After another hour or so, Ken found himself back at the hotel he'd been booked in at. These last couple of days had flown by, to the point where it didn't feel real. He would be staying in Detroit for two nights before flying to Erie.
He wasn't sure how long he would be playing in Double-A, but he hoped that it would not be for long. Originally Ken had wanted to be placed in Triple-A right away, but his grandfather talked him down.
Everyone had to go through this process, so there was no use in rushing. With only half the season remaining this year, it would be better if he focused on improving before being called up to the Majors.
And so he agreed.
He checked his phone and saw a message from Tara. Apparently his instagram following had increased after the draft and was now sitting at almost 800 thousand. She also said that Barry had reached out to her to help work on the new endorsement deal from Nikey.
Ken smiled. With Barry helping out Tara, he felt at ease. The woman had helped grow his brand, so he felt that he owed her at least this much.
He decided to call Ai. It had only been a day, but he missed her already. They had only seen each other for a few days and the first didn't even count because she had been jet lagged.
The two spoke for over an hour before hanging up. Ken planned to have dinner with his grandfather and the time was approaching.
They caught up at a local steakhouse and had a great dinner. Now that the draft was over, Ken was feeling much better. He had been anxious for what seemed like an eternity, but it had all worked out in the end.
Their conversation was light, though the older man had warned Ken that just because they were related, it didn't mean he would go easy on him.
The next night, Ken arrived at Comerica stadium and was ushered through the players area and introduced to the team in the locker room. There were many people he was introduced to, but not many seemed that interested in him.
'Is it because I'm not a part of the team yet?' Ken thought. He couldn't blame them, he was technically on a minor league contract right now. Many of the people in the locker room might not be here by the time he crawled up to the Majors.
One player stuck out, James Rogers the catcher. He had a thick mustache that looked like it was going to crawl off his face in the next moment. He was a bit shorter than Ken, but was still likely around 6'2.
He was nice, but seemed rather nonchalant about the meeting.
Ken stuck around in the locker room but was largely ignored. Perhaps if he was younger and more immature he might be upset about this, but it didn't affect him.
Instead, he was busy using Identify on all of the players, his eyes sparkling. He had missed out on doing this to the Yanks players, there was no way he would miss out on this chance.
He was a little surprised to see that quite a few of the players were below him in physical stats. It was mostly the pitchers and a few baseman in particular.
Ken frowned. This didn't make sense.
If they were worse than him, then why were they in the majors?
However, his eyes lit up in understanding in the next moment. He had theorized before that experience played a tremendous part of a players ability to play the game. While the system did not seem to have an experience grade, he had no doubt this was also a huge factor.
'Mika, why does the system not show a players experience?' Ken asked.
[Answer: Experience is too variable to quantify into grades.]
Ken thought for a while on the answer. At first he didn't think it made sense. The system was able to quantify essentially everything, so why not experience. But as he continued to ruminate, it started to make more sense.
Experience came in many forms on the battlefield. Unless one were to give each aspect of baseball an experience grade, the result would be far too inaccurate. For example, if a player was EX grade in 3 out of the 10 categories, but C grade or below in the others, the average would be shockingly wrong.
Forgetting experience, at least he compared better to a lot of players when it came to raw grades, making him feel a little better.
His thoughts were interrupted with the arrival of his grandfather into the locker room. The old man looked amiable, but his face changed when he began to speak to the players.
Everyone paid attention, they had no choice. Mark's voice was magnetic. Despite being hired during the all-star break and this being his first game as coach, it was already evident how capable he was.
Seeing this brought a smile to Ken's face. Who wouldn't be proud seeing their grandfather command a room full of professional athletes with such ease?
After going through some things, they were led onto the field to warm up. Ken followed and stayed around the dugout area while the players went onto the field.
"Are you nervous?" Mark asked.
"Nervous? For the ceremonial pitch?" Ken asked incredulously. Despite the largely packed stadium, why would he feel nervous for such a thing? It wasn't like he was pitching in his first game.
"Hehe, I'm kidding." He said, nudging Ken with his elbow.
Ken shook his head letting out a dry chuckle. Soon enough it was his time to go up onto the mound. The catcher James Rogers was in position behind the plate, squatting nonchalantly.
Ken who had already warmed up his shoulder smiled at the man. 'I hope he catches it…'
He lifted his left leg before kicking off the pitchers plate and striding forward. His right arm whipped past his face and a killer fastball shot straight towards Jason's open glove.
PAH
A cheer rang out across the stadium and Ken raised his arm, waving at them. The pitch had felt good, part of him was upset that he wouldn't get to start right away.
Jason who was behind the plate was wearing a shocked expression as he looked down at the ball in his glove. He did not have to move at all, yet the impact of the ball had almost caused it to fire back and hit him in his mask.
'This kid… He's the real deal…'