Page 118 of The Third Baseman

“I wanted to show you something.” I lifted the box up as much as I could. “But I can come back if you don’t have the time.”

“I always have time for you Doctor Matthews. You are turning my team into winners. Want some coffee?”

I kind of did… but instead replied, “No thanks, I’ve had some already.”

He shouted his coffee order to Melony, then perched on the edge of his desk and nodded to the box. “What’s that then?”

Thatwas something I’d been waiting nearly a month for, after I’d had the green light on the One Percent program.Thatwas Phase Two.

It’s not so much that time flies when you’re having fun, but more like when you’re working so many hours you forget what day it is. It was hard to believe it had been six weeks since I’d sat in this same chair and presented my One Percent idea to him, because even as I’d spoken the words, I hadn’t been entirely sure it would amount to anything.

We’d started gradually; a system of phases and tiny tweaks that wouldn’t create attention – the tape, the sleep schedule, Jupiter’s bat baggies – which had proved to be surprisingly popular, were all Phase One.

Overall, it had gone relatively seamlessly. Even Jesus Rodriguez seemed to have come around, especially after I’d shown him the data I’d been studying – the results of which said, without doubt, The Lions were leaps and bounds ahead of where they’d been in the standings at this point in the season compared to any of the previous five.

And he should know, because he’d been with the team for the entirety.

On the unofficial grapevine – loosely translated as the pillow next to Jupiter – I’d heard that the boys were holding up better than expected against the grueling travel schedule imposed on them. We were currently thirty-one wins to twenty-three. And following the weekend, Lux Weston was now leading home runs for the league after a grand slam hit bottom of the eighth that saw us eventually beat the Mariners by two runs.

Beyond Jupiter and his cherry LifeSavers, I’d learned that baseball is full of the most superstitious people in the world, and as soon as they’d realized the changes they were making could be helping them win, they’d been begging for what would come next. I was getting visits from some of the guys, adding things to my list of what frustrated them most. More than once I’d arrived at my office to see two or three of them hanging around outside. Ace Watson and Parker King were there daily.

Ace’s non-stop talking was exclusive to Jupiter, however.

I dropped the box onto one of his chairs and ripped it open. “You remember I told you about that material? The one that can detect sweat levels?”

He nodded, taking the shirt I was holding out to him and rubbed the fabric between his fingertips. “This it? Feels just like a normal shirt to me.”

“It’s supposed to, that’s what makes it so revolutionary.”

I waited while he held it up to the windows, letting the light shine through to he could examine every stitch, every seam. He stretched it taut, then turned it inside out, and repeated it all. I watched a pigeon land on the railings outside, but he didn’t care so much and flew off.

“Where do the sensors go?”

I nodded at the shirt crumpled in his hand. “They’re there.”

“Where?”

“In the shirt. They’re microfibers sewn into the material; they’re part of the cloth. The whole thing is made of sensors. It can detect anything.”

Even in the brief time I’d known Penn Shepherd, I’d learned it took a lot to impress him. And right now, if I wasn’t mistaken, I’d just achieved that badge of honor.

“Anything?” His eyebrows shot so far into his floppy blonde hairline they almost disappeared.

I nodded with a grin.

“Anything?” he asked again, but slower this time.

“Yes.” I looked at him, interrupting before he asked a third time. “Yes, anything.”

“Steroids?”

I’d always understood that Penn Shepherd had genius level intellect, but maybe I’d heard wrong if he didn’t realize what anything meant.

“Yes. If it can be found in blood or urine, it can be detected through those sensors.” I waited for him to say something, but he was still inspecting the shirt. “For today’s purposes though, it’s just the sweat we’re looking at.”

I grabbed my laptop from the box and spun it round so he could see.

“What’s this?”

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