the Awesome Highlighter

MONTAGE SEQUENCE compressing and detailing the progress of spring training. We see: A) Vaughn on the pitcher's mound. A tin replica of a batter has been set up at home plate and rope stretched across the plate to delineate the strike zone. Vaughn fires a pitch and hits the tin batter in the hip, leaving a dent in him. B) Cerrano in the batting cage, flailing away in futility at several curve balls. C) HAYES doing push-ups at night. He's the only one left on the field, except Temple, who supervises. D) TAYLOR doing the "scramble" drill -- blocking down balls purposely thrown in the dirt, one after another. When it ends, he can hardly get to his feet. E) CERRANO waving a ten-foot BOA CONSTRICTOR in the sign of the cross in front of his locker before opening it. No red tag greets him. Hayes watches from a safe distance. F) VAUGHN holding a mirror under the vents on his locker door to get a peek inside to see if there's a red tag there. G) DORN taking a hard ground ball off the chest. Brown applauds. Dorn is pissed. H) VAUGHN throwing at the "ropes" again. The tin batter is dented in every conceivable place now. Vaughn whips in another fast ball. This one hits the tin man in the head, knocking it completely off. I) TAYLOR in an exhibition game, attempting to throw out a base stealer. Jake springs out of his crouch and fires down to second -- on a bounce. The ball skips into center field. J) HAYES also in an exhibition game, swinging at a pitch and popping it up behind the plate. He just drops in his tracks and starts to do push-ups as the catcher makes the catch behind him. K) CERRANO flailing away again at a curve ball. This and the remaining shots are all in exhibition games. L) HAYES waving a ten-inch garter snake in front of his locker. Even at this size we can tell it scares the hell out of him, but it works its magic. No red tag. M) VAUGHN with a runner on third, winding up and throwing a pitch four feet over Taylor's head. The run scores. N) HAYES attempting to steal second. He goes into a hell-bent-for- leather head first slide. Unfortunately, he comes up two feet short of the base. The second baseman, who's waiting for him with the ball, makes a motion for him to keep coming. Hayes flips him the bird. O) LOU BROWN on the bench. He turns to Pepper with a look that says, "Can you believe this shit?" P) TAYLOR waiting for a throw at the plate. Just as he's about to catch it, the runner knocks him flat. Q) BROWN his head in his hands. As Taylor gets up and goes to the wrong dugout, the MONTAGE ENDS.   remove