To Probe A Beating Heart by John B Wren

this kid, he’s my age, and he’s a nice guy, and I’m gonna’ show him around school tomorrow.”
                  “That’s nice, now set the damn table.”
                  After dinner, Averell looked out the window wondering about his new friend. Maybe he could show Averell how to play baseball. He was excited. Happy.
                  In the morning, Averell met Jimmy out front and they walked up the street toward the school. When they arrived, Jimmy had to go to the office and get all signed up. “I’ll see you later, maybe in a classroom if I get through the office stuff.”
                  “Okay, I’ll be in the cafeteria at 11:45.”
                  “Is that the regular lunch time?”
                  “It is for our grade, up through fourth, the older kids eat after us at 12:15.”
                  At lunchtime, Jimmy came into the cafeteria and spotted Averell.
                  “Hey, I go to the next class, you can show me the way.”
                  “Sure.” Averell was feeling very good, very proud.
                  Jimmy was too late to sign up on the basketball team and he did not want to start football for another few years. So the fall and winter passed with the two boys getting along, doing homework together and earning a few dollars shoveling snow. Averell was at the top of the world.
                  Spring came and so did the baseball tryouts. Jimmy started practicing with a tennis ball, bouncing it off his garage door and catching it in his glove. Averell tried, using Jimmy’s glove, but he was not very good at catching, and his throwing was even worse. When the tryouts started, Jimmy was a natural at either short stop or third and he was able to pitch, but he preferred third. His slot on a team was a no brainer, the kid was good, able to fill several slots and better than any of the others. Averell on the other hand was terrible and was laughed at by the other boys.
                  “Hey, cool it, he’s tryin’” barked Jimmy, “more than some of you.”
                  The coaches liked Jimmy’s attitude and his standing up for a friend.
                  “The kid is good, young, but good. Like his command over the others.
                  We got us a leader” said the pitching coach.
                  “Agreed, let’s give him an ‘A’ on his shirt and see if it turns into a ‘C’ on next year’s team,” said the head coach.
                  The whole staff concurred. Jimmy was a leader and, unfortunately his friend was not and more so, not very good at throwing, catching, running, baseball was not his game.“
                  This Averell kid is Jimmy’s friend and it would be good if he was
    involved, but, well y’all have seen him he’s terrible,” said the head coach.
                  One of the assistants offered, “We can’t say that, maybe this Averell could be a manager, take care of the equipment.”
                  “You think he would go for that, I mean most kids think that they
    should be starters, and anything less, well they get pissy and some even cry ‘cause they aren’t going to be the next Mickey Mantle,” said the coach.
                  “Let’s set the team and then ask this Averell if he wants the manager’s job, if he takes it we minimize the damage, if he says no, then at least we tried, what else can we do?”
                  The coach thought for a few seconds, “Okay, done. Now what’s next?”
                  When the roster was announced, the head coach called Averell into his office and explained the situation. “You aren’t that good with throwing and catching, but you try hard and we like that. We would like you to be involved with the team and we have a need