A baseball. That's it, just a baseball.

In honor of yesterday’s sort-of baseball Opening Day, here’s a 100-word story about a first pitch gone wrong. Enjoy!

Arlen Payne was perspiring. He heard jeers amid the cheers, felt the fans’ unspoken desire for his embarrassment. They wanted him to fail.

Arlen Payne wouldn’t comply. He was Arlen Payne. He had a reputation to uphold. Sixty feet stood between him and the team captain’s mitt. Easy.

Arlen Payne threw. His pitch sailed high, higher and—oh shit—too high. The team captain leaped, but too late.

Arlen Payne’s pitch struck a photographer behind home plate. It struck that photographer in his crotch. The photographer collapsed in writhing agony.

Arlen Payne thought, God dammit. That’s definitely going on YouTube.

Kyle A. Massa is a comedy author of some sort living somewhere in upstate New York with his wife, their daughter, and three wild animals. His published works include seven books, along with several short stories, essays, and poems. When he’s not writing, he enjoys reading, running, and drinking cheap coffee.

The above story is one of 100 hundred-word stories in my book, Hecatontagonal Stew. Buy it here!