Born in the suburbs of Boston, there lies a boy named Dustin. There wasn’t much that he couldn’t do but he hated school and all he did was play baseball and so that is what he did and he loved it. So many things that he wanted to achieve in life and baseball was all of them. Growing up as the shortest kid around, Dustin was faced with criticism very early in life. Cut from many teams because they all thought that his height defined his abilities. Dustin wouldn’t put up with others telling him if he could succeed and so what he decided was he was going to work harder than everyone else and prove them wrong. His friend David loves baseball too, so they would practice together for many hours every day. They practiced and practiced and started getting very good. They decided that they would practice after school for fours a day. Dustin’s friend, David had the advantage, he was 6’3” and had enormous power. David played center field and Dustin played 2nd base and shortstop. They were very good at them. Today was game day, and they were playing millennium high school. They were picked to win region and everyone knew it was going to be a tough game. It was a hot, sunny day with only a couple clouds in sight. The sky was blue with Dustin and David both were doing their pregame warm-ups: jogging, stretching, throwing and batting practice. They got their Gatorade; Dustin had to have his strawberry lemonade flavored. As game time neared, Dustin was batting second, so he got his bat and his batting gloves and started taking practice swings. He took a couple cuts and realized he needed to run some sprints to make sure his legs were warm. He ran to the foul pole and back and did some jumping jacks.

Game Time: Dustin in his senior year is one of the Captains of his team and so him, David and Mookie go to home plate where the captains all shake hands and exchange lineup cards. First inning, coach put Joe on the mound and he is warming up, looks like he has pretty good stuff today, and his slider is just devastating. The batter inches into the box, ­ and the first pitch whizzes by just hitting the outside corner to start off the ball game. 0-1. Joe throws an inside curveball to brush back the batter who is crowding the plate. 1-1. Joe is smiling because he knows what he is about to throw. The batter is expecting a fastball because of the count and he is going to throw an inside changeup to jam him. Swing and a miss, he missed it. 1-2. Here comes the slider; the bottom just dropped right out of it for the strikeout. As the umpire yells strike three the catcher, Jason, throws the ball to the third base-man Pablo. As they throw it around, the new batter is getting signs from his coach on how he wants him to hit. Joe is on the
rubber and is waiting for the new batter to step into the box. He starts this guy off with his slider. 0-1. The slider just catches the inside of the strike zone as the batter ducked out of the way of the ball he thought was going to hit him. Joe wanted to get into a good count with the batter so he challenged him with a fastball in. Joe lost this battle as the batter lined this into left-center field. Mookie ran over to cut it off and throw it in, but the batter had already gotten his single. Joe is back on the mound and needs a ground ball to turn the double play. All he is going to throw are sinkers and changeups to induce the ground ball. First pitch: changeup. 1-0. He missed down low to start off the batter. Next he tried something different. He went high and inside with a fastball to freeze the batter. It worked, 1-1. Back to the original game plan: with the sinkers. He threw an outside sinker and worked perfectly, he grounded the ball to Dustin, the second basemen, who flipped it to Deven the shortstop who then turned the double play flawlessly. The bottom of the inning is now here and Mookie is taking his practice cuts to prepare himself for the upcoming mental battle. He puts one step in the box and looks at his coach, swing away the sign says. He adjusts his helmet and stares at the pitcher. He gets in the box just looking for that fastball to shoot over the center field fence. He gets a curveball and is way out in front of it. 0-1. He takes a step out of the batter’s box and looks at his coach, who just shakes his head. Mookie knows he’s on his own now. Second pitch: curveball. Again! Mookie thought. Should have jumped on it the second time. This one was another strike. 0-2. Crap! Mookie thought, got to protect now. He is just looking to make some contact now, foul it off if it's close. He gathered his thoughts and got back in the box and prepared for the pitch. He it was a slider down and away; he lined it into right field right above the second basemen. Dustin walks up to the batters box, puts his foot in and focuses up. First pitch comes as a fastball down the middle, but Dustin was taking the pitch. He now has the look he needs. He gets a ball, then another. 2-1. Putting his foot out of the batters box he gets the sign from coach for a hit and run. He needs to get the ball down. Dustin gets what he’s looking for with a fastball, which he hits right at the first basemen. He gets out but he advanced Mookie to second. David walks up to the plate with the song “Big Poppa” by Notorious B.I.G. I like it when you call me big papi he sings to himself while he is entering the box. He fixes his batting gloves then looks at them, spits on it, then claps. That is his pre-at-bat ritual he does every time he about to step in. He takes a first pitch over the left field wall to put them on the scoreboard 2-0 very quickly. The game goes on that Dustin hits a single up the middle and David draws a walk in the fifth inning and Hanley gets a double to drive in Dustin for another run to make it 3-0. Joe ended up not allowing even one run during the game and they won. The season comes to an end and Dustin ending batting .389 and David batted .304 with six home runs! They went to the play offs and they won their first couple games but lost in the semis.

Out of high school they practiced more and more and when July came around. The Amateur draft was coming up and they were both extremely excited to about possibly getting picked up by a professional team! Draft day was coming up faster and faster; Dustin asked David “Where do you want to be drafted?” “Red Sox of course! Where else?” Growing up in Boston, it always meant a lot to these men to want to play for the red sox.  Who wouldn’t want to play for the big name Red Sox? That meant a lot to Dustin and David. They loved the red sox and have followed them since they were little, gone to their games, and have done some showcases for them. The Red Sox also have shown interest in them, as they are really good players.

Draft day finally came and both Dustin and David were just stoked for the day to come. This day could easily decide if they would see each other much anymore. Both their families were having a joint big party at their neighborhood clubhouse with a big projector to show the live feed of the draft. Friends and family were all there to help support the young men on what they choose to do after high school and everyone knew that they both wanted to play for the red sox really really bad. The time had finally come to know where they were going. First round came and went and neither of them had been chosen. Second round was going on and the Red Sox have their pick, they Chose David! He got exactly what team he wanted him to choose. Third round comes and goes, as does the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth rounds. The ninth round is almost coming to a close and the red sox have the last pick of the round and the choose Dustin! Dustin and David will both be playing for the red sox together! Just like in high school.

They both get assigned to the Single-A Greenville Drive baseball team where they will learn the life of a professional baseball player. In the first month their life completely changes, they can barely talk to their families; they are never staying in the same spot. Just moving around tons from the baseball. From Tacoma to Salem and back to Greenville, they just never stop. David is on a hot streak, and is just hitting everything. The farm director sees that and promotes David to AA Salem. He is met with some really good pitchers and he cools down very quickly. He realizes this is the first time he hasn’t played with Dustin for a while. Dustin is really having a hard time still in just the Single-A baseball, and David doesn’t know what to do. He really wants Dustin to come up and work up to AA baseball. Dustin finally finds his groove and gets promoted. He is doing well, but people still keep bringing his height into it and making fun of him for it. They tell him that’s why he is still in the minors and not playing in the bigs. That really tears Dustin apart. By this time it’s September and the games are about to come to an
end and because of that he hates winter because of the cold and no baseball. He uses the words that people kept tearing him down with as motivation. He would get up every morning and run and then run even farther. After, he would lift for two hours to get bigger and to get stronger. He gained almost 30 pounds of muscle in this offseason. They assign him to the AA Salem team again, but during spring training, David showed them his power and they promoted him to AAA-Pawtucket. During the season, Dustin would lift and workout even more. He was already known for his defense, but he wanted to work on it more, He would have the third base coach hit him over a hundred ground balls a day to help solidify his defensive skills. The Farm director finally started seeing the hard work of Dustin and promoted him to AAA Pawtucket where he joined David, slugging away his homers. Dustin became gold glove worthy from all the time he put into making himself that person. The manager at the time John, saw this work ethic from the youngster Dustin, this was the time to show what Dustin was really made of. He was promoted to the majors during September call-ups and he wasn’t going to let this chance go to waste. He did his normal routine going through the motions of extra batting practice and having the fielding coach to hit him ground balls.  Dustin at this point just came out of no where and did amazing at the major level earning him the September call up of the month and then going on to win the gold glove and rookie of the year awards that next year. Dustin no longer thinks or complains about how tall he is.