““We’d given Mac a nine point five, but only because Bird said we couldn’t give every guy a ten. I hadn’t scored Jason yet. He deserved a ten. No question. But officially scoring him as the hottest of the hot would make me uncomfortable living with him. After all, I wasn’t really supposed to be noticing him. A six. I could easily live with a six. Still, I felt like I was betraying him when I wrote the score on my roster. “Shortstop is cute,” I said. I glanced at the lineup. Chase Parker. “I can’t tell at this distance,” Bird said. “I wish they had these guys’ pictures on the roster.” “They’ll have them in the program on Tuesday.” The team always sold programs for a buck at the games. Inside were the stats on each Rattler. There was also a roster of the visiting team, but they didn’t include their stats. I guess the general consensus was: Who cares? They’re not our guys. Ragland was pretty loyal to its team.””
