The Rookie commentary, part 9: ‘Do you know how many guys can throw the ball 98 mph?’

Lorri arrives home at the end of the day juggling a pair of grocery bags, kicks off her shoes and checks the answering machine. (If you grew up owning a smartphone from birth, please turn to the nearest Millennial or Boomer to ask about answering machines.) One of the messages is Jimmy calling the house to tell his wife not to fix dinner because they’re picking up pizza. That’s your second reminder in this scene alone that this was during a time before texting and cellphones attached to everyone’s hand.

There were a couple of other messages on the machine though. In what’s a really fast turnaround, some baseball scouts and representatives with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays left messages for Jimmy. Lorri, of course, is a little confused. Remember, she didn’t know anything about Jimmy’s tryout.

Then cute little Jessica runs into the kitchen with a gleeful “Mommy!” greeting and unloads some pizza boxes from her hands. “Daddy told me to give you the pizza and not say anything else.” Kids can be so literal and forthcoming, right?

It’s clear they won’t be able to keep the secret of where they’ve been all day, so Jimmy offers a “go ahead” as Hunter and Jessica start filling their mom in on the baseball-tryout excursion. Among other things, Hunter talked about how hot it was (I mean, yeah, you’re in Texas, right?) and getting sunburned.

Husband and wife talk it over
Jimmy’s clearing the table post-pizza when he tells Lorri his own version of events, starting with the scout’s reaction: “The guy thought that the damn radar gun was broken. Do you know how many guys can throw the ball 98 mph?”

“Not many,” Lorri slyly responds.

“You can count ‘em on one hand,” Jimmy says. “I still don’t believe it. Those are Major-League scouts on our message machine.”

Feeling left out, Lorri wonders why her husband didn’t tell her about the tryout. Why the big secret? It does seem strange, especially since he thought it wouldn’t amount to anything. But I guess that’s maybe the reason right there. I do find it interesting that he went the whole baseball season without it coming out though. Didn’t she inquire as to why this one-win high school team suddenly struck gold and couldn’t lose? You’d think she’d at least be curious.

Jimmy again brushes it off, saying it was just this thing to get his players to start playing. He even says here that he thought he’d throw a few pitches and that would be it. Turning serious, Lorri wants to know if he’s considering taking this process further than just a “thing” with his players.

For the first time, we see Jimmy start to take this potential career switch seriously, too. It’s almost like what the scout said about having to call in the 98-mph fastball. You have to give it a shot, right? Plus, Jimmy said he never threw that hard in his earlier playing days.

There’s some brief tension as he notes how Lorri doesn’t seem excited about this, but she quickly – and unconvincingly – brushes that off and says she is. Remember this for later.

You can see the baseball-passion wheels turning
Jimmy shuffles through the house later that night, doing the usual checks like shutting off lights and making sure the front door is locked. The television is on, and it’s showing an MLB game with a relief pitcher jogging in from the bullpen. If Jimmy wasn’t considering his return to pitching, the wheels start turning here as he pauses to stare at the pitcher on TV.

Sure enough, he followed up with those phone calls on the “message machine.” It’s pouring rain at a ball field. Jimmy stands in soaked gray sweatpants with a white-and-yellow jersey shirt and that same Jiffy Lube hat on a pitcher’s mound. His left foot moves back and forth against the muddy rubber as he tries to gain traction. Hunter, his own personal mascot, is dressed in rain gear and gripping the chain-link fence watching his dad.

Meanwhile, four baseball scouts are armed with radar guns to see if Jimmy’s first effort was a complete fluke. Nope. The audience sees the gun this time, registering 97 mph. Same for the next pitch. Scout Patterson offers a “So much for his arm falling off, huh?” to the other scouts, who were probably pretty skeptical unless they saw Jimmy pitch the first time. For good measure, Jimmy cracks 98 mph on the radar gun. 

The Rookie commentary, part 1: ‘What kind of baseball do they have? … They don’t.
The Rookie commentary, part 2: ‘There are more important things in life than baseball’

The Rookie commentary, part 3: ‘Yeah dad, bring the heat!’
The Rookie commentary, part 4: ‘You don’t have dreams, you don’t have anything’
The Rookie commentary, part 5: 'You got your shot at baseball. You got hurt.' 
The Rookie commentary, part 6: 'State! State! State!'
The Rookie commentary, part 7: 'It's your turn, coach'
The Rookie commentary, part 8: 'You just threw 98 mph'