Minor
April 6th, 2021
Starring: Darryn (male, 25-50), Maurice (malee, 25-50)
For more context (if needed), click here.
Night. A minor league affiliate baseball stadium, in a small town. It’s pretty old, but has its rustic charms: wooden bleachers (able to seat a few thousand), a manual scoreboard, local sponsor banners on the outfield walls. The stadium is dark save for one floodlight, which is just enough to illuminate Darryn and Maurice, sitting in“second deck.” The “second deck” isn’t exactly the nosebleeds, but it’s the highest the bleachers go behind home plate, with a good view of the entire stadium. Darryn and Maurice sit in the farthest back row, wearing their groundskeeper polos and khaki shorts. Maurice has a bag of ballpark peanuts open, crushing them and crunching them as they talk:
DARRYN
These are the best seats. I don’t care what anyone says, they are.
…
It’s the perspective. You can see it all happening, all at once.
Because it’s not only about the game. If you’re only at the game to watch the game, you’re missing the game. The real one. The experience the—the atmosphere the...the crossroads between spectacle, spectator, and sport.
That’s really why you go. To watch that at play. To play your part in it.
And I think everyone deserves that chance. It’s a right nobody should take away.
…
…
It would be nice to get some feedback.
Like anything.
MAURICE
I don’t know what to say.
I’m eating my feelings, I’m emotional.
DARRYN
So it makes sense?
MAURICE
Too much.
DARRYN
And you feel something?
MAURICE
Oh yeah.
DARRYN
And what’s the feeling…?
MAURICE
Closure?
Like this is really happening. The end.
…
DARRYN
What?
MAURICE
The end. Of the team—
DARRYN
I know but—that’s the opposite of what it’s supposed to do.
MAURICE
That’s the feeling.
I don’t feel good about having it—
DARRYN
Imagine how I feel—!
MAURICE
You wanted feedback—
DARRYN
I wanted you to lie! At least until I’d finished the thing…!
MAURICE
Dude. Level with you. A speech to the league is not going to save the franchise.
Even if it’s tear-jerking, even if it’s true. Even if you were to get every milquetoast MLB suit to listen, would it really change?
DARRYN
No. Of course not.
But I can’t not try.
It’s our town. Our jobs. They’re tearing down a community they’ve never been to.
MAURICE
The empire doesn’t care. They never have.
At least this time, they’re not even trying to hide it.
…
…
DARRYN
Well I hope they keep it.
Not turn it into a Target, or something.
MAURICE
Now that I’d fight for.
…
I still respect the heck out of it. Your optimism.
DARRYN
Eh. Hope has too many blind spots.
MAURICE
Like…?
DARRYN
Like thinking all your life you can’t put a number on a national pastime.
MAURICE
Mm. Yeah.
Baseball’s not America’s pastime.
DARRYN
What is?
MAURICE
Capitalism.
…
DARRYN
I hate you.
MAURICE
Sorry.
They sit there in silence. After a few moments, Darryn holds out his hand.
DARRYN
Gimme some.
Maurice pours out some peanuts into Darryn’s hand. They start to crush and crunch the peanuts together, looking out onto the darkened field.