That would be
"New Ball Game," from the Anthrocon 2017 conbook. It's one of only four short stories in the book, so this was surely a very proud moment for Lou and must rank among his highest writing accomplishments to date. As you say, it's hard to see why he wouldn't even want to mention it when soliciting commission work.
I withhold judgment as to its merit as a piece of literature, mainly because I never got around to reading the whole thing. Judge for yourself.
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Oh, I love short stories and character driven narratives. Let me cozy up and give this a read.
Well, first off, there's a lot of outright telling of what's happening going on. The thing about short works is you only have so much room to establish the world, but since it's also short, you can get a lot of mileage out of subtler hints since they're easy to pick up on. Maybe have a shocking twist at the end to play with the reader's expectations, or drop something that changes their perspective on the story, prompting an immediate reread for all the little nods and touches. Louis doesn't do this, and explicitly explains every detail. This also doesn't make sense from the third-person perspective of the story, as it's from an in-universe character. Why would they be explaining these things so carefully if this is supposedly understood in their world?
Anyway, for a direct example on how to improve this, rather than simply saying the "anthro league" was considered a bonafide minor league, demonstrate it. Drop hints that the league got table scraps for funding, attendance, and advertising. I mean, there's already redundancy in the writing which would have been inadvertently improved by cutting it out. Like if the main character dons a jersey supporting the Pirates, you don't need to take the time to explain she likes the Pirates. I'm not going to assume she put it on because she found it at a Goodwill.
If I wrote this, which I wouldn't because I would need to suffer extreme brain trauma before I'd write a furry short story, I would have the main character share her excitement for the game to a friend, her friend rolling their eyes in response and asking why she doesn't just follow major league instead. Make the friend a furry, and bam, instant subtlety. Then the reader thinks, "well, the friend can't be prejudiced because they're a furry on account of their fox tail buttplug, so maybe anthro baseball just isn't as popular." Part of the fun and strength of written story is the reader can use their imagination to fill in gaps, and leaving breadcrumbs instead of signposts makes the reading experience much more engaging.
Some other stuff is just fat that can be cut off. The robotic dialogue with the ticket seller isn't important in the slightest and, ignoring it sounds like it was written by an alien who's never engaged in social interaction before, it has no point. There's no logic in explaining what the main character had for breakfast, either. I know there's also no importance in explaining the main characters breasts getting bigger, but I know Louis wrote it because it gave him a half chub, so I can at least see why it's there. Now that's advanced writing, because we've got a metanarrative! Anyway, my point is the other stuff I mentioned is just chaff, assuming he doesn't have a fetish for hungry, socially awkward women, too. For goodness sake, there was more text dedicated to the main character putting on clothes than there was for the first eight innings of the actual baseball game.
Then there's just some weird distractions that don't make sense. Maybe he repurposed art, but the player on the cover is a lion while the one in story is a wolf. And why are anthro players put in other leagues? Are they physically superior, and is that why the player did so well? If so, why is their league not as popular? If it's a racial issue, harkening back to the offhand comment about "civil rights movements," why is an audience of humans so welcoming to him? Why was he a wolf when it doesn't add anything, like using some wolf-lilke abilities? Why is he a secondary character when he is the only active force in the story? The actual main character had no growth or turmoil to overcome, like doubts about anthro players to perform, or a waning interest in baseball that was renewed from seeing the game. She liked baseball, predicted the anthro player would win, was right, and goes home no differently than when she woke up that morning. Effectively nothing happened.
I don't have the slightest reason to believe Louis has improved his writing abilities since this, so the thought he charges money for this, let alone considers himself a "writer," is laughable. I've written better stories as jokes on here. Hell, this thing is four pages long, so I can literally write a better story in a few hours. It's clear this was written stream-of-conscious, which doesn't ever work unless you're going for surreal comedy or are a literary genius. There's zero planning evident within this story other than "the guy in a wolf suit wins and the 300 pound human cave troll in fox ears waddles home with an extra thousand newton spring in her step." If I'd describe the writing, I wouldn't say it's like a middle schooler's, not because of the quality, but because of the misplaced effort. A middle schooler would just churn out whatever and call it a day, but an enthusiastic one would put actual care into this craft beyond what Louis put forward here. No, I'd describe this writing on the same tier as an impassioned grade schooler. They like writing as much as making macaroni art, and spent a weekend writing on their mother's word processor, and it'll be stuck to the fridge for a job well done. Or, rather, circulated in a magazine for dumb furries with exceedingly low standards.
Oh, and foxes don't wag their tails, Louis.
