Contact Sports: Building Character (And Possibly . . .), Danger Shop, 6th Period [7/14]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Students had been handwavily notified (via email, as well as via written notes on paper with the corners cut off) to meet in the Danger Shop today. Upon stepping through the doors, students would find themselves in the first-base dugout of a major league ballpark. The basepaths were neatly groomed, the chalk lines were fresh, the fountain in the outfield was bubbling away, and Anders, all decked out in full uniform (Fandom High colors with GREMLINS across the chest), was waving at them from the pitcher's mound. Sure, the school grounds or the park would have sufficed, but as if Anders wasn't going to go all out for his second favorite sport ever?

"Hey, everybody," he said, grinning like a kid in a candy store, "since the All-Star Game was yesterday I thought we'd cover baseball this week, so . . . since this is where the game was held this year, welcome to Angel Stadium. Pretty big, huh?"

The question was more for the benefit of the kids who weren't familiar with it at all, but he'd never stop being a gleefully dorky kid about it himself, and he pointed toward the outfield fences. "It's 400 feet from home plate over there to straightaway center, 330 feet to each of the field poles. Now that's gonna be a little different from ballpark to ballpark -- Minute Maid Park in Texas is frakkin' ridiculous, it's 436 feet to center there -- and every stadium's got its quirks. There's the Green Monster at Fenway, that stupid outfield hill at Minute Maid, the Twins used to play at the Metrodome which was a pain in the ass with its astroturf and white roof and --"

Anders seemed to realize, luckily, that he could ramble on forever like a giant sports nerd, and cut himself off there. "Anyway. That stuff's not important. We're here to learn about playing the game. When you boil it down to the real basics, it's simple. You stand at the plate, the other team has a guy throw the ball at you." He held up the ball in his hand, and tossed it up and down a few times, gesturing vigorously toward various parts of the park as he continued his explanation. "Swing the bat, try and hit the ball between the chalk lines and run over there to the first base bag before they track the ball down and tag you out there. Point is to get all the way back around to home plate again, and that's not that easy when the other team's got nine guys on the field. Hitting the ball ain't easy either, when it's going about ninety miles per hour from here to the plate, and almost never in a straight line."

He went on in that vein for a few more minutes, explaining the basics of play and the scoring . . . illustrating his points with video clips that came up on the giant scoreboards in the outfield. "Okay, enough of that. Time to get out there and play, maybe get a little dusty. There's gloves, bats, and balls over there in the dugout you guys came through on your way in." Anders's expression turned serious as he warned, "Do not let me catch you taking a bat up to home plate or running the basepaths without a batting helmet on. Anyone I see doing that gets detention. Now come on, plenty of room out there on the field, guys, so play ball!"

You could tell he'd just been waiting to say that.

"At the end of the period, everybody back here to the pitcher's mound, and I want you all to tell me at least one way you think you could use baseball skills in a non-game situation, 'kay?"

[OOC: Please continue to do your part in staving off the possibly inevitable Cylon invasion by waiting for the OCD. The Cylon invasion has been put off for another week, thank you.]

Comments

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Throwing a grenade," Kyle offered. "A baseball player could get a lot more range from a throw with a good arm."

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Good one," Anders told him, pulling the remote out of his pocket to bring up a play on the video board of a center fielder throwing a runner out at home plate. "And accuracy, too. Sometimes you've barely got a split second to get that ball out of your hand and exactly where it needs to be. More motivation if you're throwing something that explodes, right?"

He could hardly say he was surprised that kids in Fandom would come up with military-type examples first thing.

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle gave a nod. "Accuracy is pretty important. The things I have to throw grenades at need direct damage or they'll keep coming. And the distance is important because you don't want to get too close to them."

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"And you don't want to overthrow and waste a grenade, either," Anders guessed, not from personal experience, but he'd seen enough movies. "Something you've done before?"

He sounded curious, but not disapproving; given the people he lived with, he could hardly disapprove anyway.

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Kyle admitted. "I'm still learning how to make them myself, but I usually carry a grenade or pipe bomb or two with me at home when I'm out on a mission. They don't always get used if we get the stealth part right, but sometimes surprises happen."

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Smart man," Anders said with a quick smile, and now he really wanted to ask Kyle about this sometime.

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

Kyle returned the smile. "The base-running training is good too," he pointed out. "Anyone can run, but making sharp turns isn't easy." When Anders did ask, it was going to make for an interesting conversation and some comments about how crazy it was that things turned out the same on totally different planets.

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"And stopping right where you're supposed to isn't easy either," Anders added, then more seriously: "If this helps you out at all, I'm gonna be glad."

Re: Post-Game Conference: Useful Skills [CS, 7/14]

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"It will," Kyle decided. "And I got to see what my brother was talking about. Our dad brought him here for a game when he was little. He used to tell me about it."