in between the important games Out of the corner of my eye I could see the Bulldogs all leaning on the fence in front of their dugout snickering Bring me home Clay Stewy was on third which was something of a miracle He was a great hitter but not a great runner He could really put his weight behind the bat and send the ball flying which would usually buy him enough time to make it to first But that was about it And when he did go he didn’t exactly run lumbering is more what you’d call the way he moved It was only because of some wild throws and the fact that no one could understand Coach Meyers’s signals that he now stood on third arms folded A big hit here and we could tie the game I planted my feet in the dirt and sucked in my breath as I waited for the next pitch What I wouldn’t give to end the Terriers losing streak to know how it felt to win It wasn’t a feeling I was familiar with or something any other team expected from us coming from the losing-est town in history The pitcher playfully tossed the ball up and down a few times Then he looked at me with a glint in his eye and went into his wind-up He threw the ball with a grunt I saw it coming straight at my head I dropped like a stone to avoid a concussion The catcher missed the ball and scrambled up from his squat to chase it 8
Coach Meyers yelled at Stewy to steal home Our whole bench froze Stewy was never called on to steal You know the lumbering and all that But Coach was screaming now and Stewy was nothing if not a team player So he started moving his legs pounding his arms pumping I stepped back from the plate and shook my head Mr Meyers was nice enough to volunteer time as the Terriers coach but he knew nothing nothing about baseball The catcher was in no hurry to get the ball at first but when he looked over his shoulder as he bent to pick it up he saw a locomotive chugging toward home Now that Stewy was moving everyone on our bench was up and yelling for him The catcher grabbed the ball and ran back to tag him There was only one second’s confusion on Stewy’s face before he threw his arms in front of him and went headfirst toward home plate Stewy lifted his dust-covered face and spit out a mouthful of dirt He was still ten inches away from the plate and the catcher was standing over him with a smug look on his face I didn’t even know the guy and I didn’t like him arms that that was the third out The game was over Out barked the umpire Then he signaled with his Dive Dive screamed Coach Meyers 9
Yeah shlide Stewy said spitting out more dirt I The Bulldogs cheered and high-fived each other So much for a big hit saving the day It was a stupid hope anyway Our town didn’t have its reputation for nothing All the teams lost the curling team the Old Timers Hockey League even our barbershop quartet Why should the Terriers be any different And now this Our third loss this season It didn’t sound so bad until you realized it was only the third game And it was the twenty-third consecutive loss if you started counting two years ago Stewy shoulda shlid As we got near the bench the team ran over to us laughing and thumping Stewy on the back Now that’s what I call losing with style Scott punched my arm with a big grin And you my friend got through the game with both shins intact You have to admit this was our best loss yet I tried to smile but the words stung Best loss yet Did Harmony lose often so that now we had to rank our losses If you ask me there is no place better to live than Harmony Point Me and the guys spend the better part of the summer tearing around the fields or building forts in the woods In the spring we have raft races down Bluffton I helped Stewy up I think Coach meant to say slide 10
Creek and in the winter we borrow the inner tubes off of Stewy’s dad’s tractor and whip down the hills that surround our town Only the bravest of us jump off the point that got our town its name It is a huge rock that juts out from the top of the bluffs and I’ve jumped it twice even though my stomach felt like it was up in my throat You can’t do stuff like that in the city you know The city is really called Holmesville just over the bluffs but to me it’s just one big concrete octopus spreading its giant sucker arms reaching out and trying to swallow our town It was bad enough having the city take over our police and fire departments and even exchanging our mayor for a seat on the Holmesville city council last year but to my mind losing our name was the sorest point On April Fools Day some stupid vandals had spray painted out a few key letters on our HARMONY POINT town sign so it now read ARM P I T My ears went red every time I saw it It was like we were a place that should stay tucked away or avoided Like we were an embarrassment for the nearby city I had to wonder what we would lose next I didn’t have long to wait 11
