John McDermott

The Majors

“ Here we are folks, top of the ninth with two outs and two strikes with a tied score of 1 to. Here is the pitch and… Swing and a miss, he got’em with the curve” said long-time Minor league announcer Steven Wolfe. “ What’s better than a Sunday night, bottom of the ninth baseball? Nothin’. He said during the break. “ First up to bat is
“ speedy “ Gonzalez in the first spot”. He bunted and made it easily. Next up in the second spot is Paul Johnson. He has the first pitch to him coming and… a swing and a miss strike one. Now comes the second pitch and… Oh there goes “ speedy “ and makes it easily, while Johnson hit a hard grounder to the short-stop that he bobbled and is counted as an error, Johnson makes it to first, and “ speedy “ makes it to third. The next batter walks up. “ There are runners on the corners for the powerhouse Dwayne Blew batting in the clean-up spot.” Says Wolfe. “ With “ speedy “ on third with no outs, just a hit might win it all. Here is the pitch and… Strike one on the corner. Here is pitch number two and… Oh strike two in the same spot. Two runners on first and third, Blew is up with no outs. Here is the pitch and… WHAM what a hit it’s going, it’s going, GONE… HOME RUN by Mr. Blew. I can’t believe it, THE GRIZZLES WIN THANKS TO BLEW.

After the game, when I get home I get a call from my head coach he says “ I’ve got some great news for you… your going to live your dream playing’ for in the Majors for the Twins. They called you up after today’s game” I was speechless for at least 10 seconds before I got out “ When do I go? “
“ Tomorrow morning, Tuesday is your first practice.”
“ Okay, thanks for the news “ Then I hung up.

The next morning I get up, get dressed, and drive up to the field for a meeting with my head coach and GM. When I get there, they were all waiting for me. They all shook my hand and said great job last night. They said there is one rule for bringing up a player… he has to take a drug test. All I said is that I hadn’t even had a practice and I already have to? They all said yes. I take the test and get a call back that night. They said it was positive

All night long I couldn’t sleep, wondering why the test said it was positive.

The next morning I go to the field for practice, right as I pull in I see a suspicious car. As I walk in I see my coach and GM waiting to take me somewhere. When we go out to the car we are driving to the court with, it was the car next to one that looked suspicious. But now that car was gone. On the ride there I was wondering how that car left so fast, we were only there for five minuets. And there were billions of spots in the lot. Why was it parked there?

When we got to the court, there was I, my lawyer, a judge, my coach and GM, my doctor, and a jury. We sat down and my lawyer told the judge everything that happened in the last couple days. My layer asked me a couple questions after I went to the stand, and then I got to sit down. Then he called my doctor to the stand.
After he got called to the stand he looked surprised. When he got up he got asked when my last drug test was, he said it was a moth ago. I agreed. But the question that surprised me was if he owned any type of steroids. He said “ yes, but I only use them for medical uses. Why? ”
“ Because, if someone happened to give Mr. Blew steroids, it could be you.” One more question was asked, “ What were the drug test results? “ He said it was positive. The whole crowd started to talk quietly, while looking at me. After the crowd quieted, my doctor got questioned why he didn't tell anyone about the failed drug test. He said because he didn't find out about it until a week ago. The layer said he had no further questions. When we were done we got to go home.

I got home and got many calls from fans, but one stood out it was a voice mail from the Minor league announcer Steven Wolfe. I called him back and the first question he asked me was if I did it. I said no. But then he asked if he could come to the court meeting tomorrow. I said yes.

When he came the next day we met for coffee before. I shook his hand and sat down. We talked about the court and what we were going to do. He said he wanted to go up to the stand and answer questions.

When we got there it was packed, unlike the day before. The first person to go up was my doctor. He was asked a couple more questions then sat down. The whole time during that I was thinking of what Wolfe might say. Then he was up and walking toward the stand. The first thing he said was he used to play baseball during the time when drugs started being used. He never made it to the Majors, in the seven years he played. His doctor was my doctor. Once during a drug test he said he had to give him a shot that would keep him healthy. He said okay. Then when he took the team drug test. He failed and was later forced into retirement. I stood up and said he did the same thing to me. They let Wolfe go sit down and the judge asked the jury what they think. They said, the doctor is guilty and I'm innocent. The crowd cheered and the police arrested my doctor for giving drugs without telling the person, there were 11 people he did it to.

I was able to live my dreams playing the MLB; I have a new doctor, and Steven Wolfe finally get to go to the Majors, but as an announcer.