sample passage from play:

AG:  I AM SO READY!!

BH: You said it man, this is what we have worked so hard for.  All those years taking extra batting and fielding practice has finally played off.  We are MLB rookies starting for our hometown team on the biggest baseball stage of all, the World Series.

AC:  Yeah.  (In a dejected fashion)  Let’s go get these guys, I guess.  It will be my funeral, literally.

Alex and Brian together:  What do you mean “your funeral”?

AC:  Kicking a bottle cap on the parking lot floor:  “Oh, nothing.  I was just trying to lighten the mood.

Brian:  Whatever Andy, c’mon, you look like your head is somewhere else.  In order to fulfill our lifelong dreams of winning the World Series, we all need to focus like we never have before.

(After warm-ups, Andy said he pulled a groin, and asked the manger to pull him from the lineup.  This is when both Brian and Alex knew that something was up, and they intended to figure it out, as their title aspirations depended on it!)

AG:  What is up with you, you easily could have played through that.  Now we are down 1-0 in the series and have lost the home-field advantage!

AC:  Sorry, guy I did not want to make the injury worse or put the team in jeopardy, (under his breath) even though I have already done that…

BH:  What do you mean?  You keep saying all this gloomy stuff about ruining the team’s chances. 

AG:  Yeah, what is with you, man?

AC:  You guys are my best friends so if I cannot tell you, then who can I tell?  So last week, you know how I celebrated the team’s World Series berth very late into the night.  Well, when I left you guys, I made my way to an underground poker game, and was so drunk that I did not realize that I was 150,000 dollars in debt!  And this total was only for Texas Hold ‘Em!  Overall, I am down about $322,000.  Even better (sarcastically), I owe money not jus to some random guy, but to the head of the LA Italian mafia!  I am screwed.  My rookie contract does not kick in until about two months, and Linguini and his 7-foot tall former enforcer Rigatoni simply will not wait that long.  God, please let met live!  From what I have heard, no one gets past him because he is so agile.  He was the starting center for the Italian national team.  It is only fitting that I am going to be killed by the hands of another professional athlete.   (Turning toward his two best friends, who happen to be the next two best players on the team.):  I realized I messed up guys…

BH:  YOU THINK! GOD!  I, I, I, am speechless… What the hell were you thinking, man?  Now you got me and Alex involved now… JESUS CHRIST, ANDY!!!! I honestly do not know what to do, but needless to say, you are done gambling…

AC:  Yeah…

AG:  We have to end your debt.  Otherwise these guys will not let you out of their sights until we lose the World Series.  I can tell you one thing, we sure as hell are not going to lose.  All of us and everyone else on this team has worked too damn hard!

AC:  You make it sound like it is going to be easy to do so…

BH:  No, it won’t be… But we are going to somehow find a way out of this world- class mess you got yourself in.