"Ah, Carlos. Now I wanted to explain to you our current situation. We will continue to sign you, Rex, and Tim, but if Rex faces possible jail time, he will not be signed and become an unsigned free agent."

"Sounds fair enough."

"What is it that he did?"

"I don't know. *beep* Hey Mr. Sabean, I'm getting another call. I am going to have to call you back."

"No problem my boy. Just keep Rex in shape."

*beep* "Hello?"

"Carlos, it's me."

"Rex? Is it really you?"

"Yeah man. It's me."

"Where the heck are you?"

"Some San Francisco jail. I need you to come down here, no bail money needed."

"Address?"

"425 7th Street."

"I'm on my way. You better have some explaining to do."

...

"Name son?" said the gatekeeper at the jail.

"Carlos Richardson."

"Go right ahead." The gate lifted up. I parked in the space closest and walked up to the main building.

So this is a jail, huh?

I walked in and immediately was greeted by a rush of warm air. I approached the front desk.

"I'm here to see Rex White."

"Go down that hall and make the first left."

I walked down a very bleak hallway and made the left. A man approached me.

"Are you Carlos Richardson?"

"One and only."

"Hello Mr. Richardson, I'm Sheriff David Roberts."

"Pleasure to meet you." I shook his hand.

"Now it seems that your friend here has been mistakenly taken for someone else."

"Well that's a gigantic relief. Who was going to patrol Center Field with me? No pun intend."

"Indeed. Now the major charges that Rex would be facing is bank robbery and attempted murder with an assault weapon. In this case, two Glocks and an AK-47."

"That can't be him. Rex has never fired a gun besides an airsoft in his life."

"The man we thought was Rex was actually a man named Ray Delgado. As you can see from the picture, they look very alike."

"Wow, they do."

"Well, not before. Remember playing against the Texas Longhorns a couple years back?"

"Yes."

"Well this is the same Ray Delgado. He got several surgeries to look like Rex and had his named changed and everything. He almost got away with it, but we found him trying to flee the city with two others via ship. He's in our custody and Rex is ready to come home. Jerry, release him!"

Rex walked out of jail cell and started walking over.

"He's all yours."

We were pretty silent. I didn't really want to talk.

"Long day?" White said.

"Yeah. Same?"

"Yup."

"Denny's?"

"Denny's."

@[___]
Thanks for the comment!

Phew! That is a relief!