The following is an excerpt from a continuing piece of work called ‘A Whole Different Ball Game’, which has been in production since September 2007. The fact it has taken my writing partner and I until now to decide to do it as a book is irrelevant. Please enjoy and comment.

It’s settled. We will do a draw for who will be my baseball team. The fortunes of one team will be chosen at random from a selection of names. My heart, my soul will be in the fate of their hands. It had to be done, I couldn’t just choose to be a Yankee or a Red Sox fan, that wouldn’t be fair to all the other teams. This was purely and simply the best way to do it.

I know for a fact Dan wants me to draw a loser, favourites being either the Tampa Bay Rays or the Florida Marlins, both perenial losers. And I know for a fact I want to draw anything but the Yankees. We’ve never had competition over sports, we’re both ‘loyal Royals’, we’re both ‘buzzy Bees’, we’re both ‘quacking Ducks’ and we’re both English. There is nothing to divide us over sport, and here it is, the chance to finally have a difference, all through the drawing of names from a hat.

We split the teams into their conference and would draw every team until we had two left from each. Then, the final four would be placed in one hat all of their own, where the final team picked would be my team.

I didn’t think I’d feel nervous, after all, we all have bigger decisions to make in our life, like marriage, jobs, relationships. But there was something different about this. A feeling that it could all go wrong, and I’d be forever labelled as a ‘Pittsburgh Pirate’ fan. Or worse, a Yankee.

The names started coming out the hat for the National League. This was where I wanted to be. The big guns of Baseball. Red Sox, Athletics, White Sox, Tigers. Big teams with big traditions. Draw one of them and I’d have a chance to be a winner.

Like a hell that was decending upon me, one by one, these names disappeared. The teams I actually had wanted to support were gone, out of a mitts and merely now to be named as ‘The Opposition’. Dan had a look that could only be described as smug. He could see the agony in my face as I drew ‘Boston’, and the delight in my face as I drew ‘New York Yankees’. But he also knew that there was a lot of ‘losers’ left in the hat. The teams that even the America doesn’t support. We had our final two, the Tampa Bay Rays and the LA Angels.

 The American League followed suit, as I managed to draw yet more ‘losers’, in the shape of Pittsburgh Pirates and the Florida Marlins. 1-to-3. The odds certainly weren’t in my favour. The thoughts of nice warm summers’ day watching the ball game at three of the venues certainly lifted my gloom though.

The god-dam Yankee across the room was still crowing. I began to truely understand the hatred that most Americans have for the Yankees, equivalant of Manchester United and Chelsea rolled into one big, horrible ball. Despite the fact they haven’t won a World Series in years (let alone actually make the World Series), they still believe that they are the best in baseball and will put anyone else down about their team. Dan started running my boys down before they were even mine. I couldn’t wait until they were mine and I would strike back with avengence.

The final four were placed in the hat for the final time. Soon, there would be one. A lucky one, a cherished one, MY one. I could hear my heart beat through my chest. I had said I wouldn’t get nervous over this, but at that moment, I was a wreck. My throat was parched, my palms sweaty, brow furroed. It was time to step up to the plate and make my draws.

My hands went in and grabbed the first piece. Out it came, slowly unravelling I can see a ‘F’. Thank god I’m not a Marlins’ fan. As much as it would be nice to have a ’sunshine’ team, the Marlins are useless, losers who may be moving city pretty soon. Dan looks worried ‘maybe the Angels are calling you?’

I was shaking all over, from head-to-toe. Three teams left in the hat, and only one saving grace left. the LA Angels. Or to put it another way, the Anaheim Angels. Could it be that I would be able to support a hockey AND baseball team from the same town. I can see it now, flying in America in September, watching both my teams playing in the same town at the same time, capturing the true holiday spirit.

I dipped my hand in again, picked a piece, but something in my mind said to go for another bit. Moving my hand right, I glasped at the next one. I felt comfortable and pulled out. I saw the first letter straight away. I couldn’t open it. I knew what I had done. I crumbled it up and threw it in the corner. The one winning team, the one saving grace of the draw was gone. The angels had flown away in my time of need.

Why did I change that piece of paper? I hope in years to come I don’t regret making that choice. I switched when I shouldn’t have. I didn’t trust myself. For the first time in a few years, I doubted myself on a decision. And that doubt backfired. I was crest-fallen and heart-broken. The rest of the draw no longer mattered for a moment, I had failed myself.

Dan couldn’t believe his luck. He was making his friend a loser. He was making me suffer. And he loved every second of it.

‘Your going to be a Pirate or a Ray! You’ve got no chance. Both of them are absolutely useless. Get used to losing mate, get used to losing’.

No time for fretting, I had to make the draw. It was time to be proud of whoever was getting me as a fan. They were to become a part of my life, and everyone else’s that I would come into contact with.

I agreed to draw one team and Dan would read the team out that was left. The un-chosen one that I would support and follow. I drew. It wasn’t that I no longer cared who I got, I just knew that years of teasing was to come, much like when people say ‘I support Bournemouth’ to an Arsenal fan.

I looked across at Dan, he had unravelled his piece of paper. The smile was there for me to see. I looked down and saw ‘Pittsburgh’.

Bugger, I’m a Ray fan. Not a ‘Devil Ray’ fan, they changed name at the end of the last season, so they are now just the ‘Rays’. Bugger.

At least it will be hot if I ever visit them.