Put Me In, Coach

"Surgeons can't be lazy, the risks are too great. The second we stop pushing ourselves, something terrible happens. Something we never see coming. So we may not always be winners. But we're not lazy. We take chances. We go for broke. We swing for the fences. And sometimes, yeah, we strike out. But sometimes, you get a home run."

- Meredith Grey

 is the seventh episode of the eighth season and the 155th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary
Owen stresses teamwork and moves his leadership role over to the baseball field when he signs the doctors up for a baseball league, pitting them against their biggest competition, Seattle Presbyterian; Lexie tries to hide her jealous rage when she sees Mark with a new woman, but her emotions get the better of her; Alex fights to keep Zola at Seattle Grace after it is suggested that she be moved to another hospital due to a conflict of interest with Meredith and Derek; and Richard scolds Meredith and Bailey for their feud.

Full Summary
Meredith and Cristina are lying in the grass staring at clouds when Cristina worries that she has no imagine. Bailey has blackballed Meredith from everything, but she's still working secretly on the trial stuff. We soon see that they're at a softball practice and Sloan is kissing one of the players from Seattle Presbyterian. When the rest of the Seattle Pres shows up, the chief from the other hospital pokes fun at Owen for coaching the apparent Bad News Bears of hospital softball leagues, Seattle Grace.

Teddy gives Cristina an angioplasty, which Cristina thinks a first-year could do.

Owen tells April he wants to see her get off the sidelines more. They go into a room where a sanitation worker has been brought after falling off his truck and being run over by a car.

Alex gets upset when Arizona tells him he needs to sign some forms to transfer Zola to Seattle Pres because of the conflict of interest presented based on the fact that her prospective parents work at Seattle Grace. He doesn't want to sign them.

Derek gets a teenage girl who's suffering seizures and her mother wants to perform a surgery to help partially remove a tumor in her brain. Derek suggests a different approach -- which has never been done before and presents more risk, but could allow him to get the whole tumor. The mother refuses and Derek suggests she go with another surgeon before leaving the room.

Derek explains to Owen that he doesn't want to do any "half-measures" anymore, and says he's frustrated with the "hope-for-the-best" approach because he's also waiting on social services to make a decision about Zola and just hoping for the best. Derek agrees not to send the girl and her mother home to San Francisco, where they came from specifically for Derek's services. But says he's going to prove to her that his way will work.

Henry's device, which Webber was working on, has failed and he is going to have to get tested weekly again. Bailey says she thinks they've figured out what was wrong with the devices and Henry hopes for the best. Teddy is being a pain, grilling Bailey about the failure of the device. Henry says that this is why it is called a "trial" and he knew it was a risk when he signed up.

Cristina is clearing out her patient's arteries and gets annoyed when he won't stop talking, so she gives him more sedation.

Owen is worried he's losing Derek from the softball team because he's going to be in surgery. Teddy wants to pitch and mentions that Henry was a pro baseball player. Owen gives Henry a "job" at the hospital for a day so he can play and help Seattle Grace beat Seattle Pres. Teddy still wants to pitch.

Arizona asks Meredith if she's seen Alex because of the paperwork she needed him to sign. She also notices that Meredith is working on Bailey's trial and Meredith says she's helping out. Arizona seems a little suspicious and says she thought Bailey was "pissed" at Meredith, but Meredith plays it off.

We next see Alex at Family Services trying to get someone to talk to about Zola's case.

April wants to help Callie with the sanitation worker's hand. Callie tells him the bad news, that his right hand was severely crushed and that he may lose two fingers. He angrily reaches or his bag and pulls out what Callie worries is a weapon, but it's only a small tool for woodcarving, which he does in his down time at work. He pulls out some of his work and Callie is impressed at the artistry. He says he doesn't sell it. "Collecting garbage pays the bills, but this... this keeps me sane." The man goes to call his wife and says she's going to be upset. Callie tells him to let his wife know that she, Callie, is "kind of artist" herself.

Derek is practicing his approach for the surgery he wants to try, but it isn't working.

Meredith meets up with Cristina during her angioplasty. Meredith emails Janet, the social worker, to get an update on Zola. She gets a quick response back from Janet, saying she's on vacation. Meredith is upset. She's been waiting this whole time, picturing Janet fighting the fight for Zola, not sitting on a beach somewhere.

Alex, meanwhile, argues with a clerk in the family court about Zola's case. The files are privileged. He notices a mole on her face and offers to check it for free in exchange for information. She tells him the name of the judge handling the case, but says he's out that day because he's getting chemo for prostate cancer.

Meredith randomly asks Teddy why Cristina is doing an angioplasty. Teddy tells Meredith she's teaching Cristina about respect, respect for the heart disease that she'll save for the rest of her career. She says, "You have to go back to the beginning to understand the end." This inspires Meredith.

Henry is helping Owen rework the softball team's lineup. He checks to see if Meredith can catch by throwing a ball at her. It sails right by Meredith, but Webber makes an easy, one-handed grab and Henry says he should be the cut-off man. Meredith asks Webber for her mother's journals so she can look at Ellis' original hypothesis.

Derek is working on his softball swing on the roof, with Lexie coaching him. She gives him some pointers, one of which is that he needs to adjust his head position. He stops cold and realizes that this is the problem with his approach on the surgery. He's been adjusting the angle of the probe but what he needs to adjust is the practice model's head.

Derek goes back to the mother and tells her there's a "good shot" he can get it all. She's still not convinced and doesn't want to let her daughter be his guinea pig. He asks the mother, who's researched quite a bit about the tumor, if she's ever found evidence of a kid who had an HH tumor who got better and had a life.

Owen is making final calls on the lineup and handing out uniforms, and Teddy gets the pitching spot she's been wanting because Derek will be stuck in surgery. Callie asks Owen to sign off on a bunch of titanium for the sanitation worker's hand. She says she's going to rebuilt it and "it's going to be really cool." Sloan is excited to get his uniform, saying he's going to look good. He high-fives Avery and Lexie seems a little jealous when Avery tells her that Sloan has been in "such a good mood lately."

April is with Callie in surgery and she's complaining about how Owen isn't appreciating the organizational work she does. Callie tells April to stop whining and just "do." April takes the big drill and starts to work on the man's hand when the heart monitor goes nuts.

Meredith bumps into Bailey in the hallway and Bailey sees that Meredith is carrying her mom's journal. Bailey asks why she has it and Meredith responds, "Because it's my mom's journal." They part ways and Bailey seems shocked that Meredith sassed her.

Cristina is checking Callie's patient's heart and realizes they're going to have to open him up on the spot. Cristina gets ready and tells April to crack his chest. She panics a bit but jumps into action.

Callie continues working on the man's hand while Cristina and April work on the heart. Teddy comes in and asks if she needs to step in. Cristina says that April can handle it.

Derek gets part of the brain tumor in his first pass, but has to remove the probe when things get a little complicated. He goes in for a second attempt to get the rest.

Teddy asks Cristina, who is stapling up the sanitation worker's chest, why she let April do the surgery. Cristina is annoyed, thinking she's now going to be in trouble for letting April carry out the surgery that she had well in hand. But Teddy tells her to make a list of all the dream surgeries she wants to do and she'll try to get her some of them. She tells Cristina she's "done," but in a good way. She says Cristina proved she can work as part of a team, and that's the surgeon she's been wanting to see.

Bailey comes into the trial lab to find Meredith looking into a microscope. She's upset, but Meredith explains that her mom's hypothesis was wrong and she figured out why. Meredith quickly explains the whole thing, noting that she discovered why the device wasn't working, and says she marked the journal page for her, then leaves.

Derek gives his patient's mom the good news -- he got all of the tumor. Callie's patient has a hand. It will take some follow-up surgery and a lot of physical therapy. But she says it will work. The man reminds his wife, who's now in the room, the he'd said Callie was "an artist."

Alex goes into the hospital room of the judge who's working on Zola's case. He's not there to talk about the man's cancer treatment, though. The judge says Alex's actions are "highly inappropriate." Alex says he doesn't think that a child in Zola's condition should be without parents and asks the judge to look at the case. He leaves the file. As Alex is leaving, the judge tells him that attempting to influence a judge is a federal charge. Alex leaves without saying anything further.

Seattle Grace is down 8-0 and ready to give up. Cristina takes a swig from Meredith's flask. Meredith and Bailey get into a showdown in the outfield after Meredith asks Bailey what her problem is. Lexie is annoyed that Sloan is kissing his girlfriend from the other team while Meredith and Bailey argue. Avery tells Lexie that if Sloan's happy he's happy. Then he asks Lexie if he and she are happy and she doesn't respond.

Webber goes into the outfield and tells Bailey and Meredith neither of them are perfect and they need each other, and they're going to have to figure things out in the lab.

After Seattle Grace goes down 12-0, Henry and Owen take Teddy out as pitcher and Owen tries to give them a pep talk. He says he's proud to work with them as a team -- of doctors. They're terrible as softball players. Lexie takes over as pitcher and Sloan's girlfriend talks a little too much. Lexie throws the ball right at the woman's chest and knocks her over. She claims she thought she was stealing second. Avery doesn't believe this later.

Alex is sitting next to Derek and Meredith when Derek gets an email on his phone from Janet. The judge has given them a hearing date.

Main Cast

 * Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
 * Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
 * Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev
 * Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
 * James Pickens, Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
 * Sara Ramírez as Dr. Callie Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan
 * Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman
 * Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner
 * Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Guest Stars

 * Ernie Hudson as Dr. Brad McDougall
 * Drew Powell as Carl Shatler
 * Judith Moreland as Mrs. Baer
 * Holley Fain as Dr. Julia Canner
 * Jeff Holman as Mr. Felker
 * Scott Foley as Henry Burton

Co-Starring

 * Peggy Dunne as Louise
 * Jamai Fisher as Charisse
 * Eamon Hunt as Judge
 * Holly Alexis Hyman as Clerk
 * Grace Rowe as Paramedic
 * Payton Silver as Dr. Knox

Notes and Trivia
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 * This episode's title originated from the song Put Me In, Coach, originally sung by John Fogerty.
 * This episode scored 9.93 million viewers.

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Quotes

 * Richard: Get out of those ridiculous pink scrubs and get back to the work you were born to do!


 * Mark: I'll look fantastic in this. And when you look good you play good, right Avery!


 * Lexie: Mark's in love.
 * Derek: The eye doctor? That should last 48 hours.


 * Teddy: You have to go back to the beginning to understand the end.