Could I Be? (BxB)

Chapter 21 - Final Chapter

He smiles at me and is swept into the crowd a second later. I continue my celebration with my teammates, hugging all of them and cheering along with them. Once the energy manages to ease just a tad, we all thank the Yankees for a good series and I exchange a few good words with several of them before going back to my teammates.

Within no time, I'm back in the locker room with my teammates and coaches popping bottles of champagne and letting them soak every surface of the room there is. As the high from winning starts to calm down, the river of reporters and photographers starts to pour into the room, the flashes from the camera temporarily blinding us all.

But we regain our composure and slip on our 2022 World Series Champions t-shirts and caps and pose for the cameras. Jack and I stand close to one another and grin broadly for photographers, both of our faces dripping in champagne. As I smile for all the cameras, I start to remember everything that's gotten me here.

Yeah, it's 2022 and in case you hadn't noticed, Jack and I are Giants. The Giants recruited Jack a few months before he graduated Stanford and he accepted the deal Randy offered him almost immediately (with the exception of being able to play in the 2015 College World Series).

I graduated Stanford a little more than five years ago with a degree in business law and a minor in economics (just so I can stay safe after my career with the Giants eventually ends nowhere in the near future), and a bit of new muscle and height, finally stopping at six foot four and two hundred and five pounds, but my physical appearance has stayed pretty much the same.

Although I look a bit older and am 27 now, I still have the same hairstyle I did back in college, I keep a permanent five o'clock shadow on my face, and my eyes are the same brown color they've always been. After graduation, I went right back into training with the Giants and, just two months after I started training, I was the starting pitcher.

Jack, who had been training with the Giants for the two years we weren't playing together, was the backup catcher when I first came back. But after a bit of negotiation with Coach Mersin, the Giants head coach, he relented and allowed Jack to start in a game. The second the game ended Coach Mersin made Jack the starting catcher.

Ever since, he and I have always played together. If one of us was out, the other was out too. And if one of us was on the field, the other was on the field too. Jack and I were named the best Pitcher/Cather duo in the nation four years running, and we're projected to keep that title until one or both of us step down from baseball.

The camera flashes start to ease and as I start to regain my vision, a hand falls onto my shoulder. I turn and see Coach Mersin standing next to me. Coach Mersin is a man in his mid-fifties with absolutely no hair on his head (which he always hides with a cap, to no avail), a few wrinkles nest to his eyes and mouth, and is about half a foot shorter than me.

He gets close to my ear so I can hear him over the noise. "Swanson, there's a request for a press conference for you."

"Really?" I ask. "Jack too?"

"There's a separate one for him. C'mon. Can't keep the reporters waiting."

Coach Mersin weaves us through the locker room and we make it to the press conference room connected to the locker room. Within a second, the reporters start screaming questions and the camera flashes return. I just smile and walk over to my seat with a dozen microphones positioned in front of me.

I look out at the sea of reporters and point to a woman a few rows back. The noise quickly quiets down and everyone pays close attention to me. "Erica Belle," the woman says. "Fox Sports Network. First off, I'd like to say congratulations on your World Series win."