Three Marys
by Piper Wright
Diamond City - This former reporter, now television empire guru, has been busy. Therefore, instead of traveling from settlement to settlement, I have used the ESAU system to get replies from players around the Commonwealth. I will post them when I can and promise to feature a player from every team.
For this week's column, I put together three CBO player's profiles. In looking over the responses I received, I noticed that these three players are quite different in their backgrounds. However, they all have one thing in common: their mothers are named Mary.
Therefore, in this feature of three players--Millioncap Go, Jesus Church, and John Atomson--I am titling this week's column, "The Three Marys."
One – Millioncap Go, CF, The Slog Ghouls
The Ghouls’ first-round pick has been a good player on a good team in the 13-11 Ghouls.
In 24 games, he has been a standout player, batting .410 with 18 extra-base hits and 22 RBI. A look into the Brotherhood League leader board shows Go atop several categories going into Week 9. Those categories are: Slugging Percentage (.752), OPS (1.199), WAR (1.4), Triples (6), Total Bases (79), Extra-Base Hits (18), and ISO (.343).
That’s Millioncap Go the baseball player. Now for Go the person. Go’s parents used to run a raider gambling ring out of East Pike Tunnel. His mother, Mary, was so obsessed with getting rich quickly that she named each of her four children after money: Millioncap, Dollery, Captain, and Cashetta.
“My mom only talked about money,” Go wrote through an interview request on the ESAU system. “Save money, steal money, pickpocket money, invest money, save money, swindle money, jambalaya money, metal money, paper money, gold money, silver money, fake money, heavy money, bank money, corporate money, money money, caps, bottlecaps, cancaps, hat caps, hubcaps, captains, dollars, cents, banknotes, checks, balances, banks, taco trucks. It never ended.
“She told me I was going to be the first millioncapaire, thus my name, Millioncap.”
Two – Jesus Church, LF, Starlight Lady Killers
Jesus (pronounced Jess-uss) Church was drafted by Sunshine Tidings but was traded in what we will call the Bertha Principle. Small Bertha wanted her brother, Tony Bertha, to play for Sunshine Tidings since she is the corporate sponsor of the team. Church, who was the 6th-round pick, was shipped to Starlight in a three-way trade involving the Chemists, Lady Killers, and County Crossing Bloodbugs.
With the Lady Killers, he has been a solid addition to the second place 13-11 Lady Killers. In exactly 100 at-bats, he has 30 hits. Of those 30 hits, nine have been doubles and two were home runs. He has also driven in 25 and scored 15 runs.
Church’s name makes a lot of sense when you learn about his upbringing. Raised around Jamaica Plain, his early years were spent in a church.
“My parents lived in a church and there was this fellow’s name written all around it,” Church wrote. “My mom liked the name Jesus, so that was my name. The place was called the Church of Jesus with some other words behind it, so my parents just called me Jesus Church. My middle name is Christ because that was written on the church, too. My parents used to be McNamara, but they became Church, too. Joseph and Mary Church. Nice people. Loved taking vacations to barns for some reason.”
Three – John Atomson, C, Jamaica Plain Treasures
Atomson, the 12th-round pick of the Jamaica Plain Treasures, has been struggling just as much as his 6-18 team in this inaugural Commonwealth Baseball Organization season. In 24 games, Atomson is batting .233 in 90 at-bats with 15 runs scored and four runs batted in. Though he was expected to be among the team leaders in home runs, he has yet to hit one this season as we approach the midway point.
Atomson also has a unique story among CBO players. He was born in Woburn, Massachusetts, an area north of Lexington. There his parents met a group of pilgrims as part of the Church of the Children of Atom.
Though many people around the Commonwealth will see the Children of Atom, very few know much about the religion. According to the intranet, the tenets of Atom’s Children believe this: “The religion of the Children of Atom is centered around the eponymous Atom and the idea that within every atomic mass in all of creation exists an entire universe. When that atomic mass is split, that universe divides and becomes two. As such, Atom is a creator deity, creating new worlds through the act of nuclear fission (referred to by the Children as Division). As a result, the Great War is seen and cherished as a divine event that created uncountable new universes in one instant. It represents creation and unification in Atom's Glow: radiation.” Nate Howard has also talked about theories of the split of universes, multiple universes of existence. There have been some of those connections found, for example in the Dunwich Borers quarry, which has been restricted to people of the Commonwealth because of its strange qualities.
For Atomson, his parents toted the infant John from Woburn to an area northeast of Lynn near the Kingsport Lighthouse. That place was called the Crater House. There John was somehow immune to the effects of radiation, but his parents started to show the tell-tale signs of radiation poisoning as many of the Children of Atom show. John’s parents changed their family name to Atomson, like many of the Church do, and there they lived until John was nine years old.
Then, in 2282, the Atomson’s joined a group of pilgrims that were headed to the Glowing Sea. On that trip, John’s mother Mary changed her mind about going to the Glowing Sea. Since the members of the Children of Atom did not like the act of free will and would force her and her young son to go, Mary ran away and sought sanctuary in Diamond City at the All Faiths Chapel.
“Pastor Clements was great,” Atomson wrote. “He probably delt (sic) with a few of Atoms (sic) Children going into his church and trying to convert everyone to the Church of Atom. So he new (sic) to pruteck (sic) us.”
John never saw his father again after that. He assumes his father made it to the Glowing Sea, but it is a treacherous journey with lots of extreme dangers. Still, there is a place called the Crater of Atom. It is the very place where the biggest of the Boston-area nuclear bombs hit, and it is also the location of the Grand Pilgrimage of the members of the Church of the Children of Atom.
“Alive or dead, I won’t see my dad again,” Atomson wrote. “His people are not well. But my mom and I are doing grate (sic). I think its (sic) a happy ending.”