Chapter 9: Eddie

Cap Rogers, the Keys' ace lefthander, was pitching in the Friday night series opener with Lynchburg, and he was really on his game. After four innings, the visiting Hillcats had zero hits and only one base runner -- he'd made it to first on a wildly thrown third strike pitch in the second inning. No catcher -- not even Dave -- could have stopped that one! Maybe Yao Ming could have flagged it down. I was amazed the hitter swung at it!

"This is why Dave is such a great catcher!" I told Emily. "He can really get the best out of these pitchers! This guy -- Rogers -- he's good! But Dave makes him better. He's got a no-hitter goin', here."

"Aren't you supposed to ... not talk about that?" she asked me.

"What?"

"About the -- the no-hitter ... I thought everybody had to be real quiet about that, and not say anything, or you'd, y'know, put a hex on it."

Well, I was kinda surprised that Emily even knew about that. I mean, she was a nice lady, but my impression was, she didn't know a lot about baseball. She was paying attention, and everything. She wasn't one of those women, goes to the park and spends all her time looking around at what the other women are wearing, or powdering her nose, or something. But Emily didn't know a lot. Some of the stuff she'd said, up to then, let me know that.

But now, she knew about the hex ... About not discussing a no-hitter. "I don't think that applies, so much, to people like us, sitting here in the stands," I explained. "But you're right. Probably, right now, nobody down in the Keys' dugout is saying anything about it to Cap. They'll all be acting real nonchalant, you know? Like nothing's happening."

"But. But, they know, right? I mean, the pitcher -- Cap? ... He knows, right?"

"Well. Maybe not. I mean, it's just been four innings. It's not so unusual, to go four, like this. But if he hasn't thought about it yet, he will, pretty soon. After five, maybe. Or after six innings, for sure. And then it'll get kinda weird, there, in the dugout, between innings, pretty soon. Everybody starts to realize it, all of a sudden. And then nobody says nothing, y'know? About anything. So if Cap hadn't been noticing, up until then, he would, pretty soon after that!"

"It seems as if ... not talking about it ... would make it worse. Just increase the tension," she said.

"Yeah. Yeah, you could be right. But that's just the way it is ... Used to be, my Dad told me, even the radio and TV guys, covering the game!... They wouldn't say anything! Everybody -- even outsiders like that -- was afraid of being the one who brought it down. But that was kind of nutty, Dad told me, because, if the announcers didn't tell their audience, well then, how could they even know about it? How could they begin to share in the ... the suspense?"

"So. Now? Today? The announcers do talk about it?"

"Sort of -- yeah. I mean, they mostly kind-of tiptoe around it. Hardly any of them ever says 'no hitter, ' or anything like that ... But they'll say things like -- if it was this game -- 'Lynchburg hasn't had a base runner since Cowrey got to first on a wild pitch in the second ... He died on first and he's been the only base runner the Hillcats have had, through four innings... '"

"Oh, I see," Emily said. "They don't exactly say it, but they let their listeners know, anyway."

"Right. Right ... But let me tell you, Emily Anne, if Dave wasn't catching this game, ol' Cap, there, I'll bet he wouldn't even have a no-hitter going. The catcher's got a lot to do with it. And Dave? ... Dave's the best!"

Cap Rogers got two men out in the seventh inning before the Hillcat's best-hitting outfielder managed a bloop single over the infield. Just like that, the no-hitter was history, but the Keys still beat 'em, 4-zip, and Lynchburg only got two hits on the night. And Cap went the distance and didn't walk a single batter! Let me tell you, for a Class A pitcher, that's a helluva night's work!

Only thing is, Lynchburg wasn't the only ones, didn't hit. Dave went one-for-four again, and his one "hit" was a feeble swinging bunt that took a crazy bounce, causing the Lynchburg third baseman to double-clutch on his throw to first.

Man, I was worried about my brother! I'd watched Dave play baseball ever since he was a freshman starter on the high school team, and I was something like five years old! Dave had always had a good bat. Oh, he wasn't Barry Bonds out there. But he had hit for average, and was good in the clutch. And he'd hit good all through college at UAB. I used to get on the Internet and check the Alabama-Birmingham web site, where they faithfully reported the game stats within hours after each of the Blazers' games, home or away!

Last year, at Delmarva, Dave had hit pretty decent, too. It was, like, .279 for that little piece of a season he was there, after graduation. But his RBI total at Delmarva had been really good, for that short season.

But one difference was, I hadn't been traveling with him, for most of last year. Except for a few weeks near the season's end, Dave had been on his own. It was only this season, in Frederick, where Dave was trying to nurse all these baby pitchers along each day, and then taking care of his baby brother each night, home and on the road.

That date Dave had, last Sunday night, with Emily Anne? That had been the first time he'd been out with a girl since -- well, since before the season started! I had been back home in Coshocton, back in my old school, temporarily, while Dave was in the minor league camp down in Florida, waiting to find out where he'd play this year.

I figured that, down in Florida, before the season started, maybe Dave had gotten laid.

But, jeez! Not since then! Me and him had been together practically the whole time, since then! I had transferred out of my school in Ohio and had been enrolled, in late March, here in Frederick. And as soon as school was out for the summer, I had been with Dave, day and night, all the time! Maybe he'd been out with a girl, somewhere on the road, in April or May (although I doubted it). But -- for sure! Since school was out for me, school had been out for Dave, too, as far as girls were concerned!

He'd been being Mama and Daddy and Big Brother, all rolled into one.

I looked over at Emily Anne Shreve, there, next to me. She really liked my brother, I could tell! And she was a real babe! Sure, she had that leg thing. And the limp. She wasn't perfect. But if she had been perfect? If she had been perfect, I knew Dave would have been too timid ever to have asked her out, after that first night! That gimpy leg made her more -- human. It brought her down to what Dave thought of as his level!

Oh, he'd never say anything like that to her -- or even to me! Never! It was kind of an insulting thing, I guess, to say, or even to think about. But I'll bet it was true! I mean, me 'n Dave were from this two-bit little farming town in central Ohio. And Dave was the first one in our family to go to college -- anywhere! But he'd only gone to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It wasn't exactly Princeton. Or even like Georgetown, where Emily went. Hell, even I had heard of Georgetown! OK -- so maybe it was only because they had the good basketball teams all the time -- but I'd heard of them!