Oh, Johnny by Jim Lehrer

Author:Jim Lehrer [Lehrer, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58836-786-0
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

THE BALL WAS a flaming line drive, a shot to dead center field. Johnny took off at the crack of the bat toward the fence at full speed.

This was a Johnny Wrigley kind of play. His and Pistol Pete Reiser’s.

Johnny had had two hits that night—a double into the hole in left and a single on the ground through the box. The chief Detroit scout was in the stands again. Johnny knew from ballplayer scuttlebutt that because of an injury the Tigers needed another outfielder for its Class AA Texas League farm team, the Dallas Rebels. The Texas League, like the Interstate and most of the minors, had just started up again for the 1946 season after having shut down during the war.

Maybe that Tigers scout here tonight meant it was already time to call up this Wrigley kid—the one who was the spitting image of the great Pistol Pete Reiser—if not to the majors at least to AA? It would be most unusual to jump a player from Class B to the majors, but not to AA.

Johnny knew it was coming. If not this year to the big leagues, next for sure. He was hot, and everybody knew it.

After forty-two games Johnny was leading the league in hitting with eighteen home runs, thirty-three runs batted in, and a .345 batting average. He had stolen twenty-two bases, had caught everything that had come his way in center field, and had thrown out almost anyone at home who had had a hope of trying to score from second base on a short single or to stretch a double into a triple.

And now here came that bullet to center. It was a tough play, but one he had made so many times it was now part of his star calling card. He was instinctively certain he had room to race under it and catch it without working up a stretch, a leap, or even a sweat.

It would be the third out. The score would remain Shepstown Bobcats 3, York White Roses 2, going into the last of the eighth. He was second up to bat, one more chance to show that scout and the world of baseball what he could do—how hot he really was.

His mom was there right behind home plate to see her star son do his Miracle Whip thing. She came as often as she could get a ride and when her work schedule at the store permitted.

And the play was going just the way it was supposed to. Johnny easily caught the ball over his left shoulder going away, still running Johnny fast…

Crack! Wham!

He felt pain. Everywhere. He hurt everywhere. He thought of Anderson, the flamethrower assistant, falling from the side of a ship to the bottom of a landing craft. He had run at full speed into a wall of green concrete. His Betsy luck had run out. He was out cold.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.