| abstract
| - Cory and his friends are waiting in the class hallway for the list of players who made the team. They don't want to be second string, considering it worse than landing on the Empire State Building eye-ball first. While Shawn and one of the friends of the week are on the A-team, Cory is horrified to see he's on the B-team (a position even Minkus managed to score). Though his friends assure him nothing will change. they run off leaving him alone. Evolution of mankind is on Mr. Feeny's teaching agenda that afternoon as he uses Minkus, Shawn, and another girl, as living props. Cory makes a poorly-time, late entrance and tells his teacher he was late because he was talking to the coach. He is still on the second string basketball team. When he complains to Mr. Feeny, his teacher agrees with him and uses Darwin as his evidence. Survival of the fittest dictates that Cory is not meant for the first string. In true reverse psychology fashion, Cory decides he won't settle for second best and leaves with a goal in mind. At home, Cory turns to his older brother for help but it seems Eric is going through his own bout of self-esteem issues as he's pumping weight in an attempt to get more muscles. He's upset that all the seniors are getting girls and no girl in his grade will go out with him. Cory's first game doesn't go so well and when he gets home he starts to tell his mom about it but between sewing Morgan's princess dress and cooking, she doesn't have time to listen to him. His dad comes in and, though he missed Cory's game, wants to hear all about it but is interrupted by Eric who wants money for a car to impress girls. Cory finally has enough and when the family all gathers, he launches into an overactive play-by-play where he scores the winning point, then reveals it was all made up and he only made second string. He tells them as the middle child, he feels like he's second string at life too, then goes up to his room. Cory's parents have a quick talk in the kitchen and realize they did sort of neglect their middle child, if only during that week, so they decide to focus their attention on him. At school, after a less than encouraging conversation with Minkus, Cory's friends show him a Sports Illustrated magazine with an article on famous athletes who started out on second string. This gives Cory hope that he could be a great athlete given time and a lucky break. Unfortunately, he finds out the B-team isn't allowed to go to the away games. He returns home dejected and finds no one is home. After watching TV for a few hours, he gets hungry and attempts to snatch Mr. Feeny's chicken right off the grill. He gets caught and learns from Mr. Feeny that that his entire family went to see his basketball game. With the help of Mr. Feeny, Cory manages to get a ride to the away game and he actually got to play because three first string players were fouled out. His whole family is proud of him and after their oldest and youngest leave, Alan and Amy tell Cory that they're proud of him no matter what and that they hope he'll talk to him the next time something bothers him, even if he has to grab their face to get their attention. In the post-credits tag, Cory tells his friends about Mr. Feeny's amazing, crazy fast driving skills and they see for themselves proof when Mr. Feeny waltzes into school with driving gloves, sunglasses, and a coach annoyed at losing to an AMC Gremlin car.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)