Later that day, Ken, Rohan and Daichi returned to the locker room after some extensive drills and tests. After the pitching, the rest of the day was mostly comprised of physical fitness tests and data collation.
This was nothing new for professional athletes, especially these 3 who seemed to be addicted to training. Rohan wore a smile for majority of the day, seeming like a golden retriever who’d been taken out for some exercise.
Ken couldn’t blame him. After being in pain for so long, it would make sense why he would enjoy such things now.
“That was good fun.” Rohan said, letting out a smile. “I think we did pretty well. I hope its enough to stay on the team.”
“I’d say so.” Ken replied affirmatively. Just with their pitching alone, he believed that they would be a shoe-in for the squad.
A little later, most of the team had already made it back to the locker room at that point and had showered. It was around 2pm in the afternoon and Ken was looking forward to a late lunch back at the hotel.
“Where are you staying Rohan?”
However, before he could answer, the door to the locker room opened and Mark along with a few coaches walked in. Instantly, everyone in the locker room turned to them, like deer in headlights.
“Brad, Nigel, Lincoln, please grab your things and follow me.” Mark said before turning and leaving.
The three who had their names called instantly looked shattered. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why they had been called. Some of the players who knew them said their goodbyes and gave their consolations.
Unfortunately, this was the nature of the beast. Anyone could be dropped from the Spring Training roster at any time.
Ken breathed a small sigh of relief. They had survived today, but there was still 2 weeks left until the 26-man roster was finalized. Anything could happen.
“Well, we made it past day 1.” Ken said, turning to Rohan and his brother. “I’m starving, let’s go get something to eat.”
“You read my mind.”
“I know a good place around here if you’re looking for food.” A voice called from behind them. Ken turned around and recognized Edward who was wearing a grin.
“Sure, lead the way.” Ken replied, there was no harm in getting to know his potential teammates.
“Trent, Jake, you boys coming for lunch?” Edward turned to a few others nearby.
“I could eat.”
Word seemed to get around and more people joined. Funnily enough, it was the regular pitchers that decided to come along out of everyone invited.
“Let’s go, you can leave your stuff in the car.” Edward said, patting Ken on the shoulder.
It was unexpected, but Ken was thankful. Out of the 18 that had taken part in the pitching drills today, there were 9 of them going to lunch together. Yet only Daichi, Rohan and Ken were not regulars in the team.
Edward was driving a black Escalade with shiny rims and invited Ken and the others two to hop in. Not one to say no to hospitality, Ken agreed and they drove around 10 minutes to a Brazilian barbecue restaurant in town.
Edward seemed to know the owners who greeted him when they walked in.
“This is Ken and uhh…” He turned to Rohan and Daichi during the introduction, making things a little awkward.
“Daichi and Rohan.”
“Uhh yeah, anyway, these guys are part of our Spring training squad.” Edward finished telling a large man behind the counter.
The large man let out a laugh, “Well if you’re bringing them here, they must be half decent.”
Edward replied in a language that Ken did not recognize. He and the owner chatted for a while before he saw the large man give Ken a surprised look briefly.
“You guys go take a seat, I’ll be over in a moment.” Edward turned to Ken and motioned towards the back of the restaurant. Ken felt a little odd but he did as he was told and soon found a large enough table.
“What do you think they were talking about?” Daichi asked.
Ken shrugged, “It sounded like Portuguese, I wouldn’t know.”
“Hey guys… I’m feeling a little left out here.” Rohan said, looking a little exasperated. “First it was Edward, now it’s you two. Would you mind sticking to English?”
“Ah, my bad.” Ken replied. He didn’t even realize he’d been speaking in Japanese with Daichi.
Before they even had a chance to get their menus, the rest of the team members walked in and greeted the owner and Edward. By the sound of their conversation, they knew each other well.
“There’s the rooks.” Graham called out, pointing towards Ken and the others.
Ken recognized the guy. Graham Soto, the closing pitcher for the Ligers.
He led the group of other pitchers over to join the large table. Other than Alex and Masaru, Ken had never really interacted with Major League players before, but he was not nervous.
They were all professionals, he shouldn’t feel inferior. But since Ken had been raised in Japan, he still showed a lot of respect to his seniors.
“You guys did pretty well today, you’re the front runners to make it into the squad.” Graham said with a smile.
“Who said that we’re front runners?” Ken asked. If these guys had heard something positive from the coaching staff, that would give him some piece of mind.
“Well, every year we put our bet on the next batch of rookies. You and this guy have 6 out of 7 votes.” Jake Foley, the relief pitcher replied with a smile, pointing to Ken and Rohan.
Ken frowned. He didn’t think it was appropriate to bet about something like this, but at the same time, it wasn’t worth making a big deal out of something like this. If he did make the team in the future, he wouldn’t participate in such a thing.
He would just need to suck it up at this point.
“What about me?” Daichi asked, pointing to himself.
“Eh, no one voted for you sorry man.” Jake said with a shrug, though he didn’t look very apologetic. The other players let out a laugh, as if they found the situation rather amusing.
‘These guys…’
Seeing his brother disrespected in front of him, Ken was not in a good mood.
“How about we make a wager? 10k says he makes the team.” Ken said confidently.
“Eh? Only 10k? Let’s make it 100k and you have a deal.”
“Deal.” Ken said, holding out his hand to shake with Jake who quickly accepted.
Daichi’s eyes widened in shock. He knew how tight Ken was with money, yet he was willing to bet so much for his honor. Daichi felt warm inside.
“By the way, it’s 100k for each of us if you lose.” Jake replied with a lopsided grin.
“What!?”