Irwin Shaw - Short Stories - Five Decades

“You can’t make a supposition like that,” the man beside him protested. “They never play each other. It’s not a fair supposition.”

“Five runs, every day. If they didn’t have those green caps they could play in a twilight league in Connecticut and nobody’d ever tell the difference, not in ten years. Look at that!” The Brooklyn shortstop fell down leaping at a grounder to his right. “No guts,” the man from Jersey City said, “a major league shortstop woulda had it and threw the man out. He fell to make a alibi.”

“It was a hard-hit ball,” his neighbor protested.

“Bartell woulda had it. He ain’t no Bartell.”

“He’s got nine yards of tape on him,” the man next to him said. “I saw with my own eyes in the dugout. He’s a mass of cuts and bruises.”

“That’s Brooklyn. Always got tape all over them. They spend more money for tape than for players. Look at that.”

One of the Giants hit a home run and three runs scored. The two men in front of us stood up with grins on their faces and called to their friend in back of us, “Still there, Johnny?” and sat down.

“For twenty-three years,” the man in the green sweater said, “I been rootin’ for this team. I’m gettin’ tired of rootin’ for a minor league team in a major league. I would hate to see what would happen to those guys in Jersey City.”

“I come to see them every day,” his neighbor said stubbornly, “and they’re a major league team.”

“Look at them,” the man in the green sweater pointed his scorecard in accusation at the nine weary figures. “Take ’em one by one. Look at Wilson. Why, he’s the worst ballplayer in the world. He’s even worse than Smead Jolley.”

He sat back triumphantly, having silenced his adversary for the moment.

He watched the play quietly for a few seconds, his Greek eyes bitter but resigned. “Why,” he continued, “in Jersey City they put a catcher in to play center field instead of him. A catcher. I know Wilson.”

“Wilson isn’t the only one on the team,” his neighbor said.

“All right. Cooney. What can Cooney do?”

“Cooney can field.”

“All right, Cooney can field. But he has an air rifle for an arm. He can’t reach second base in under seven bounces. Don’t talk to me about Cooney.”

“His arm’s not so bad,” the neighbor insisted.

“Not so bad? Why, Mac, if Cooney had an arm he’d be a pitcher.”

“I never noticed anything wrong with his arm.”

“Mac,” the man in the green sweater said, “then you’re the one man in the United States that don’t know Cooney got a glass arm. The one man.”

“How about Winsett?” his neighbor wanted to know.

Winsett was up at the plate by this time and the man in the green sweater watched him critically. “A cigar store Indian,” he said finally. “Watch him swing.”

“He hit sixty home runs the year before they brought him up,” the Brooklyn fan said. “Cigar store Indians don’t hit sixty home runs.”

“I saw him,” the man in the green sweater said, “when he was playin’ in the International League. Do you know what he hit in the Internatinal League.…250 … You know why? It’s an outcurve league. The National League is also an outcurve league. He ought to be out somewhere playin’ night baseball.” At the top of his voice he called, “Come on, you cigar store Indian!”

Winsett hit a home run.

“This is a fine time to hit it,” the man from Jersey City said, “they’re behind seven runs and there’s nobody on base and he hits a home run.”

In the next inning a pitcher named Cantwell took up the bitter burden of pitching for Brooklyn. The face of the man in the green sweater lightened. “There’s a pitcher,” he said. “One of the best. Out in Jersey City they were goin’ to give him a new automobile but he went to the Giants. Watch him!” he said as Cantwell disposed of the first two batters. “A prince of a fellow. A prince. Everybody likes him.”

“He’s been pitching lousy,” his neighbor said, as Cantwell suddenly filled the bases.

“What do you expect?” the man from Jersey City said, anxiously watching the misery below. “He don’t look like the Cantwell of Jersey City. Terry double-crossed him, he wanted to stay in Jersey City, he woulda got an automobile, but Terry took him and double-crossed him and shipped him to Brooklyn. How do you expect him to pitch? He broke his heart.”

Cantwell struck out the third batter. The man in the green sweater stood up and applauded as the pitcher trudged into the dugout. “You bet your life he can pitch, the poor son of a gun, he’s disgusted, the poor fella. That’s it, Ben!” He sat down. “Wonderful pitcher, Ben, he’s got a head.”

“I never saw him strike out a man before,” the Brooklyn fan said.

“There’s very few of them makes a living out of strikeouts. Now if they only give Ben something to work on …”

Brooklyn scored three runs. Two men died on base when Wilson popped out.

“That Wilson,” the man in the green sweater said, “they ought to trade him to the Salvation Army. He’s the worst player in the world. Why, he’s worse than Smead Jolley.”

But he cheered lustily when Cantwell came through another inning unscored upon. “There’s a pitcher,” he said, “if I had a team, I’d buy him.”

“You could buy him for the fare to Jersey City,” a man in back said, “eleven cents.”

“The only major leaguer on that ball club!” the man in the green sweater said with finality. “If only those cheap bastards would buy a couple more like him, they’d have something. I’m not saying Brooklyn’s bad as a town, because it’s not, but they got office boys running the ball club, office boys with snot in their ears. That cheap Grimes. I heard he used the groundkeeper’s truck to move his furniture in.”

The Dodgers scored three more runs and the man in the green sweater was shouting triumphantly, the ancient Greek sorrow gone from his eyes for the first time in the entire afternoon. There was only one out and there was a man on third base and the Dodgers needed only one run to tie the score. Wilson was coming up to bat and the man in the green sweater groaned. “That’s what happens when you have somebody like that on a team. He comes up at a time like this. That’s always the way it happens. He’s pitiful. In the International League they walk two batters to get at him.”

But at the last moment somebody else batted for Wilson and struck out. “On low ones,” the man in the green sweater said in pain, “a pinch hitter swinging at low ones.”

Cantwell was to bat next.

“Let him stay up there!” the man from Jersey City shouted. “Let him win his own game.” He turned to his public. “I would like to see old Ben smack one out and win the ball game,” he said, “and go right over to Terry and spit in his face.”

But old Ben didn’t get a chance. Grimes put a man called Spence in to bat for him and Spence popped out.

In the next inning the Brooklyn second baseman juggled a ball and another run scored. All hope fled from the dark Greek face. “Why is it,” he asked, “that other teams don’t do it?” He got up, preparing to leave. “A man on third and one out,” he said, “and no score. They ought to shoot Grimes for that. No jury would convict. Ah,” he said, moving down toward the exit gate, “I’m going to root for a winning team from now on. I’ve been rooting for a losing team long enough. I’m going to root for the Giants. You don’t know,” he said to the Brooklyn fan moving along with him, “you don’t know the pleasure you get out of rooting for a winning team.”

And he went back to Jersey City, leaving his heart in Brooklyn.