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‘Hey boss, there’s a woman out here who wants to see you’
‘Thanks Sheila, I’ll be out in a sec.’
Smiling Dave Grissom hangs up the phone and pushes back from his desk. In over 30 years in the car sales game he still enjoys the one on one facetime with the customers, and was still one of the best salesmen in his company.
Leaving his office he saw the woman Sheila had been talking about, she was standing facing away from him, her arms crossed as she looked over the midsize SUV that was parked in the showroom. Her dark curly hair cascading over a worn leather jacket with dark skinny jeans covering her lower half ending in motorcycle boots, she looked like any other recent college graduate looking for a car.
‘That’s a nice car, but it depends what you're in the market for.’ He said as he came to stand beside her. ‘I’m Dave Grissom, you asked to see me?’
She turns to face him then, and it was all he could do not to leave his jaw hanging like a slack jawed yokel. It was Ginny Baker, in the flesh. The 4th starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres, the first female player in MLB history was standing in his showroom on her day off in the 2018 World Series. This was something that didn’t happen everyday.
‘I did, Hi I’m….’
‘Ginny Baker’ The words fell unbidden from his mouth, the answering look on her face proved that at least he wasn’t the first man to lose control of his words.
‘Yeah am I.’
Her smile is a shock, the dimples bursting from her cheeks in a way that reminders him just how young this incredible woman before him is. She may be in her third season of major league ball, but at just 25 she was still incredibly young.
‘And you're here looking for a car?’ He can’t help the incredulity in his voice.
She shakes her head softly facing back towards the car in front of her. ‘No, I don’t drive, and if I did Poway might have been a little far to come to get a car. I actually came to see you Mr Grissom,’ he felt his own eyebrows raise at that, she’d come to see him, as if hearing his unspoken question she carried on, ‘I wanted to know if you have plans for tomorrow night?’
‘Tomorrow night? Halloween? Just trick or treating with my grandson and handing out candy.’
‘How about if I was to offer you four behind the plate tickets to game 6 of the World Series instead? Do you think your grandson would be ok with that instead?’ She turns her head, giving him a searching look, as if she’s trying to figure her way into a conversation that she doesn’t really want to have.
‘Miss Baker…..That's very generous of you but..’
‘Tomorrow night will be my captain's last game of professional baseball, he’s one of the best men I’ve ever known. Tomorrow night he’s going to step out onto Petco Park for the last time in his career, a career he has spent in one city, with one team and I think it would mean a lot to both of you if you were there.’ There it is, proof in so few sentences, this woman next to him knows exactly who he is, and the secret he thought had been hidden for over twenty years.
‘My family…’ How is he going to explain this,
Pulling an envelope from the inside pocket of her jacket, she turned to face him dead on, Dave Grissom felt the full force of what major league batters have been facing for the past three years. ‘Your family never has to know, say you won the tickets in a last minute prize draw and you can’t believe your luck. You never have to tell them, all you have to do is show up.’
‘I don’t know what you think you know, or what he’s asked you to do.’
‘Nobody has asked me to do anything, he doesn’t know I’m here. I’m not asking you to uproot your life or for anything to change. I’m doing a favour for a friend, and for you too. All you have to do is go to a ball game. I can tell you it's going to be a good one’
‘Ok sure, thank you Miss Baker.’ As he accepts the envelope from her outstretched hand, he can visibly see the relief flood off her.
‘Congratulation Mr Grissom.’ she said with a soft smile, turning to walk out of the showroom and into the waiting SUV he could now see parked at the curb.
He couldn’t help himself but add ‘You know there's always game seven, right?’
Her smile was electric as she turned back to face him, ‘Not this year there isn’t, I’ll see you tomorrow night.’
In that moment it became perfecting clear, what he should have known earlier, Ginny Baker is a force of nature.