The Phenom Page #7

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quarter of a million dollars back now?"

You know?

But, look, Mobley, he's the man.

He worked with Howard Glass

before people even understood

that there's such a thing

as Sports Psychology.

He said he didn't work with Howard Glass.

- Really?

- Yeah.

I mean, you know these f***ing shrinks,

they say one thing to their patients,

another thing to their non-patients,

and another thing altogether to their wives.

They work in strange and mysterious ways.

I mean, you and me are friends.

We straight talk to each other,

but shrinks have...

weird ways. That's how they are.

Yeah. You sure

he worked with Howard Glass?

- Yes.

- Yeah?

When Glass died,

Mobley dedicated his practice

solely to athletes who are suffering from

you know, from the yips.

Well, he's the expert in the field now.

Perhaps, you misheard him.

No, I didn't mishear him.

Hop, I'm telling you, Mobley is the man.

I trust him. Do you trust me?

- Yeah.

- Then we are all good.

Eat your fancy dinner.

When I threw with my eyes closed,

I wasn't throwing strikes.

Right? You were just f***ing with me?

No, I'm not just f***ing with you.

Those were strikes, man.

Well,

I guess I really won't know for sure

until it's too late.

Out there, humiliating myself

in front of the entire universe again.

Okay. Well.

- What's up, man?

- You didn't tell me anything

about Howard Glass.

When I brought him up,

you just glazed right over it.

Don't you think I would wanna

know about that?

I didn't want you to dwell on him.

In that moment, uh...

In that moment, I wanted to keep

the focus of the sessions squarely on you.

So, we don't keep the focus on you?

- No.

- We stay away from the focus on you.

Right?

Howard Glass was my patient, yes.

It's true.

And his suicide affected me greatly.

Altered the course of my life.

It altered the course of my practice.

You're a great talker.

But you couldn't talk him out...

of killing himself.

No, I couldn't, no.

Does that haunt you?

There was a time

when I put the blame on myself, yeah.

But I was...

young.

And I've learned things since then.

Um, I know now what I can and can't do.

I can only talk to you

and listen to you and be here with you.

I can't go out the door with you.

Or take the mound for you.

Or pitch for you. Only you can do that.

- So?

- Are you married?

I'm divorced.

Is there anything else you want to know?

- She left you?

- Yeah.

- Why did she leave you?

- That's right.

- What?

- Why did she leave you?

Um, I was never home.

I was always working.

And even when I was at home.

Um, see, there's now a little, kinda...

It's not exactly the truth, is it?

I mean, I did a lot of Googling on you.

I read the web. It's out there.

- I got the scoop on you, doc.

- Yeah.

All right, let's hear it then.

Your life, I mean, you sound

like you have it all together,

but your life is

pretty f***ing far from perfect.

I think both of us have some issues

about being perfect, man.

After he died, you hit the bottle

pretty hard, right?

Yeah.

Arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct.

- Yeah.

- Holy f***in' sh*t.

Doc, I mean, she probably

thought she was marrying a superstar,

and you didn't

live up to those expectations.

Sounds familiar.

Yeah. Kinda fell short.

Bye-bye, magazine covers.

Yup.

That was the best part, actually.

And I wasn't all that comfortable

with the attention myself.

Well, try living under

a f***ing microscope today.

- Yeah.

- You know?

They will eat you alive.

They find the smallest chink

in your armor.

Take off the armor.

- Take off the armor?

- Yes.

That's easy for you to say, because

nobody gives a sh*t about you anymore.

A lot of people want an arm

that throws a 100 mile an hour fast ball.

You know what? They can have the arm.

They really can. You want the arm?

You can have it. It's yours.

- No, thank you.

- Oh, come on. You know you want it.

Who doesn't want an arm

that can throw a fast ball?

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure.

Are you sure you don't want it?

- Oh, I'm sure I don't want it.

- Okay.

- I promise you that.

- Then what do you want?

- What do I want?

- Yes.

- F*** you, we're not going there.

- No. F*** you.

F*** you, come on.

- Oh, f*** you, f*** you.

- Okay.

That feeling you had when you were a kid,

playing in the parking lot

with your friends,

that's still available to you.

That's still available to you,

that still exists.

I swear to God, it does.

Now you may feel

kinda beat up and f***ed up,

and you're siting in the corner

of some washed-up a**hole's office.

But I swear to you,

that feeling of being and playing,

that still is available to you.

You threw strikes.

I couldn't bullshit you about that.

You know it.

So, believe me.

And this overwhelming suspicion

you have of people,

is old, old, old fear,

and you can let go of that now.

Let go of it now.

I compete out of fear.

How am I gonna compete

if I don't have fear?

You wanna compete?

You just said you wanted...

I doesn't matter what I want,

'cause I have a contract.

And you know what?

I'll tell you something.

They picked the wrong f***ing guy.

Because I'm just an ordinary kid.

I'm just an ordinary kid.

And maybe that's what

makes you the right kid.

- Can I lie down for a second?

- Yeah.

So, you ready for the big game, hm?

Got you coming out to the pen, huh?

You're going to save everybody?

I raised you to be a horse,

not to come out to the pen.

So, hero, what you doing here?

Well, my mental coach

thought it would be a good idea.

- Your what?

- My mental coach.

Whatever.

- What do you talk about with him?

- I don't know. Whatever.

Whatever we want to, I guess.

Really?

What's the... what's the diagnosis?

Ah, it's complicated.

- Oh, I bet.

- Actually, it's pretty simple.

But, I'd rather not get into it.

Suit yourself.

We got a sh*t load of shrinks around here.

I just never...

feel like telling my private life

to some total stranger.

You know Frank Bullet

never cried to a quack, right?

- You know who that is?

- Frank Bullet?

Yeah.

- He's from the...

- From the movie, "Bullet."

- Bullet?

- Yeah.

Anyway, he's a cop, right? But he's not

some loud ol' pig like these f***ers.

- Yeah.

- They are trying to reform me.

Yeah, turn me into a...

modern man.

Modern man, to me,

looks an awful lot like a modern sissy.

So do you have any friends

in here this time?

All my friends are dead.

I had a dream about your mom last night.

She was the same age as when we met.

You know, head cheerleader.

That's all she cared about.

You know, but she was...

she was super pretty.

She'd do those tumbles

into jumps, you know.

Stellar sh*t.

She led her whole team

to this competition in, uh,

Tokyo, Japan. Did you know that?

- Your mom competed in Japan.

- No.

- You didn't know that?

- No, I didn't.

I mean, I knew she was a cheerleader,

but I didn't know...

- She was the captain, dude.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, Regional Four champion.

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