Pancake

By Robert E. Cartmell

Chris Pancake loves the Lord and loves baseball. He is the best high school pitcher in his district, perhaps even in the state. A major league scout pursues him and informs him that the Pirates intend to draft him second overall, but Chris has other plans. Then, he accomplishes a feat that has rarely been seen before from a high school pitcher.

Still coping with the loss of his mother, he has a near perfect relationship with his father, Charles. Conversely, his faith and his relationships with his best friends are put to the test. On the cusp of turning 30 years old, Chris looks back and reflects on two tragic events that shaped his character as an adult. Pancake is a tale of faith and forgiveness, tragedy and triumph, and lives transformed.

Throughout his young life, Chris retains an unwavering commitment to his faith despite societal pressures and personal struggles that threaten to pull him away. His is an amazing journey of sports, family, and the love of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 21, 2023
• ISBN: 9781664298279

Robert E. Cartmell

Robert E. Cartmell is a lover of baseball and the Bible. He is a veteran of the United States Army and has an associate’s degree from Blue Ridge Community College. He is faithful to the Lord’s church and lives with his family in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

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Copyright © 2023 Robert E. Cartmell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The Kline’s name used by permission.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org

ISBN: 978-1-6642-9826-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-9825-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-9827-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023907528

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/08/2023

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Tragedy

Chapter 2 Eleven Years Later

Chapter 3 The Next Day

Chapter 4 Another Game, And A Bit More

Chapter 5 The Dinner

Chapter 6 Perfection

Chapter 7 After Perfection

Chapter 8 Conversion and Restoration

Chapter 9 Game of Surprise and Fortitude

Chapter 10 Prom Night

Chapter 11 Mercy and Salvation

CHAPTER 1

TRAGEDY

CHRIS PANCAKE HAS loved coaching. That fact was established some time ago. It has accorded with his love of preaching, which to him both contained two similar elements—the effort to motivate and teach, and Chris excelled at both. When someone can no longer physically play a sport, the way to remain close to that sport is always coaching, and he fell in love with it by default.

He stood there, tossing balls toward home plate. The players got two throws, and on the third pitch, if necessary, he set the ball on a tee; then the batter could swing and, hopefully, hit the ball squarely. There were parents in the bleachers taking in the warmth of the weather and encouraging their little boys, and a few girls, to play their best. The air was warm enough for late May; the humidity had increased throughout the afternoon, with showers and storms in the forecast.

As the time came for Chris’s six-year-old son to bat, memories of his own time in T-ball crept into his mind. Chris remembered his father coaching him about the same age, and the terrible event that happened when he was just six; another terrible incident occurred just days before he turned eighteen—a couple of weeks before graduation. Coincidentally, both incidents occurred within the same week, eleven years apart. Chris was now just days from turning thirty. He had been and was still doing the things he loved, and he had no complaints.

He heard a woman’s voice encouraging the boy. It was his wife; they had been married for nearly seven years. High school sweethearts? Sort of. She became his girlfriend just days before he turned eighteen and just a couple of weeks before graduation. They even went to the prom together, which they still reminisced about, for better or worse, to this day.

Of course, Chris could never forget the scout who had pursued him relentlessly. He had been on track to be drafted by a Major League team. He was on the radar of this Major League team and that scout. He was expected be their top pick in the draft that year, but all that changed drastically. However, the scout, a hardened sinner, had also been changed after he met Chris and Charles, his father. The scout repeatedly said that. He said he had been searching for truth in his life and praised the Almighty for having found it. He often said he had been doing much soul-searching; he also said he had been doing much more drinking. Conversely, he’d been trying to find a way to quit but could not find the strength or a way to force himself to give up the booze.

Charles arrived just in time to see his grandson take his cuts. Charles was a pillar in the community and had a long history of activism, but not the kind some would prefer. For many years he refused to carry a cell phone, or a beeper when they were popular, due to the first incident. In fact, Charles often said he wished he had ignored his beeper that day, but he’d had no choice because he was on the school board and an elder at his congregation. Answering that beeper and what occurred that evening had changed their lives forever.

This ultimately brought Chris’s remembrance to Janet, his late mother. His memories of her were fading as the years passed, and he felt a bit slighted for growing up without her around, since he had been so young when she was lost, yet he still considered his life to be blessed beyond measure. Charles often told Chris stories about his mother when he was a child. It was an effort to keep the memories of Janet alive.

But all that had at last been put to rest in recent years. Mostly because Charles finally remarried. He had known this woman for many years. She was a faithful member of the Lord’s church and a godly woman who had lost her husband several years ago to cancer. They were kindred spirits, in a sense. They promised to love each other, not to replace the spouses they’d lost.

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Twenty-Three Years Earlier

Here you go, Chris, Charles said, pitching to his son. The boy swung and hit the ball sharply through the hole between shortstop and third. Charles noticed how well his son excelled at T-ball. He did not want to read too much into that, though, because Chris was only days shy of his seventh birthday. It may have been a bit of naivete, but Charles believed all parents saw their kids as gifted. Every youngster, in Charles’s estimation, possessed some sort of gift—athletic, academic, and the like.

Charles cherished these moments when he had opportunities to coach the boy. He regretted how he had had fewer opportunities with his two older children. Work always seemed to get in the way in past times, but now Charles was taking every chance he could with Chris. It was almost cathartic to Charles to cure the part that ailed him. He claimed he had good relationships with his two other children, but those who knew Charles well would say they were not as close as he perceived, and Charles refused to admit it. That is why, they would say, he was spending extra time with his youngest child.

It had been an overcast and damp afternoon, which was in welcome contrast to the previous days. Charles could hear his beeper from the pitcher’s mound but chose to ignore it for the moment. It chimed twice more before the end of the inning.

When the inning ended, Charles looked at the beeper and recognized the number from the school board. He knew there was a meeting was that evening. Charles had called the superintendent earlier in the day to say he would be late. He preferred spending time with Chris, so the meeting could wait. The meeting would be at seven, which also conflicted with Wednesday night Bible study. It perturbed Charles they would do things like that, but he had known what he was getting into when he ran for the school board. He had run for school board to make a positive difference in the community; he never truly fathomed the difficulty he would encounter. He was always in direct conflict with the educators in the city. And why? Because Charles was trying to bring God back into the school.

Charles was about to leave, but he had arranged for Janet to come to the ballfield directly from her job at the hospital. Afterward, she was going to Grottoes to see her parents, which she would do sometimes on Wednesdays. She would listen to her father, a preacher there, then go and spend a little time with them. Most occasions, she would go alone.

About fifteen minutes before seven, she arrived. Okay, I’m here, she declared.

Thank you for coming, Charles said, relieved she was finally there.

Charles, when are you going to quit being on the school board? she asked You’re not accomplishing anything there except making enemies. It’s a waste of time. Besides, it’s getting in the way of your eldership.

She had been begging Charles to quit the board for months, especially because he had been ordained as an elder, and there were the constant scheduling clashes, in addition to his sleep deprivation.

I know, he said sadly. I was sure I could do both, but I suppose I was wrong. At some point, I need to make some changes here because I can’t keep this going forever.

She kissed Charles on the cheek and said, Well, you go ahead. I’ll take Chris with me to Grottoes. I love you.

I love you too, Charles said.

Dad, I want to go with you, Chris cried.

You can’t, Janet said. It’s for grown-ups. We’ll go to Nanny and Pop Pop’s tonight. Besides, your brother and sister are studying, and they need some peace and quiet.

Okay, Chris replied, but the disappointment was evident.

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Charlie and Olivia were upstairs, studying for exams. Charles relaxed on the sofa, sipping iced tea and watching an episode of The Ed Sullivan Show on a classic television network. He was feeling a bit uneasy. Janet should’ve been home an hour ago, he thought. It was not so unusual for her to run late getting home. And he never minded it; after all, her parents weren’t getting any younger. Besides, Charles loved her parents as if they were his own and referred to them as Mom and Dad in their presence.

She always called before coming home, and tonight was no exception. That was the problem; she had called more than an hour ago. There had been a thunderstorm just a little while earlier to cool off the evening, and maybe she was waiting for the storm to pass before venturing home. That gave Charles little comfort. If she was waiting, why didn’t she call a second time? Perhaps she’d gone to Food Lion to pick up a few groceries. But still, she would have called, for she did carry a cell phone.

Charles despised cell phones. He thought people were becoming dependent on them. We seemed to get by just fine before they came along, Charles would say. Sometimes, especially when he was sitting somewhere, there would be an obnoxious person talking excessively loudly on their cell phone. Were they doing that intentionally? Were they just trying to look important? Charles often wondered if both were true. He got why Janet carried one; it was essential for her career as a midwife. She was often on call and had to carry it with her. The eldership and the evangelist at his church suggested, while the school board required, he carry something in case of an emergency meeting. Therefore, Charles reluctantly carried a beeper.

The school board meeting went its usual way: contentious. Charles was in constant disagreement with the other members and the educators. They argued mostly about evolution being taught exclusively in the public school. Charles advocated for teaching Creationism and tried to demonstrate the need for both concepts to be offered which always sparked intense arguments. It availed little to nothing, and Charles’ exasperation would be on full display at times, although he managed a relative composure.

Charles decided that worrying about everything would amount to little, so he tried his best to put it out of his mind and give it to Jesus. He softly said a prayer and then turned his attention to the program. This episode brought back memories of his childhood. The main guest was a young Johnny Mathis; Charles could vividly recall watching this episode, even though he had been a small child at the time. There were things he could not have guessed or considered back then, let alone fathom, only to be divulged years later. Times certainly had changed, and the populace changed right along with the times.

Coincidentally, the show included Lesley Gore, and Charles recalled being smitten by the singer’s lovely features and the crush that ensued, then being surprised when she came out. Pure disappointment for Charles, but that made him realize even more to not put celebrities on pedestals. Judging them by their talent would be as far as it would go for him. The episode concluded with a performance by The Rooftop Singers of their hit Walk Right In. That was delightful for Charles, as it was one of his favorite songs from that era.

His eyes grew heavy.

Charles thought he had done well raising his two oldest children. They were good kids—honest, loving, caring, and God-fearing. They were both diligent students in school. Charles had walked the tightrope of allowing them to fail and succeed, while they learned the wiles of the world and discovered how to not participate if it meant hurting their consciences. He understood that among the tasks of fatherhood, one of the most important (besides being a good provider of their needs) was making sure they came to know right from wrong. Charles was sure that Charlie and Olivia were both on the straight and narrow path.

But his mission was not yet complete.

Charlie was about to graduate high school, while Olivia still had three more years. Charlie had received a baseball scholarship to Virginia and had signed an acceptance letter there, which worried Charles, who had seen young Christian people have their faith shipwrecked at colleges and universities. The students were always being force-fed evolutionism, socialism, and liberalism. But Charles also recognized his son’s faith was as solid as granite and could withstand the daily battering it would get from the academic world.

Olivia was quite the athlete herself—making the varsity softball team as a freshman and hitting at the top of the order. She was well on her way towards a scholarship of her own. She was a happy teenager who fathomed that God loves her, and that was sufficient for her.

Then there was little Chris. He was standing out from among the other children his age with a powerful right arm and a lightning-quick bat and was also a little soldier for the Lord.

Janet was the love of Charles’s life. In fact, he was more in love with her than the day they first met. The years had been quite happy. Not perfect, but what is perfect in this flesh we have? But to Charles, she was the perfect helpmeet. Janet knew it was impossible to do, but she challenged Charles, respectfully and lovingly, to strive for perfection as a husband and father. She was a fine mother to her children. She encouraged them lovingly to do their best at everything, because God was watching. They worked out all their issues as a family with The Word and with prayer.

Suddenly, there was a pounding on the front door. Something was amiss because now there was a different program on the TV. He realized he had fallen asleep because the clock said 12:17. The knock came a second time. Bright strobe lights were flashing in from the front yard, transforming the living room into a virtual disco. Charles finally got his bearings and went to the front door. Charlie and Olivia were awakened by the ruckus; Charles caught a glimpse of them standing at the top of the steps.

The news was not good.

CHAPTER 2

ELEVEN YEARS LATER

STRIKE ONE, BARKED the umpire.

High school baseball is not usually known for drawing large crowds, especially in a town the size Harrisonburg. And May days in the Shenandoah Valley can certainly boast weather patterns from unusually warm to cool, and this day was the former. Despite the heat in the late afternoon sun, about a hundred Harrisonburg faithful were enthusiastically on hand to witness Chris Pancake—pitcher extraordinaire—do what he did best: slice and dice hitters like nobody around had ever seen before. Many of those fans were wiping their foreheads, fanning themselves, and sipping cold beverages as they watched this strapping schoolboy taking complete command of his craft.

A man in his early sixties sat in the stands behind home plate and watched with delight and amazement. The kid was not flashy and displayed no emotion; he was all business. The young man appeared to possess composure that matched his powerful right arm.

It was time to make a phone call. A man answered. James Bannon; how can I help you?

Strike two.

Hey Jim, it’s Perry.

Hey Perry; how’s my most talented scout?

Just fine, thank you. I’m back here in Harrisonburg, checking out this Pancake kid again. He’s a man among boys out there.

In all of Perry’s experience since coming to Virginia, he had never seen a high school pitcher draw a crowd like the young man in question. Also, the Shenandoah Valley was not known as a place where baseball talent was prevalent, although it had produced some Major League players, but this kid, in Perry’s mind, would surpass them all by leaps and bounds.

Yes, I’ve seen the videos you’ve sent me. We’ve all watched them, and he looks fantastic. Good job in finding him. Bannon was Pittsburgh’s director of scouting and assistant general manager.

Strike three, echoed up through the stands.

Thank you. Yes, he most certainly is. He’s the perfect size and shows quite a bit of athleticism. I haven’t seen this kind of arm in a high school pitcher in many years. Perry took a deep breath and continued, I love his fluid delivery. His record for this season is four wins, no losses, in five starts. He has struck out sixty-eight batters in thirty-four innings coming into this game and has three shutouts. In fact, he has allowed only one earned run up to this point in the season.

Another batter was being introduced over the PA.

Sounds to me like he shouldn’t even have a no-decision on his record, said Bannon. Go on.

Last year, he pitched three no-hitters—one for varsity and two for junior varsity; (those were his only two starts at JV). I’m still baffled as to why he bounced around like that.

The umpire called strike one.

Right, Bannon said. Tell me more.

Well, as a sophomore, he pitched a no-hitter for varsity and had one for junior varsity. He’s got quite a fastball for his age. As a matter of fact, I clocked him at 93 on that last fastball. He also plays left and first base when he isn’t pitching. He’s quite a hitter as well; I’ve watched him in batting practice, and his raw power is awesome.

The batter swung and missed at strike two, a curveball that broke down and in to the left-hander.

I like the sound of that. But tell me about his other pitches, Bannon said. I watched the video you sent me, but nothing beats seeing a kid in person.

He’s developed his pitches well beyond his years. He’s got a sharp curveball, a hard-tailing slider, and an excellent straight-change. As you saw, much of his pitching power looks as if it comes from his lower body, which looks sturdy and strong, and will save wear and tear on that arm of his. This kid has major potential. He’s a winner.

The batter swung at the next pitch, a slider, and hit a dribbler towards the mound. Chris picked it up and underhanded it to first base. Two outs.

What about the change in speeds?

Over the public address, another batter was introduced. There was a mixture of some booing with a few cheers as he approached the plate.

"He’s been as hard as 94 on his