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

43 страница из 92

The upset of Wilby was a sterling victory, and I was fiercely proud of my role in it.

After the game ended, the thrill of victory lingered. The sportswriters went to talk to a smiling Coach Sullivan. Sullivan took the credit for our holding the ball; I couldn’t believe it.

The storyline should have led with how senior guard Bill Denehy’s brilliant strategy had won the game against Wilby, but instead Coach Sullivan hogged the glory. His lack of morality angered me so, and my joy was dimmed considerably.

As we were boarding the bus to go back to Middletown, I was one of the last players to get on. I was still aglow with the thrill of the upset when Coach Sullivan pulled me aside and said to me angrily, “Listen, I’m the coach. Don’t you ever pull that shit again.”

Didn’t we just win the game? I thought to myself.

In my rage over what he said, I was also thinking something else: My cleverness was what earned my team an improbable victory over a team we had no right to beat, and this lying son of a bitch refused to acknowledge my role in it.