Chap­ter 25 opens with a warm and sim­ple morn­ing between Grayson and Mani­ac, who share break­fast in the base­ball equip­ment room. Grayson treats Mani­ac to an Egg McMuf­fin and orange juice, mark­ing a small but sig­nif­i­cant moment of care and cama­raderie. As they enjoy the meal, Mani­ac light­heart­ed­ly reminds Grayson that he had gone to bed the night before with­out hear­ing a sto­ry, some­thing he had come to expect. At first, Grayson dis­miss­es the request, claim­ing he has no sto­ries to tell. But after some prod­ding from Mani­ac, Grayson final­ly reveals a piece of his past, admit­ting he had once been a pitch­er in the Minor Leagues—a fact that Mani­ac can tell fills him with a qui­et sense of pride. This rev­e­la­tion opens up a new lay­er of Grayson’s char­ac­ter, offer­ing a glimpse into a past filled with unspo­ken dreams and ambi­tions that had long been buried under the weight of time.

Lat­er in the day, Grayson returns with zeps and sodas, keep­ing his promise to share more about his past as a Minor League play­er. Over their meal, Grayson begins to recount his expe­ri­ences with the Blue­field Bul­lets, the team he played for in West Vir­ginia. He describes his rook­ie year, which he describes as “Class D,” the low­est lev­el in the Minor League sys­tem, where he began his base­ball career. Grayson shares a humor­ous sto­ry from his first day with the Bul­lets, explain­ing how he had hitch­hiked to Blue­field only to fall vic­tim to a prank at a gas sta­tion. The atten­dant had told him that his first meal at the Blue Star restau­rant would be free for new play­ers, only to have Grayson end up wash­ing dish­es for hours to earn the meal that wasn’t actu­al­ly free. This series of events led to him miss­ing his first game, mak­ing it a comedic and some­what bit­ter­sweet intro­duc­tion to the real­i­ties of pro­fes­sion­al base­ball.

Moti­vat­ed by Grayson’s sto­ry and eager to spend more time with him, Mani­ac decides to accom­pa­ny Grayson to work at the park, offer­ing to help with var­i­ous tasks. While work­ing togeth­er, Grayson intro­duces Mani­ac as his vis­it­ing nephew, a small but sig­nif­i­cant ges­ture that deep­ens the con­nec­tion between them. As they go about their work, Grayson con­tin­ues to share sto­ries from his exten­sive Minor League career. These sto­ries are a blend of the tough real­i­ties of life in base­ball, includ­ing grimy hotels, long bus rides, and less-than-glam­orous sta­di­ums, as well as the dreams he once held of play­ing in the Major Leagues. Mani­ac lis­tens intent­ly, absorb­ing the grit­ty yet pas­sion­ate tales that illus­trate the depth of Grayson’s love for the game and his long­ing for a chance at greater suc­cess.

Grayson con­tin­ues to reflect on his time in the Minor Leagues, shar­ing sto­ries of teams and play­ers he encoun­tered along the way. One sto­ry in par­tic­u­lar stands out—his time with the Tole­do Mud Hens, where he was giv­en a fleet­ing chance to make a real impact. He recalls pray­ing for a good per­for­mance, but despite his best efforts, things did not go well, mark­ing the begin­ning of his decline in the base­ball world. Although Grayson stuck it out for thir­teen more years, his hopes of break­ing into the Major Leagues were nev­er real­ized, and he even­tu­al­ly found him­self out of the game alto­geth­er. By the time Mani­ac enters his life, Grayson is far removed from his base­ball days, reduced to liv­ing in a world of mem­o­ries and a qui­et exis­tence. The vivid tales Grayson tells are filled with dreams long fad­ed, yet they reveal a deep pas­sion for base­ball that defined much of his life. His sto­ries offer more than just the ups and downs of his career—they offer a glimpse into a life that, while full of set­backs, was also filled with hope, per­sis­tence, and a love for the game that nev­er ful­ly left him. These sto­ries are shared not only with Mani­ac but also with the read­er, who sees the beau­ty of human con­nec­tion through the lens of Grayson’s past and the unex­pect­ed friend­ship he shares with a home­less boy who has walked into his life.