When she arrives back to the stadium the following day, the manager is already there. He is surrounded by a group of other men. Every single one has at least a foot on her, easy. Like she wasn't nervous enough.
"Brooke, come on over!" The manager, Elliott, calls.
The entire group turns to look at her. It's almost like that moment at graduation, where she is trying not to trip over her own feet while walking across the stage.
She manages to make it across the concourse without falling face first into the concrete.
"Gentlemen, this is Brooke Chance, our new athletic trainer."
She gets a rundown of the group.
Daniel, the Head Coach.
Briggs, the Assistant Coach.
Bradley, the First Base Coach.
Ryan, the Batting Coach.
"Hey, I'm Brooke." She says to the group at large.
"Great to finally meet everyone."
They all have friendly smiles, despite their somewhat scary stature.
"Where did you go to school, Brooke?" Briggs asks.
"Boston University." She says proudly.
"Boston, huh? Sox fan?"
She shrugs.
"I'm from Idaho. The only baseball we had was played on a little gravel diamond near a playground in town. I did catch a few games during my time living there, though. I was pretty focused on school, I guess." She laughs.
"I can't even imagine. That's gotta be a tough program." Bradley chimes in.
"It was a long nine years. It's nice to be done, though."
"We're excited to have you. You'll do great." Elliott says.
"Now come with me. I'm gonna give you a little rundown of what things look like around here."
She notices a few players on the field. They're all wearing street clothes, gently tossing a ball back and forth. She is so high up that it's hard to see much else.
Elliott walks her around the massive stadium.
"It's just shy of 10,000 seats." He says, starring proudly over the seats below them.
"It's not the 38,000 they have at Fenway, but it means a lot to this community to see players come through here and eventually make it to the Rockies."
He continues the tour, through the locker room, the pressbox, and eventually onto the field.
It's then she gets a better view of the three men in basketball shorts tossing the ball.
Two of them smile at her. The other one doesn't even notice them passing by. He has his back to them, just looking at the scoreboard and signs in the outfield, almost like he is in awe too.
"The rest of them should be here within the next hour or two." Elliott says.
He then takes her up to the offices and starts going over logistics. He gives her the rundown of the guys who already have pre-existing injuries and treatment plans in place.
She tediously takes notes so she can check each file.
She has filled out almost two pages of solid notes when suddenly Elliott kind of just stops talking.
She looks up from the pen in her hand.
"And then there's Belmount." He says, sounding baffled at his own words.
She waits, expecting more words to follow. She is left waiting.
"What about Belmount?" She asks.
They lock eyes for entirely too long.
"He came to us from the Portland Aces. Played for Baylor for a couple years. Crazy stats. Like bats over .600 consistently. He had like two dozen homers last year. He is always at the top of the league."
Once again, she is left waiting.
"But..." he says.
"When he's on, he is on. When he is off." He stops again.
He throws his shoulders up.
"He is off. Like- he won't bat. He won't even get in the box. I've suspended him, but he doesn't seem like he is doing it to be an ass. It's like every once in a while, he just- it's like he is scared. Terrified. Incapacitated. I just can't crack the kid. But with numbers like that, I can't send him down."
"Does he have any treatment plans on file that you're aware of."
He snorts.
"We don't have a team psych. Although, maybe we should. He has never been injured. At least to my knowledge, but maybe you can check in with him. Lord knows we've all tried."
Elliott leaves pretty soon after. Telling her to come down to the field once they start team warm ups.
Once the door shuts, she can't resist pulling out her phone. It doesn't take much when you Google "Belmount Colorado Baseball" to pull up tons of results.
Caden Belmount is a 26 year old professional baseball player. Belmount is currently playing for the Colorado Hotshots. Belmount lead the WMLB in three categories during the 2022 season between.
When she hits the "News" tab, the first article that comes up reads "Portland trades Belmount for Star Pitcher"
When she clicks on it, it leads to a lengthy article, published from the Portland Post, where he evidently used to play.
A quote from the coach reads:
"It was a tough decision, but we don't deal with blatant disrespect to coaches and staff."
The article continues to say how the team was fined for breaking rules after subbing players too many times in Belmount's place.
She notices the box from yesterday still in the corner. She has a pit in the bottom of her stomach. She closes the article and pulls the box over.
It's absolutely no surpise that when she opens it, the name on the tab reads Caden Belmount.
The very first thing she notices is that the stamps she hadn't paid much attention to yesterday are in-fact mostly from Therapists and Psychologists offices. Aside from a few standard physicals, there are stacks and stacks of evaluations. The words "reserved" and "anxious" are used on nearly every one.
It's not long before she finds herself buried in them.
She is doing her best to sort them when something catches her eye. It's a logo she hasn't seen before.
"Oregon Urology Clinic"
It's dated 2 years ago.
"What..." she says outloud.
She doesn't have a chance to finish before she receives a text from Elliott on her phone. They're ready for her.
She places the paper face down on her desk and shuts the door behind her.
YOU ARE READING
Secrets Of Third Base
General FictionCade is a semi-professional baseball player. He has battled demons his entire life. They're about to pull him under. The only thing that might save him is the team's newly graduated athletic trainer. She's fascinated by his condition. He's apprehens...
