The Redheaded Outfield, and Other Baseball StoriesGrey, Zane
General
The Redheaded Outfield, and Other Baseball Stories
Grey, Zane
Baseball stories, American; Fiction; Short stories
But in the ninth, Blake, the first man up, lined low toward right
center. The hit was safe and looked good for three bases. No one
looking, however, had calculated on Reddie's Ray's fleetness. He
covered ground and dove for the bounding ball and knocked it down.
Blake did not get beyond first base. The crowd cheered the play
equally with the prospect of a run. Dorr bunted and beat the throw.
White hit one of the high fast balls Scott was serving and sent it
close to the left-field foul line. The running Reddie Ray made on that
play held White at second base. But two runs had scored with no one
out.
Hanley, the fourth left-handed hitter, came up and Scott pitched to him
as he had to the others--high fast balls over the inside corner of the
plate. Reddy Ray's position was some fifty yards behind deep short,
and a little toward center field. He stood sideways, facing two-thirds
of that vacant outfield. In spite of Scott's skill, Hanley swung the
ball far round into right field, but he hit it high, and almost before
he actually hit it the great sprinter was speeding across the green.
The suspense grew almost unbearable as the ball soared in its parabolic
flight and the red-haired runner streaked dark across the green. The
ball seemed never to be coming down. And when it began to descend and
reached a point perhaps fifty feet above the ground there appeared more
distance between where it would alight and where Reddie was than
anything human could cover. It dropped and dropped, and then dropped
into Reddie Ray's outstretched hands. He had made the catch look easy.
But the fact that White scored from second base on the play showed what
the catch really was.
There was no movement or restlessness of the audience such as usually
indicated the beginning of the exodus. Scott struck Babcock out. The
game still had fire. The Grays never let up a moment on their
coaching. And the hoarse voices of the Stars were grimmer than ever.
Reddie Ray was the only one of the seven who kept silent. And he
crouched like a tiger.
The teams changed sides with the Grays three runs in the lead.
Morrissey, for the Stars, opened with a clean drive to right. Then
Healy slashed a ground ball to Hanley and nearly knocked him down.
When old Burns, by a hard rap to short, advanced the runners a base and
made a desperate, though unsuccessful, effort to reach first the
Providence crowd awoke to a strange and inspiring appreciation. They
began that most rare feature in baseball audiences--a strong and
trenchant call for the visiting team to win.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account