2065.05 - Sim 1 and Waiting on Colleges

[R.Umali]

It was the Monday after the Sim 1, free period at Suchi Math & Science, and Will and fellow senior Mustafa Yıldırım had posted up in their sanctuary: the retro computing lab.

Mustafa was feeding arrays of numbers into a Commodore 128 like a priest at liturgy. Without looking up, he went full Nadsat: “Didn’t you skaz last week, my droog, that if the Wolves viddy-sweep the Black Sox you’d viddy yourself up at the University of Wisconsin—Madison with me?”

He had said it—mostly as a meme. Still, UW–Madison was starting to look like his last best shot. University of Chicago: denied. Northwestern: denied. They were reach schools, sure, but he’d aced the standardized boss fights.

“Come on, boy,” Mustafa grinned. “Be a Badger. Real horrorshow.”

Mustafa had early-admitted to Wisconsin and got in back in December. He could’ve gotten in anywhere, but he wanted to stay Midwest—and UW’s Russian program was apparently god-tier. He’d basically been idling in attract mode at Suchi ever since. T’was the life.

“Yeah, maybe,” Will said, grinding Wizardry on an ancient Apple like it was a sacred relic.

He’d been so sure the Black Sox would trounce the Wolves. Instead, Shotz Stadium booted the build on pitch one: leadoff yak, Hines ambushed. Not the patch notes Will wanted for a guy who gave up a league-leading 33 bombs last season. The Wolves threw three more on the stack and never looked back. Not all weekend.

The road trip to Des Moines, another squad the BNN and Media Guide pundits penciled into the basement, kept the L-loop spinning. After Sim 1 the Sox sat on 17 run diff, with two blowouts and one bullpen walk-off. Most worrisome: Steveland Morris’s glove at 3B/SS. His aunt had called it: the reps at third hadn’t been meaningful since ’63 (and even then, four games). Small sample or not, the error log was loud in Will’s head. Is it too late to yank Jeremy Starks out of retirement?

At least the wheels were live. Four steals in five games. Steveland's already outpacing half last year’s roster. Chaos button: engaged.

But what really fried Will’s circuits: Nakamori Hori never appeared. Closers are for leverage, sure, but the man needs innings to keep the engine warm. Bobby Sherman didn’t touch the field either, which stung since his aunt had hyped the unc all spring.

Mustafa tapped Return like a judge’s gavel. “Listen, little brother. If you get in, we file dorm forms together. Real skorry.”

“What? Oh. Yes. I'm down.”

Will considered it. Madison wouldn’t be bad. Half of Camp Driftless seemed to migrate there anyway. Wisconsin kids always get some kind of buff. But when he closed his eyes, all he saw was snow. Well, at least it was white snow, not black and yellow city snow.

“Party school,” Mustafa added, deadpan. “Devotchkas for days.”

Will snorted. He desperately didn’t want to default to Roosevelt like his mom. DePaul might be okay. He had a green check from Champaign-Urbana. Still waiting on Minnesota Twin Cities. Maybe if the River Monsters sweep the Sox, he thought, he’d re-route to Minneapolis instead. "My future is in your hands, Black Sox!!!"

Mustafa shoulder-bumped him. “No more gloopy doom-saying, my droog."

Will recalled that the Black Sox were flying to Hawaii for Sim 3. Was it too late to file applications? Probably.
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Chicago opened 2065 at 0–5, dropping three in Madison (11–4, 7–2, 1–0) and two in Des Moines (7–6, 6–3) with a –17 run differential (15 scored, 32 allowed). The bullpen figured in two key losses: a ninth-inning walk-off walk after a Stevie Bodine gem (Game 3) and a blown sixth in Des Moines (Game 4). Dave Matthes was the bright spot at the plate (.450 with multiple extra-base hits), while Marcos Echevarría (2 HR) and Jesús Suárez (HR, 2 doubles) supplied pop. Steveland Morris added needed speed (4 steals) but logged one official error at third. Notably, closer Nakamori Hori and reliever Bobby Sherman did not appear in any of the five games.