Cal "Bullet" Thompson is pitching for the San Antonio Missions while he rehabs from a pulled hamstring. It's taking longer than originally planned for him to get back to the San Diego Padres, or The Show. He's going through the motions, biding his time, until catcher Todd "Dusty" Springfield pulls on a catcher's mask and squats down behind home plate.
Todd is a fresh bundle of smiles, energy, wit, curly blond hair and bright blue eyes. Within a few pitches he's reading Cal like a book and giving him the signals for the pitches he wants to throw. Cal can already tell they're going to work well together and Todd is going to go far in baseball.
But when Cal is given the all clear and gets called back up to The Show, will all the hard work they've put in both on and off the field go to waste? Or will they continue forming the perfect battery together?
Story also appears in the Scoring anthology.