Читать книгу Rage. The Legend of "Baseball Bill" Denehy онлайн

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When spring training began, Westrum let me know that I was only there for a look-see. He had set his rotation, and I wasn’t in it, and so at first it didn’t appear I’d pitch much, but fate has a way of rearranging things. Fat Jack Fisher was supposed to pitch a game against the Cincinnati Reds, but the morning before the game was to start, Jack got a phone call that his young daughter had been injured in a fall. When I arrived at the ballpark that day, Wes informed me I was going to start.

I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. I didn’t even know most of the players on the Reds.

Who are these hitters? I wondered. I warmed up and went out to the mound.

I certainly knew the first batter, Pete Rose, who ended his career with 4,256 hits to break Ty Cobb’s all-time record. Pete Rose didn’t faze me. I threw Pete three straight fastballs for three straight strikes, and Charlie Hustle, as Rose was called back then, returned to the bench.

It seemed so easy. I stood on the mound, and would think I was Superman. To this day I can still imagine those fastballs I threw past Pete Rose. Strike one, strike two, strike three. Have a seat.