The real surprise was in finding out how the faceless evaluators judged you. Joe felt that with his trials and tribulations in Brewster's, including ...
- Winning back-to-back Memorial Series with the Charm City juggernaut in the 50's..
- Absolutely failing to gain traction in free agency after his 30+ HR season in 2055, leading to a lost year in the wilds of New Bayou, LA.
- Becoming a practitioner of J'Kulo (strength of will, will of strength, etc.).
- Resurrecting his career and life with the Tokyo Pearls in the Global Baseball Consortium in 2057, slashing .302 / .382 / .523 with 35 HR.
- Parlaying GBC success with a stint with the Chicago Black Sox that started off nicely (.305 / .346 / .553 with 10 HR in 44 games in 2058 but was cut short by injury and physical decline.
Joe shook the grading sheet out of the envelope. He had to look twice to make sure he had received the correct one.
The first thing that caught his eye was "Teach Running: Excellent." He scoffed. This was the man who lived up to his nickname and did everything slowly. People took his very deliberate nature for slow. Joe had 1 career steal during that magical season in Tokyo. He considered this and thought, "Never got caught stealing, either, so: perfect rate." Maybe those faceless evaluators thought purely in sabermatrics?
But he knew how to take third on a single, how to execute a proper swim move, where to position yourself on 2nd to effectively steal signs. Whether or not he could do these things was another matter altogether. But the lack of physical ability did not preclude him from being able to teach.
There were plenty of great coaches who couldn't actually do it on the field. Tito Lozano, the pitching coach for the Black Sox, never got higher than Double-A and he's rated as Excellent at teaching pitching.
Joe continued to scan the sheet. He sort of agreed that his personality type was listed as "Normal." The Beef had pegged him as "Easygoing" but Joe always felt that he was a typical guy from upstate New York. He certainly was not "Temperamental". Those days were behind him.
He received three more Excellent grades: Handling Development, Handling Aging, and Teaching Catching Defense. It made sense to him that he would do well with Development and Aging. Being the oldest guy in at Rockford (AAA), as well as a practitioner of J'Kulo, had given him an undeniable confidence and a knowing mien. Having one championship ring didn't hurt either. Younger players looked up to him and knew he was approachable.
He wondered about the Excellent rating for teaching catching defense. No accounting for it. It's impossible to know the entirety of the self. You need others to see the parts of yourself that cannot.
"The self is revealed in the other." He whispered this as he folded back the sheet.
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Joe "Sloth" Melucci, age 40, will begin his coaching career at San Pedro de Macoris Green Sox in the Angela Drake League (Short A), where Staff Cohesion is Content. The Green Sox went 37-39 last season. They last won the Supremacy Series in 2059 with a roster that included current Black Sox players Tony Radtke, Orlando Rubio, and Timofei Gadomsky.
