Chapter 16
I started the Fair Game Foundation after my second season in the majors.
It began with scholarships for kids whose parents could not afford fees.
Then it grew.
Reporting systems for youth sports abuse.
Training for coaches.
Legal support when adults tried to retaliate.
Coach Martinez sat on the board from his living room recliner, bossing everyone through video calls.
Mom handled family outreach.
Brandon trained volunteer coaches.
That surprised people.
Not me.
He knew exactly how favoritism poisons a field.
At the first clinic, a twelve-year-old pitcher froze after his father screamed from the fence.
I walked to the mound.
“What do you need?” I asked.
He whispered, “For him to stop.”
So we stopped practice.
Coach Lee removed the father.
The boy cried.
Then threw the best curveball I had seen all day.
Afterward, his mother hugged me.
“He’s never been asked what he needed.”
I thought of the trash can.
The silence.
May you like
The coach running toward me.
“Now he has,” I said.
