C h a s i n g D r e a m s ➮ C a r r i s o n

• 7 •

"What is that?" Emily gasped as she yanked Carrie's left hand. "Jess, look at this!"

Jessica's jaw dropped upon seeing the ring. "Oh my gosh!"

Emily lightly punched her shoulder. "HARRISON PROPOSED!?" She yelled, loud enough that everyone in a few row radius from them heard it. Including Harrison in the on deck circle.

"AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME UNTIL NOW!?"

His eyes glanced from Emily to Jessica, to Carrie sitting in between. He shrugged his shoulders just a bit before shooting her one of those lopsided grins she fell in love with. She smiled back.

"CARRIE FISHER! Stop making eyes with your man and tell me how this happened!"

She explained the entire morning to Emily and Jessica. From when she pulled him out of bed by his feet, to hitting in the cage, and to the ball that came flying in with will you marry me on it.

"That's adorable," Jessica admitted.

"It's adorable," Emily started. "But I'd still like to know why you didn't call or text me right after it happened."

Carrie couldn't hold back her smile as Emily's persistent efforts to get her to talk. "Or were you two doing some things... no I don't want to know."

She scrunched her eyebrows. "Nope, that did not happen. Not yet at least."

"Well now that you two are going to be Mr. and Mrs. Baseball, you two can get started on some little baseball and softball players."

"Kids?"

Emily nodded. "A lot of them. Just think you guys could have a little catcher like his daddy and a little outfielder like her mommy."

"You are getting way ahead of yourself."

"It's never to early to start planning for the future."

Emily was missing the point. Both of them had careers as professional athletes. Kids weren't going to happen until somebody retired. It would be impossible for the two of them to raise children with their schedules. During the summer he was traveling with the Cubs and she was with the Bandits. Some weeks, they hardly saw each other.

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Harrison was really breaking in the new gear today. Reliever Pedro Strop was throwing everything into the ground and it was starting to tick Harrison off. A cutter that shouldn't even be touching the ground bounced well in front of the plate and hit his shoulder before he corralled it in front of his body to keep the runner from advancing.

He called time and jogged out to the mound. Reaching the mound, he hooked his mask on the back of his helmet.

"Cutter not working? Do you want to try something else?"

"Let's try curve outside."

Harrison nodded. "But if we get two strikes on him, we're going back to the cutter. You gotta get it up."

The umpire came out to end the mound chat. He jogged back behind the plate and called a curveball. It looked good coming in to the outside corner of the plate, but dropped into the dirt well before the plate.

Harrison dropped down to his knees to block it. It hit the plate oddly and bounced off his mask to the left side, allowing the runner to move up to second.

He shook his head and threw the ball back to Pedro. The next pitch he called a fastball inside, jamming the hitting and getting him to ground out to first base. The runner also moved up to third.

Pedro's night was over after he threw a slider in the dirt that bounced up and off Harrison's bicep as he was trying to block it and to the backstop. That allowed the Dodgers to tie the game at 2 in the top of the 9th.

After recording the third out, the Cubs jogged back into the dugout for the bottom of the 9th. Harrison quickly took off his gear. He would be up first.

⚾︎⚾︎⚾︎

Batting righty, he stepped into the box against the Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. Harrison had some good numbers against Jansen in his 3rd season. He had a .449 batting average with 2 home runs, 3 RBI in 11 at bats against him.

When Jansen threw off speed, he played with his grip in the glove longer than when he was throwing a fastball. Harrison picked up on that last season.

He was getting either a changeup, slider, or slurve. That was the only junk he had.

As the pitch was delivered, Harrison recognized the spin on the slurve. It curved away from him as well as dropping a little bit. But Jansen hung the slurve belt high on the outside of the plate.

Harrison took his step, rotated his hips, and threw his hands at the outside pitch. The ball sailed off the bat with a loud crack. He started running to first base, but was slowed by the first base coach who gave him a high five as he rounded the base.

On a 40 degree night like this, he had no idea how that ball was able to carry over the right field wall of Wrigley Field. But somehow it did. Baseballs didn't carry well in the cold.

He was met at home plate by his teammates. It was the first walk off of the season, and his third home run. As he stepped on home plate to end the game, somebody poured the rest of the Gatorade on him.

After the walk off celebration, a freezing Harrison made his way over for a post game interview with one of the Cubs sideline reporters.