When Baseball Gets Rough

Read/Watch 'em In Order #97

So far, the February 1949 issue of New Sports Magazine has given us stories about boxing, football and golf. Next, we get to a story about the only sport that really matters--baseball.

"Double or Nothing Guy," by Bob Reed is about Horace Brady, who has just signed on to play second base for the Hawks.

(Side note: I have no idea what the legal concerns are, but I really wish baseball fiction could have gotten away with using real team names more often, even if the players were all fictional.)

Horace has been hitting and fielding well, but the manager tells him he's being sent to the minors after the upcoming series with their arch rivals--the Blues. Why? Because Horace is a well-spoken, educated man who simply doesn't gel with his rough "gashouse guys" who make up the rest of the team. It seems on the Hawks, nobody likes a nice guy.

Horace is disappointed, but he still loves the game. That evening, he overhears a conversation between a gambler and the team's ace pitcher Showboat Blane. Blane owes the gambler three grand and won't have the money to pay off for a week. When the gambler suggests there's a way to get the debt forgiven--something that would involve "just one game," Horace realizes the pitcher is being pressured into throwing the big game. So he steps in and offers to loan Blane the needed cash.

That decision starts to earn him some respect on the team. But what eventually wins the others over is his play on the field the next day. The rival team seems to be made up of nothing but jerks, who spike infielders when sliding and use brush-back pitches quite often. Horace is pretty even-tempered, but he's soon had enough. He scores a run by barreling through a catcher who tried to block the plate, knocking the catcher out.


via GIPHY


He also tags out a runner who kept trying to spike him--knocking out a few teeth with the tag as well.

The Hawks win the game, Horace will stay with the team, and the story ends on a hilarious twist when Horace learns what the gambler actually meant when he talked about "just one game." I won't spoil that. The story is available online HERE.

It's a fun and well-written story, though the moral that you have to play rough to retaliate against rough opponents isn't one I care for. But, to be fair, the umps weren't calling anyone out for the rough stuff, so maybe that's just the way the Hawks had to play. Accept the story for what it is and you'll have a good time reading it.