8 Sep 2055
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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No one in the pitcher's wing of the locker room knew a) how it got there, b) why did it get there, and c) what the hell it was. There was just suddenly something leaning in the corner of the room this past weekend. Then pitching coach Henry Jordan came into the room. "Guys, I'm tired. I'm not that old, but I'm already tired. Every game this season, it seems, I get relaxed in monitoring one of your outings and next thing I look up and we've allowed 5 runs in one inning with runners still on base. Then I'm scrambling to get to the bullpen phone and they're running around out there like a kicked-over ant hill. You're not struggling in your turns, you guys are collapsing. We can fix struggles. We can't fix collapses...but I can cut them shorter."
"So," he continued, "I had this shepherd's crook hand-carved. It will stand in the corner of the dugout. I don't want this to be a punishment, it's not. It means, 'just relax and don't let the game get away from you.' There's a lot in baseball you can't play or manage out of the game but you can handle how events get in your heads."
Everyone nodded. Rookies and vets, they were used to unorthodox cures to runs of bad results. They'd check it on the way out of the dugout and make sure their way out of the dugout was nearest the corner where the crook would lean. Everything made sense. Until, that was, the night of the 5th. The Brisas were facing Sao Paulo at home and, after being spotted a 2-0 lead in the 5th, starting pitcher Keneki Umina allowed a solo HR to start the frame then walked two batters. Having been standing on the dugout steps, it wasn't a surprise when Coach Jordan came out to calm Umina. But what was a surprise was what he was carrying: the hand-carved shepherd's crook.
"He didn't even acknowledge it being in his hand," says Umina. "I didn't know if he was going to hit me or if that was a sign to head to the dugout. It most definitely distracted me from how I was letting issues under my skin."
But no one saw what was coming next. Umina got in a bind again in the 7th and suspected his night was done. Only when manager José Ramos came walking to the mound for a pitching change with the crook in hand were the pitchers staff, up and down the line, sobered and focused.
"There was a hush over the entire stadium. Then, when coach took the ball and Umina headed to the showers, everyone in the stadium slowly started cheering. They realize what it means," said one anonymous veteran. "I can't say I've seen anything like this before, but that's baseball."