“Warm yet?” JT asks as he throws the ball back to me. “Getting there.” “All right, then. Let’s see that fastball.” JT punches his glove and squats down behind home plate. I pull my shoulders back, stretching my muscles, then tip my head side to side. I throw the first pitch, a fastball just like JT wanted, but at only eighty percent. He catches it and tosses it back. We do it three or four more times until my arm is loose, and this feels like any other field, with every other team. There’s a familiarity in baseball, probably in most sports. Everything changes as you move from team to team, but
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