We are a team of scrawny nerds. I’m five foot nine; only two guys are over six feet, and one of them is so skinny his nickname is “sticks.” Physically, our squad can’t compare in size to our opponents, who have broad shoulders, huge hands, thick legs, and muscular forearms. To compensate for our small stature, we work harder than any other team in our league. We do it because we love the game. Baseball has been my anchor, my home, my sanctuary. It’s meant pre-season games in the fall, daily workouts in the winter, having sweat drip down my nose as I bust out that final weighted sprint or pullup; it’s having friends to lean on, to share with, to tease; it’s buying oversized seven-foot tall teddy bears for each other on birthdays. At a math and
