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

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John taught me to drag my back foot as my pitching arm came forward. Dragging the back foot had been part of the Yankee way of pitching. By dragging the back foot a pitcher is forced to bend at the waist, compact his motion, and keep from falling off the mound.

John was wearing a sport jacket and tie and cordovan shoes as he showed me what to do. After I tried it once, Murphy wasn’t satisfied. He grabbed my glove, motioned for the catcher to come halfway, and demonstrated the technique, dragging his expensive leather shoes through the dust.

After Murphy’s pitching lesson, I returned to the dugout where my manager, Don Heffner, said to me, “It’s obvious to me that Johnny Murphy really likes you.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Because he just ruined a hundred-dollar pair of shoes to teach you that motion.”

I was so green that I didn’t know how to sign a baseball. I picked up a box of balls and signed them, but the next day I was called into Don Heffner’s office.

Don said, “Let me explain something to you. If you look at a baseball, the place for the team’s superstar or the manager to sign is where the seams come closest together. The other players sign somewhere else on the ball. You haven’t even played a game yet. You might want to think about signing on the stitches.”