The Latter Days

<p>Clyde Kinlaw is a washed-up baseball coach who wants to prove it isn't so.</p><p>Kinlaw was a good ballplayer who became a loyal company man once he retired. He managed his old team the Portland Loggers. Now he's a scout who doesn't feel as if the new generation of talent evaluators puts any stake in his judgment anymore. He wants to prove them wrong but doesn't know how.</p><p>Then Kinlaw stumbles upon Taiquon Wattson.</p><p>Kinlaw's only ally in the Portland front office Frank Staley Jr. sends him to evaluate Ryne Standback a first baseman considered one of the country's top high-school prospects. Standback doesn't impress Kinlaw who dismisses him as a privileged white kid with all the skill money can buy. What draws Kinlaw's attention is a catcher on the other team. Wattson has all the tools but none of the attention. He's a poor kid who lives with his grandmother in a predominantly black town on the banks of the Savannah River. He's known locally for his football not his baseball skills. He's a catcher because it's the only position he can play without owning his own glove. Teams always provide a mitt. Taiquon is as raw as the crappie he hauls out of the river to help feed the family. All he knows about baseball is approximately how to play it.</p><p>Stay away from Sandberg Kinlaw advises Staley. Let Kinlaw take Wattson under his wing and make him a player. Wattson's not ready. The minor leagues would chew him up and spit him out. Staley finds a place for Kinlaw and Staley to hide. They get to know each other on a long gradual drive to Texas where Wattson is playing semi-pro ball and Kinlaw is coaching him.</p><p>Kinlaw is not rid of Standback however. Drafted first by Houston Standback predictably flops in Triple-A where his agent insisted he be assigned. All of a sudden Staley smells a bargain and dispatches Kinlaw already in Texas to Corpus Christi for a second look. The humbled Standback his life in ruins sees that Kinlaw is the only scout who ever dealt with him honestly.</p><p>Both young men change. Wattson loses his innocence. Standback loses his arrogance. Kinlaw regains his respect.</p>