Dedicated in memory of my cousin Dave and my uncle Steve, in which baseball was a big part of their lives

Chapter 1 – Fallen Angels

It was a warm, mid-June afternoon in Toontown. Children were roaming the streets after being released from school, all of them eagerly waiting for the last day of school to arrive the following week. Among these kids are two children, a boy approaching his teenage years with blond hair curled in a cowlick, deep blue eyes and wore a red and yellow striped tee shirt with blue denim shorts and a girl several years his junior with long black hair, brown eyes and was wearing a red muumuu and sandals. They had become friends after unfortunate events brought the two together to the same foster home.

"Hey, Lucas," the girl said the blond. "Do you believe in Heaven?"

"Sure, why do you ask?" the boy responded.

"Just wondering." The girl paused for a couple of seconds before she asked another question. "Do you think my parents know you mom up there?"

"I dunno, maybe."

"That would be cool if they did, though because we're friends down here on Earth."

"Yeah."

As the two made their way home from school, they passed by the city baseball stadium. The local professional baseball team, the Angels, had been struggling through the season with a 13-game losing streak and was getting ready for another game later that day.

"You know what else is cool?" she said to Lucas. "Frankie's house is called a 'foster home' and her last name is Foster. Do you think her family started them?"

"It's probably just a coincidence, Lilo."

"Yeah but it's still cool."

"If you say so."

The friends took a shortcut through vacant lots and continued to converse until they arrived at a modest 1-story house on the corner of a street. The house itself was of a plain color with a decent lawn and had a white picket wooden fence surrounding it.

"Frankie, we're back," Lucas called as he opened the gate to the front yard with Lilo close behind.

"Hi, guys. How was school?" a young woman with red hair in a ponytail answered from the kitchen window before heading to the front door and opened it for the two kids.

"Boring," Lilo answered. "I can't wait for it to be over."

"I know how that was." Frankie turned her attention to the boy. "Anyways, Lucas, you have someone waiting for you inside."

"Who is it?" the boy asked.

"Well, go inside and see for yourself."

Happily curious, the blond went through the front door to find a man with a beard wearing a cowboy hat that hid his eyes from view, a yellow shirt with the sleeves rolled up to above his elbows and a brown vest and pants. He was sitting in the small living room on the couch waiting patiently for the boy to come home from school. The man was Lucas's father, Flint.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" Lucas asked in surprise.

"I came here to see you," his father said as he got up from his seat. "So, how've you been?"

"Fine."

"Doing good in school?"

"Uh-huh. We're almost done for the year."

"That's good. The Angels still your favorite team?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I was just making sure because they aren't doing that well." Lucas's dad sighed and got down to eye level with him. Whenever that happened, Lucas knew that there was bad news. "Anyhow, I came to say that I'm going to be going away for a job. I know I said that the next time I came to visit it would be to pick you up but things aren't going as I hoped. I did everything in my power to get you back." The man sighed again and got back onto his feet before starting to head towards the front door. "If only your mother and brother were still around, it would probably never have come to this… I had to sign a release form for you and need to get it finalized by the court. I hope you understand."

Lucas just stood there and listened to his father, fearing for the worst until he finally answered with a soft "yeah."

"All right. Well, I have to go."

Afraid that he would be the last time he would see him, Lucas followed his dad out the door to a nearby bus stop, right before the bus arrived.

"Do you think we'll ever be a family again?" the blond asked.

Right before getting on, the man looked towards the nearby baseball stadium where the Angels played their home games. The only thing visible of it was the large lamps used to light the stadium for night games. "From what I can see, probably when your team wins the pennant. Take care, Lucas." Tugging down on the front of his hat, Flint got onto the bus with Lucas standing behind him, watching.

"You getting on too?" the bus driver asked the boy. Lucas shook his head as the bus doors closed shut and the vehicle began to take off down the road. All the blond could do now was watch it disappear from view and hope that he would be able to see his father again.

Hours later, at the baseball stadium, the Angels were in the middle of a game with the Dimmsdale Pirates. Lucas and Lilo managed to sneak into the game, on the girl's insistence to cheer her friend up, and were now hiding in a tree on the left-hand side of the stadium, watching the game with binoculars and a small radio.

With the Angels down by five, it's now a 1-2 count to the Pirate's third baseman with a man on second at the top of the 7th, the announcer said over the radio. The Angels need one more out to get their chance at bat.

"Strike him out," Lucas quietly said to himself.

"You can do it," Lilo added, trying not to shout and get noticed by a nearby security guard who was quite large and dressed in blue.

On the baseball diamond, a blue anthropomorphic bird stood on the pitcher's mound, getting ready to pitch the ball to the current batter of the Dimmsdale Pirates.

Lombardi gets his sign and here's the pitch, the radio announcer continued. The pitcher, Falco Lombardi, sent the ball flying to the catcher to only for it to be popped up.

The ball is hit high between left and center field.

The two outfielders closest to the ball, a brown bear and a Faerie Bruce wearing goggles, both gave chase before the bear called out for the catch. Unfortunately, the other outfielder didn't hear him.

Banjo and Worrill both go for the catch, someone better call it!

Banjo tried again and before he could get the ball, the two players ran into each other with a grunt and the ball fell between them, bouncing towards the wall.

The two have just collided and blew the catch!

"Where'd the ball go?" the Bruce asked, not being able to see well with his goggles knocked out of place. As the audience booed, the two players scrambled to get the baseball and ended up tripping over one another, adding more dissatisfaction to the field.

"Wow, they stink," Lucas said to himself after seeing the team's latest foul-up.

In the dugout of the Angels, a frustrated Mario threw his hat on the ground, not pleased with the last play. This was his first year with the team as manager, hoping to do well but was getting tired of all the fouled up plays and multiple losses. With a pitcher that was giving too many runs away in the last few innings, he felt that he had to take him out of the game.

It looks like team manager is going to call time out to speak with his pitcher, Falco Lombardi.

"Uh oh," the blond whispered from the tree.

It looks like he might take him out and Lombardi does not look happy about this.

"I-a need you to hand me the ball," Mario stated to Falco, placing his hand out for it.

"It ain't my fault; it's the outfield you need to take out!" Falco answered, miffed.

"I-a said hand me the ball," he asked again with a harsh tone.

Falco started at the ball in his hand and then back to Mario, who was starting to become impatient with his pitcher.

"You want it?" the bird asked before throwing it towards the seating section by home plate. "Well, go get it! You can have my glove too!"

Lombardi has thrown the ball and his glove into the stands!

"Okay, that's it." Mario, now greatly annoyed, grabbed Falco by the arm and pushed him towards the dugout. "Now get-a going."

Usually Mario had a calm and cheery disposition but when pushed too far, you didn't want to mess with him. It also didn't help that his team lost almost every single game during the season and were now sitting in last place in the standings. An infuriated Falco tackled his manager into the ground and all the man could do was fight him off in self defense. As the two struggled, the other members of the Angels that were on the field ran towards the pitcher's mound, trying to end the fight.

Mario is now fighting off his own pitcher!

"No one does that to me!" Falco shouted.

"There's a first time fo-ar everything, now get-a back to the dugout!"

"Over my dead body!"

"Get-a off of me!"

As the fight continued, the rest of the Angels ran off of the benches and onto the field to separate the two. Even the opposing team followed suit but were soon stopped by their own manager.

Both teams are clearing the benches! Ladies and gentlemen, it's total chaos on the field!

The Angels struggled to keep their manager and pitcher apart as they continued to fight and yell at each other.

"You call yourself a manager?" Falco shouted as he was being held back by the catcher, Kakoni and two of the basemen.

"Hey!" Mario shouted back while being taken away by half of the lineup.

Up in the boxes, the radio announcer, Chet Ubetcha, stood up from his seat and continued to describe the scene that happened before him. "This is crazy! Mario is fighting off his own team after being provoked by his pitcher!"

"Great…" Lucas groaned.

"Looks like Mario's cooling off but the team is still trying to keep the two apart."

From the stands, fans continued to jeer and none more so than Wario, a man who looked a lot like Mario but fatter and had a crooked mustache. "You stink, Mario!" he shouted.

"You're out of here, Lombardi! You too, Mario!" the home plate umpire shouted.

"Wait, what?" Mario asked in surprise.

"You heard me. Off of the field."

"Aw, leave 'em in," Lucas protested from his hiding place.

"Don't throw him out!" Lilo added in excitement, getting the attention of nearby security.

"Dah, what are you kids doing there?" the guard shouted to Lucas and Lilo.

"Uh, oh."

"Looks like the game's over for us," the boy said to his friend.

"Yeah, you better run!" the security guard yelled at them as they climbed down from the tree's branches. The two kids ran towards the fence, where there was a hole that they used to get in. The hole itself was obscured by some bushes, which they climbed through to make their way out of the fenced stadium area.

Back on the field, Mario was trying to keep himself from having to leave the field along with Falco, who was yelling at the ump rather than speaking to him calmly like his manager was.

"You're kicking us out?" Mario asked the umpire.

"Yeah, I'm kicking both of you out," he answered.

"You can't do that to me. Mario was the one who started it," Falco stated.

"I started it?" his manager questioned.

"Yeah, you. You're the one who pushed me."

"Well, you didn't get-a yourself to the dugout when I-a asked."

"That's enough from both of you now get out of here!" the umpire shouted to them.

"Fine, I'm-a gone." Mario answered. "Come on Falco."

"I'd never thought I'd have to say that to him," the umpire said to himself as Mario headed for the lockers with his pitcher.

"Looks like the two are going to have to watch the rest of the game in the locker room," Chet stated before taking his microphone off the air. "I'm surprised Conagher is able to put up with this baloney," he said

"Think you could do better maybe?" Ubetcha's co-commentator, Zoidberg asked.

"Probably could if I played my cards right." After that last sentence, he turned his microphone back on and went back to commentating. "What is going on with this team and how long will Angels owner Dell Conagher be able to put up with this? You have to ask yourself these questions especially with Mario being the one calling the shots. Seems like you'll know know what will happen with this team."

Authoress' notes: Dell Conagher is the canon name of the (BLU) Engineer from Team Fortress 2, in case you weren't sure.