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

68 страница из 92

“Oh, shit,” we said to each other.

Sheepishly, we drove to training camp. We sat in the dugout, waiting for the other shoe to drop, when Joe McDonald confronted us.

“I have a pretty good idea who did this,” he said. “I’ll go a lot easier on you if you just admit to it.”

The White Ghost called us the “Five Irish Mafia.” He paced up and down until he stopped directly in front of me. He looked me up and down, kept on walking, then stopped and stared at Tug. He stopped in front Hank, in front of Kevin, and in front of Terry, and of course we were the five involved. We ran all afternoon as punishment.

One of the teams we played during Mets’ spring training was the University of Miami. Ron Fraser, the longtime coach of Miami, kept calling the Mets, asking if they would play an exhibition team against his talented college kids. Finally, Joe gave in.

The Miami team traveled to Homestead, and the three pitchers who manager Whitey Herzog chose to throw against them were three of his best minor league prospects.