The Jack Keefe Stories: reference groups

Comiskey is away hunting; the secretary laughs at Jack's demand for three thousand dollars and tells him to wait in town, where the hotel and meals are draining his little money.

Jack works out what living in the city will cost him and vows he will not sign for less than three thousand, whatever mood the owner comes back in.

Comiskey mocks Jack's three-thousand-dollar demand, and Jack ends up signing for fifteen hundred a year, soothed by vague talk of bonus money in the autumn.

Jack wins the deciding game and the series money, blames the umpire for the one run, and vows not to sign next year for less than five thousand or he will jump to the rival Federal League.

Jack praises Florence for admiring him; he has signed for twenty-eight hundred, far below the five thousand he swore to demand, and is relieved the lease is now useful.

Florrie cries, then persuades Jack that he is worth three thousand and should get Comiskey to raise the salary he already signed for.

Jack writes that he has quarrelled with Comiskey and is jumping to the Federal League; he demanded a raise, was kept waiting two hours, and was told to earn it first.

Jack announces he will pitch for the White Sox after all and claims he forced concessions; in fact he was made to wait, and Comiskey asked why he assumed he was going to Detroit.

Comiskey offers Jack a choice between staying at his signed salary and sobering up or being sent to Milwaukee; flattered by a remark about beating Cobb, Jack agrees and gets a three-year contract.

The three-year contract is at the same salary, which Jack reads as proof of esteem; he resolves to cut down on drinking and not to report Comiskey's rule-breaking.

Jack claims his ten-and-six record would be sixteen and none with support, says he doesn't care about records, and expects a raise despite his three-year deal.

The old fans' saloon is full of strangers; at home his wife suggests he go back to baseball, and he says he would only return for $5,000, double his old pay, noting that she clears $250 a month from her beauty parlour.

He repeats his reasons for quitting, now saying he would refuse even $4,000; he describes Christmas, with his son's toys already broken and the baby's gifts put away for later.

He expects Gleason to wire or visit asking his terms, and says that out of friendship he will sacrifice his business chances and sign for $4,000, since the new manager will need all the help he can get.

Keefe had written offering to play for $3,600 and got no answer, which he explains away as Gleason preferring to talk face to face; he leaves his phone number at the ballpark.

Keefe reports a long talk with Gleason; when the expected call never came, he went to the ballpark himself and waited an hour outside the owner's office.

Gleason greets him with insults, says he did not open his letter, and when Keefe names $3,000 contrasts the army's $30 a month and hard living with the luxury Keefe now wants to be paid for.

Gleason jokes about the stockyards 'offer', then explains that rosters are cut and Keefe may come south only as a favour for having gone to France, to show whether he can still pitch; he should be satisfied with whatever contract comes.

Keefe takes 'satisfied' to mean $3,000. Next letter: he is quitting baseball for good, because the contract arrived at $2,400, less than his pre-war $2,500, and he went to see the owner.

Comiskey coolly says there is nothing to discuss unless Keefe has signed; Keefe protests he is being fined for serving his country, and Comiskey says any difference is up to Gleason to pay himself.

It was Keefe who phoned back; Gleason only asked if he was coming and said he would earn more if he deserved it, and Keefe signed for $2,400, which he calls the same as his old pay.

Keefe gloats over the win, plans to demand his promised raise or a trade, and dismisses his wife's letter hinting at a surprise as probably something trivial.

Keefe says only the children keep him from leaving, and praises Al's plainer but sensible wife. Next letter: he has struck a deal for a $600 raise to $3,000 if he proves himself.

Gleason offers Keefe a $3,000 contract if he beats Boston, and lets him choose his game; Keefe avoids a pitcher who is tough on his club and picks the day he will face Ruth.

Gleason offers Keefe the same bet against a weak team; Keefe picks his day, pitches a two-hitter, drives in both runs himself, and earns his $600 raise.

Comiskey says Jack will be lucky to get anything and mocks his threat to jump; Jack plans to demand four thousand, then writes at midnight that he is desperate and too broke even to buy a gun.

A pitcher who jumped shows Jack a five-thousand-dollar deal, but the Federal League's Tinker says Jack is already under contract and will not touch him.

Jack says he will join neither side, insists Comiskey will be sorry, and wishes he had never left the minors.

Jack daydreams about joining Detroit, pitching every other day, winning them the pennant and beating his old team.

At the ballpark an assistant secretary says Comiskey will keep Jack rather than give him to a rival, and needles him about living on his savings; Jack storms out.

Jack vows never to work for the White Sox again, plans to threaten Comiskey with the rule-breaking, and asks Al for more money.

Jack plans to demand his fare home from Comiskey and Callahan, sure they must give it or he will jump to the Federal League.

Broke and far from home at Christmas, Jack says he could have been with his family and will give up the game for a business where a man is treated right; he refuses to play shuffleboard with Evans.

In rainy Paris Jack announces he is jumping to the Federal League, where they pay stars properly, and that the bosses will be sorry.

Advised not to tell Callahan in case the league collapses, Jack daydreams of pitching alongside Cobb and plans to surprise Florrie.

Jack decides not to complain about luck given his big offer, and plans to ask Tinker for time at home before joining the Federals.

From New York Jack writes that he has told Comiskey he is jumping, and is sure Comiskey is secretly devastated and would match the offer.

At the New York banquet Comiskey asks if Jack's 'bughouse friend' bought a Federal franchise, then sarcastically wishes him luck.

Comiskey says neither of them need tell Callahan; Jack shakes his hand and imagines Comiskey was too upset to enjoy the banquet.

Jack calls the Federal League, whose president knows nothing of any offer, and eventually gets Tinker on the long-distance line.

Tinker says someone was kidding Jack and he cannot sign a contracted player; Jack hangs up, storms out, and says he would never play in such a league.

Jack tells Comiskey he has 'changed his mind' and will stay, and takes Comiskey's joke to Callahan about Walter Johnson as proof of his value.

He tells the manager he will quit and join the army; the manager mocks him, and Keefe sulks, then explains that only family and the owner's pennant hopes keep him from going.

He leaves a noisy drinking session early and passes over a vague job advertisement because it is out of town, resolving to play the waiting game and let offers come to him.

He sends Christmas greetings, saying they are holding back on spending. A week later he still has not chosen a line of business, claims several offers, and muses about writing baseball reports better than the ignorant reporters.

Bored at home, Keefe drops in at the ballpark office on a pretext, chats with the club secretary, and learns the owner has left no word about him; he assumes a contract will simply arrive.

Keefe asks to be traded; Comiskey says only the worst club would take him, then mocks him for leaving the contract behind; Keefe says he will tear it up and walks out, claiming to be glad.

Keefe blames the owner, not Gleason, and predicts ruin for the club. Twelve days later he announces he leaves for Texas with the team, claiming his silence made them come to him.

Keefe pitches well in Dallas, says only his fans made him do it, and vows to demand a trade. The next letter, days later, is all confidence: he expects to be chosen to pitch the opening game.

Keefe admires Carl Mays, who walked out on his failing club and, instead of being punished, was courted and traded to a contender; he concludes it is foolish to stay loyal to a club that gives you the worst of it.

Keefe resolves to walk out too if Gleason crosses him, sure Detroit would snap him up; he tells Al he had six highballs after the game for his stomach.

Keefe hints to Al that a rival club wants him; after a game, Detroit's manager chats with him and jokes that Keefe's pitching did not look like pitching for Gleason, which Keefe calls just his way.

The Detroit manager says Gleason would never trade a pitcher to a pennant rival; Keefe suggests walking out like Mays, and is told that Detroit could offer only money, which the owner does not need.

When Keefe threatens to go to another rival, the Detroit manager says he doubts it and winks, which Keefe reads as a secret promise; a Detroit player urges him to jump, and Keefe says he will wait and see.

A reporter tells him Gleason tried to buy the pitcher Page; Keefe hints that he might walk out, and the reporter warns that talk like that may reach Gleason, who will beat him to it. Keefe says he has told only a few discreet teammates.

An opposing coach calls Keefe 'Carl', so Gleason learns of his talk of walking out; Keefe calls it a joke, and Gleason says he cannot take chances on a pitcher with two good innings in a month and he may walk as far as he likes.

Keefe announces he is through with Gleason unless he gets more money and a regular turn, and has wired Detroit; he complains that Gleason kept him warming up in the bullpen for days without using him.

Keefe walks off the field and quits, announcing he will pitch for Detroit; Gleason jeers that this will ruin Detroit, and Keefe wires Detroit's manager to hurry up with an offer.

The club leaves without him and Gleason does not call to make peace; Keefe tells himself he will soon be with a club that needs him.

No word comes from Detroit; Keefe imagines the managers haggling over him and guesses the trade will be him for a star outfielder, while his savings will last a couple of weeks.

Keefe announces he is off to join Connie Mack's last-place Athletics, praising Mack as a gentleman; he learned of it when his wife woke him sobbing that he had been traded, with $5,000, for Page.

Callahan gives Jack one last chance in St. Joe to show hustle or be shipped back to the minors; Jack is sure no one could send him down, and the team calls him 'Four Sevens'.

Several rookie pitchers are left behind, which Jack takes as a good sign; Gleason keeps mocking his weight, and Jack does not get into the opening loss.

Comiskey tells Jack he has been sold to San Francisco and no club claimed him; Jack says he will quit rather than go, and sneers at the rookie left-hander who has just thrown a shutout.

Despite vowing never to report, Jack has gone to San Francisco after a veteran catcher told him refusing would only hurt himself and that a spell in the minor Coast League would give him experience.

Jack pretends to Comiskey that he hopes to return, schemes to be bought by Detroit so he can be near Violet, and brags that he is terrorising the Coast League.

The secretary tells Jack he has been put on waivers and sold to Milwaukee, will get only his fare there, and cannot see the boss.

Gleason mocks Jack's fatness and tells him he will be working with the second squad; Jack is sure he is joking.

Jack thinks the players are glad to have him back and the recruits fear him, and that the club should spend its money on hitters rather than new pitchers; he insists he will join the first team.

Gleason shows Jack a wire from Callahan ordering him kept with the second team, and tells him to stay or jump in the ocean.

Heading east still with the second team, Jack rationalises being left there and sneers at the recruits and the scouts who found them.

Callahan hasn't used Jack, saying he is waiting for him to get in shape, and jokes that Jack covers more ground than the grandstand.

Jack refuses to eat in Hong Kong; Callahan wishes he were as careful about pitching; McGraw won't waste Jack on a free game before British soldiers.

McGraw won't pitch Jack in a rainy free game, joking that he cannot afford presents when no gate is taken; the Giants lose and Lipton sees them off.

The manager has sent him home instead of taking him on the road, which Keefe reads as being saved for opening day; his three-year-old asks who he is.

The manager tells him he has been sold to a weak club; Keefe retorts that he has already signed with the army, is congratulated, and asks to pitch one last game.

Men are being transferred out to fill other units, which Keefe says are the camp's rejects; he plans to get into the coming officers' school and be sent abroad in command.

More men are transferred out; he hears a tall tale that the officers' school requires every allied language, and complains that his wife never writes or visits.

At the new camp he finds the joker Shorty has been made a sergeant, over him, and takes it as proof the unit was desperate.

The pranksters are reprimanded; the colonel says Keefe is too gullible to be trusted with rank and reduces him to private; Keefe claims he always wanted that.

Keefe complains Gleason relies on only two pitchers and has benched him since he lost two games 'with his stomach'; when he says Gleason might as well have left him home, Gleason agrees.

The veteran coach Gleason mocks Jack's table manners, gluttony and weight at breakfast; the manager Callahan warns the men not to treat training as a joke.

At supper Gleason cuts everyone down; when the veteran Collins praises Jack's fastball, Gleason tells Jack not to believe it, since the league's pitchers are faster than he is.

Jack blames teammates for the runs scored off him in exhibition games; Callahan dryly advises him to learn a slow ball and watch how others field and hold runners.

Callahan ridicules Jack's windup and walks off; Jack vows to punch him if ever bawled out, then describes a night on the town in San Francisco and a letter from the blonde.

Callahan starts Jack against a pickup team because he wants to finish early, which Jack reads as a compliment; a veteran jokes that his 'fadeaway' fades over the fence.

Jack one-hits Detroit, blaming a teammate for the one hit; before the game the rival manager and Callahan trade jokes at his expense and Jack chimes in with a retort.

Jack asks Comiskey whether the club will pay his wife's fare; Comiskey mocks him in front of the players, and Jack does not see the joke.

Jack takes Gleason's joking as proof of esteem, then brags of finally beating every club in the league.

Jack sends the women shopping so he can mind the baby while Gleason visits; Gleason jokes that the baby looks too human to be Jack's.

Jack sneers at the great Mathewson's pitching; Mathewson says he wishes he had Jack's arm plus some sense, and McGraw says nobody could teach Jack anything, which Jack takes as praise.

McGraw urges Jack to make the whole trip, saying he likes having funny people along who don't know it, and that foreigners have asked for him; Jack believes it and is tempted.

Jack stores his suit in his kit roll on McGraw's joking advice, and gloats that his old teammates are too weak to face him.

McGraw generously says Jack's side didn't help him, which Jack takes as proof McGraw is a real manager; Callahan jokes about not checking on Jack's family, but promises to phone Chicago.

Evans and McGraw make jokes about skulls and bone-headed players; Jack takes Evans's remark that he could last 4,000 years like the Sphinx as praise of his strength.

He says only his wife, son and the club keep him from enlisting; he teases the coach that he will join up and is told the army would not take him.

Keefe claims he was the new manager's favourite because he gave back as good as he got when teased, recalls an exchange in which he was clearly the butt of the joke, and says Gleason alone would have given him regular work.

On the train south, Keefe sneers at the teammates' low-stakes card game as beneath a man who has been to war; Gleason warns everyone about carrying liquor and needles Keefe that he can smell what he has already drunk.

Gleason decrees breakfast at eight or a strapping; Keefe boasts he would flatten him if he tried that on a veteran, and Gleason retorts that the only danger is Keefe breaking the dining room door down to get in early.

The whole team sees Keefe drive off with the heiress; at supper Gleason sits down to tease him about learning to drive the car, and orders the entire club to walk to and from the park from now on.

Keefe admits he sulked for a week but was won back when Gleason joked that Belden had already been sent home from the second squad as not good enough; the old rival is gone.

Jack claims his arm was too sore and that his catcher and fielders let him down in a sixteen-to-two rout; Cobb taunts him from the plate.

Callahan finally pulls Jack with a string of insults; Jack writes Al the 'truth' blaming his arm, and says he will punch the reporters and pitch better at Detroit, where Violet waits.

The game is scoreless through seven; Jack walks several and gives up hits but escapes with men on base, and blames the umpire for his walks and strikeouts.

Jack loses a game of the city series and blames his arm and his support, while assuming Hazel's silence means she is planning a surprise.

In the tenth, with the bases loaded, Jack insists on batting himself, insults Hill, and strikes out on a pitch he blames on the umpire.

Jack is knocked out in San Francisco and blames his arm, the climate, the wind and the ground rules; he refuses McGraw's renewed urging to make the whole trip.

Callahan tells Jack the overland train is fake, that he could not have received mail or telegrams, and offers to call Chicago; Jack is hit hard in the first game in Tokyo and blames his arm and unfamiliar teammates.

Jack blames the humid air for his defeat in Manila and says McGraw should have used a lesser pitcher; he threw only slow balls and claims the other side was lucky.

Schaefer jokes that the Manila league's clubs are named after soda flavours; Jack pities the locals and again blames the air for his loss.

Jack refuses to ride a camel out of 'kindness to animals', then pitches to a tie on sandy grounds, blaming the wind and belittling Benz.

Jack has lost his last game under Callahan's eyes to a home run by Daly, a stand-in first baseman whom he calls a lucky busher.

Jack blames London's damp air for a lame arm and says McGraw should have seen it and taken him out, though he pitched because the King was there.

Jack claims he stuck it out in pain, and blames his teammates, saying they cared only about going home.

In the tenth, with the score tied, Daly hits the curve Jack meant to waste for a game-winning home run, and Jack says Daly belongs in the minors.

After a loss he rails at the reporters and insists his fly-out was really a hit that only an oddly placed fielder caught.

He fails to cover first, is beaten by a double steal and gives up the winning hit, blaming the catcher, fielders and yelling teammates; the manager takes him out.

At the rifle range he complains of wind, darkness, distance and having to lie prone, and argues the prone position is foolish.

An officer and Red score well, which Keefe calls luck; he scores 8 of 50, blames food and darkness, and insults Red when teased.

The example: he walked one batter to strike out a weak one, then lost the game on his teammates' errors and a passed ball.

Shaffer calls him a snake and punches him; Keefe says he tripped over a bench and would have won had he known it was serious.

He blames Alcock for stirring Shaffer up, grants that Shaffer had reason to be angry, and still insists he could have beaten him.

Keefe gives up five runs in a practice game, blaming his fielders and the wind; Gleason tells him to think about the batter rather than the girl, and Keefe walks away.

Keefe jokes about cheap beer at home. Next letter: he has beaten St. Louis again, his third straight win with only one run allowed, which he blames on an outfielder.

She refuses to pay otherwise, and Keefe stubbornly gives up the car; in the game Gleason pinch-hits for him while he is losing, and Keefe insists he could have hit better himself.

On the road in New York the club is battered by injuries and a rising Detroit, and Keefe has 'stomach trouble' he blames on something he ate; a teammate loses a game on his lame colleague's misplays.

Keefe admits the trip but calls it a swim, walks off rather than argue, and watches Cicotte win 1-0; he insists he could have done the same and says only loyalty to the players keeps him from leaving.

Teammates play a fake-telegram joke that he has been sold, which briefly fools him; Jack is picked for the first squad's trip and claims Gleason taught him nothing he didn't know.

Jack does well in St. Joe and Callahan praises him, so Jack thinks his place is cinched; he is courting Violet by mail and is down to about ten dollars before payday.

After being held back, Jack beats the champion Athletics five to one and disputes the scorers' hits; Gleason praises him but warns him to keep his head from swelling.

Callahan agrees to let Jack pitch at Detroit, jokes about his plan for Cobb, then says he has improved and may use him in the lucrative autumn series; Jack is scornful of Allen and his wife's plain sister.

His wife is struck by his uniform and his son calls him captain, which Keefe takes as a sign of promotion to come.

The captain greets him as Corporal Keefe; he credits the general's eye for his bearing and lists the qualities a leader needs, assuming he has them all.

He lists the seven men he now commands, including the joker, and compares himself to Napoleon; the pay rise is small.

He says Al will have to salute him, as a joke; at grenade practice he refuses to throw hard in the rain to protect his arm for his old career, and sneers at the instructor's stiff arm.

He shouts encouragement at every charge, sure the instructors admire him; the joker mocks him as a saintly heroine, and Keefe threatens him.

On a holiday he declines to play in the soldiers' ballgames, saying leaders should hold themselves aloof from their men.

He kept going on the march to set an example, needled Red about being out of step, and threatened him when Red retorted.

Keefe pitches four strong innings in an intrasquad game, and Gleason praises him warmly, warning him not to swell up; Gleason leaves him behind to work out while the team travels, telling him to behave as if watched.

Keefe assumes his showing means a raise is coming; he quits practice early claiming fatigue and, meeting the heiress on the road, accepts a ride, admiring how she can give as good as she gets.

Keefe reports that he has been sent ahead to Philadelphia with the star Cicotte to rest, and takes it as a sign he will now pitch in his regular turn.

Jack drinks while waiting, glares at Violet's fiancé, and gets a hundred-dollar advance from Comiskey, who asks pointedly whether he has been taking care of himself.

Comiskey tells Jack he was sent down for drinking all winter, trying to renegotiate a signed contract and approaching the Federal League, and says he could still get rid of him.

Jack is fined fifty dollars for losing a ten-inning game one to nothing; Callahan says he threw it deliberately, and Jack admits he aimed at Joe Hill's head with the bases full.

Callahan fines and suspends Jack, saying his brains are in his stomach; payday brings deductions for the fine and last winter's advance, and Jack sends Florrie twenty-five dollars.

Still suspended, Jack refuses Allen's wife's attempts to reconcile him with Florrie; then Callahan reinstates him, saying time off might make him think.

The captain threatens severe penalties but excuses him because he needs good corporals, stops his leave for a month, and says nobody is going abroad soon; the corporal story was a hoax.

He greets a French officer in German; the officer is outraged, a lieutenant takes his name, and he is summoned before the colonel and his captain.

The colonel first asks what he meant by damning the censor ship; Keefe explains Lee's joke, and his captain smiles.

Asked why he spoke German to an ally, he realises he was taught German as a prank; his captain asks for time to investigate.

A soldier spent money sent for blankets on champagne; nearly all of them are docked two-thirds of their pay and confined, and the captain threatens worse.

After rolling in at five, Keefe is sent to pitch and is beaten; Gleason fines him $50 for being out all night, and Keefe threatens to quit, blaming the women who pursue him.

At the seaside they drink a quart, fall asleep on the beach, and miss the train; Keefe returns at nine next morning to find Gleason in the lobby, and claims he was out for a walk.

Gleason makes Keefe start; he walks the first two batters and is pulled, and when he protests, Gleason reveals he knows about the Atlantic City trip and threatens him.

When Cicotte is shelled Gleason only says 'better luck next time'; Keefe complains of unequal treatment and Gleason says Cicotte lacked stuff on the mound, while Keefe had too much 'stuff' before he got there.

Callahan sends a pinch hitter up for Jack, who tells the manager he is making a mistake and gloats when the hitter fails; Callahan blows up, and Gleason urges Jack to apologise.

Relieving in Cleveland, Jack disobeys Callahan's order to walk a dangerous hitter and gets lucky; Callahan threatens to suspend him without pay and thrash him if he ever disobeys again.

Fielding errors lose the lead; McGraw won't let Jack walk Crawford, and then pinch-hits for him in the ninth, so Jack decides McGraw knows nothing about managing.

He second-guesses the pitching in his old club's championship game from the newspaper account.

He argues the war would go better if generals had played big-league baseball and learned to think quickly.

His first idea: generals should, like managers, study the enemy's weak points before battle and attack those.

His second: get the jump on the opponent; his example is a game he lost to bad luck.

His third and fourth: generals may use as many men as they like, and need not announce when they will attack; his examples are more losses.

The allies have named a single supreme commander, a foreigner; Keefe grumbles that he should have been someone who speaks English.

He concedes one boss is better than several, illustrating with an absurd picture of four managers sending up four pinch-hitters.

When comrades argue that the Allies are wisely waiting for the Germans to wear themselves out, Keefe scoffs from his big-league 'experience' of strategy; he tells a joker to try his line on Simple Simon.

After two wins and a loss in St. Louis, Keefe criticises Gleason for starting a left-hander and sneers at his teammates' collapse against a pitcher they had called ordinary.

Keefe urges Gleason to pitch him in the last game; Gleason says he is saving him for Detroit, asks if he is afraid of Detroit, and tells him to stop trying to run the club. Keefe thinks he should be worked every other day.

He contrasts Gleason with Detroit's manager, who uses all his pitchers, mocks Gleason's pursuit of other clubs' pitchers and his new signings as signs he has gone 'cuckoo', and derides the league president's suspension of Mays.

Gleason tells Jack he fields like a washerwoman and has a lot to learn; Jack threatens that other clubs would snap him up, but agrees to extra coaching, and he mentions a society girl who has taken to him.

Jack boasts of his winning streak; when the manager warns him that chasing Hazel is ruining his form, Jack tells him to mind his own business but quietly goes to bed early.

Jack turns down a ticket scalper; Gleason buys him a cheap beer, hears about the expensive round, and tells him to stop going out with the players and let Gleason steer him instead.

Gleason squires Jack round New York, drives off two women who approach them, and takes him to a picture show; Jack sends Hazel postcards.

Gleason says Jack is better off away from the first squad, where Allen and his wife travel, and that he wants to keep Jack working and eating less; Jack says he is waiting to be called up.

Gleason cuts Jack's huge supper order and calls him hog fat, and they nearly come to blows.

Jack assumes he is being saved for the opener, resents Gleason watching his every meal, and sneaks off to eat after breakfast.

Gleason calls, charms Florrie, and says the club depends on Jack; after a private talk with Florrie he says it is all fixed and Jack need not worry about the baby.

Keefe pitches a full game against a college team, claims he eased up out of pity, and Gleason praises him, saying he will be one of four regular pitchers and get real money if he keeps his mind off the heiress.

Gleason asks who the letter is from, guesses from Keefe's blush, and, when Keefe snaps that he is not his mother, asks for his home address, saying he wants every player's details.

Keefe pitches a two-hit opening-day win; the morning of the game he had found his wife in the lobby, brought down at the club's expense by Gleason, who had secretly written to her.

Gleason tastes the bourbon, takes the bottle 'for the reporters', offers to pay for what is left, then announces he is fining Keefe that amount and keeping the bottle instead.

Gleason starts someone else in the opener, who loses; then he tells Keefe he will start next day, explains he took the bottle because a drunk cannot make a name for himself, promises money for good work, and says the papers have already announced it. Keefe gives in.

Gleason, having visited Keefe's wife, meets him at his hotel and tears into him: she supported the children while he was away and still does, her partner is respectable and married, and he nearly drove her out of a good business by acting like a busher.

Keefe demands a trade and says he will go home only if his wife quits; Gleason mocks the trade request and threatens to tell her about the heiress unless he goes home tonight without conditions. Keefe gives in, claiming it was for the children.

In fact Gleason told him his last two games looked heartless and his stomach would not mend on a liquid diet; he is sending Keefe ahead to dry out and will know whether he has behaved himself.

The draftees wear patriotic armbands on the train; some recognise Keefe, and he graciously shakes hands, claiming to set aside who he is for the common cause.

He despairs of neatness when he expects to be murdered; then he gets a weekend leave, which he believes was granted because of his fame, and plans to show off at his old club's game.

Keefe is being sent home for good; he thanks God it was not his throwing arm and assumes his war record will make him a money-maker for his old ball club even if he cannot pitch.

He expects employers to fall over themselves to hire a famous wounded soldier. In the next letter, a week later, he is bitter that Chicago businessmen seem not to know there was a war.

At the interview Keefe jokes about his feet, sneers at counter work, cites his experience in the big leagues of baseball and war, and pleads that his wife shops there; the manager dryly declines.

At the gas company an old supervisor offers him only meter reading, and he walks out; he decides he will wait for employers to come to him rather than expose himself to insults.

No old teammates mention his war service, which he decides is a sore subject for them; the manager only jokes that it was lucky he was not left-handed, which Keefe takes as a sign a fat contract is coming.

Keefe expects the club to win the pennant and at last get him a World Series share, which he feels he is owed for giving up the chance in 1917 by going to war.

Callahan agrees to start Jack against Detroit only because his pitchers are exhausted; after the game Jack writes that he was beaten and blames a sore arm, the catcher and the fielders.

Jack and his catcher argue over signs while runners steal at will; Callahan leaves him in to take the beating and mocks him about his friends from home coming to watch.

The rout continues; Jack falls fielding a bunt and forgets a runner, while Callahan refuses to take him out and jeers that his friends want to see him pitch.

Gleason sends Jack to bed at ten; Callahan saves him to face the great Johnson in Washington, which Jack takes as proof he is the best, and a letter from Violet nearly makes him cry.

Jack writes that he beat Johnson one to nothing and got a theatre ticket from Callahan; before the game he told the catcher he wanted to prove Callahan right.

Jack opens the series in top form, retiring the first three batters, and is given a two-run lead.

Pitching well through seven innings and thinking of his family, Jack looks up and sees Florrie and Marie cheering in the stands, although they were supposed to be home with the baby.

Jack panics that the baby is alone and dying, shouts at Florrie from the field, and demands an explanation from Allen.

Distracted, Jack loads the bases and is taken out, runs home, finds a fourteen-year-old girl minding the baby, and berates Florrie until she cries.

He prepares to leave at a moment's notice and writes down his ideas so he will not forget them when nervous.

Keefe writes that he has quit the club and his home. On the big day he felt sharp, and his wife had said she might bring her partners; just as he warmed up he saw her in the stands with a man.

Rattled, Keefe cannot focus, gives up a double and a single, throws wild while glancing at the stands, and blames stolen signs; Gleason refuses to take him out, saying they will see what kind of money pitcher he is.

Instead of watching the opponents with Cicotte, Keefe stayed in the hotel to 'forget baseball', got lonely, went drinking with a fan, and agreed to a trip to Atlantic City.

Feverish and sick, Keefe goes to the park expecting only to warm up, but Gleason tells him to start in place of an ailing pitcher and brushes off his complaint about his stomach.

Dizzy, Keefe hits the first batter in the head, walks the next, and is hit hard, while Gleason pointedly ignores him and has nobody warming up.

Jack trades insults with Cobb and the Detroit bench and handles their hitters, and Callahan says he learned something on the Coast.

The game stays scoreless; Jack dismisses Hill's success as luck and keeps smiling up at Violet between innings.

Hill taunts that he already has Jack's girl and his goat; Jack loses control, hits one batter and walks another in a rage.

While Gleason and Callahan argue about removing him, Jack deliberately hits Hill in the head, forcing in the winning run; he regrets only failing to hurt him.

Jack beats Detroit, blames the umpire for a triple, and makes Hill look foolish at the plate.

Hill throws at Jack three times, then grooves one that Jack drives for a two-run double; Jack wins five to four, and Callahan hints at refunding the fine.

Jack gets revenge on Schaefer for the shirt joke by throwing close to him and striking him out; in Sydney he wishes Al a happy new year and declines to see the harbour.

Before the game, two Cleveland players confront Keefe with his boast that he would knock one of them out; he denies saying it, is called a liar, and one of them offers to settle it.

Trying to intimidate the two, Keefe gives up doubles to both, blaming a slip and his fielders; they ride him all game, and he never goes to their hotel, citing the baby's croup.

Used in relief, Keefe says he considered throwing the game to spite Gleason but pitched well for his teammates' sake; when Gleason pats him on the back he pretends to be won over.

After the win Jack sneaks a couple of beers, then gets a phone call from Violet, who wants to see him; he accuses her of calling him a busher and she denies writing the postcard.

Jack, who once rose at five, now sleeps till noon, has switched from beer to hard liquor and boasts of how much he can drink.

The train ride turns into a drunken party: patriotic songs, men too drunk to stand for the anthem, and one who has to be carried back aboard after deciding to go home.

A brawl breaks out when a small man throws another's trombone out of the window; they arrive battered, and Keefe, who was also drunk, blames a sandwich for his blurred vision.

He explains that soldiers can drink openly here, sneers at the weak beer and wine, and plans to try the cheap champagne.

The sergeant tells him the volunteer is a rich heiress who gave him the valentine herself, as a joke; Keefe gets drunk and sneaks in after lights out.

Keefe says he will not pitch the home opener unless Gleason apologises for last night. Chilled after a cold day on the bench, he let a local friend talk him into ordering liquor in a dry state.

A bellboy brings a quart of bourbon for $15, which Keefe pays while his friend develops a stiff arm and then gulps a quarter of it; before Keefe can pour a drink, Gleason knocks.

Ruth hits a home run and Keefe blacks out the rest of the day on a drinking binge downtown, declaring he is through with both baseball and home. Next letter: he is home again, having learned the partner is married and his wife is earning well.

In Boston Keefe and a teammate pay $7 for a quart of vile liquor to last the Sabbath, and he reminisces about ordering drinks with sandwiches in the old days.

Keefe says he will stay sober to give his best, though three or four drinks would not hurt; next letter, he says Gleason has gone cuckoo and only loyalty to the other players keeps him from walking out.

At the party Keefe drank heavily, then went on to a speakeasy with two husbands, and came home sick from what he claims was something he ate.

Jack skips the ordered long walk because he is tired, ignores the star pitcher Walsh's advice to obey orders, and Gleason jeers at his laziness.

Jack hopes Gleason will get him excused from morning practice to help at home, says he doesn't need practice, and plans revenge on Johnson.

Filling in the registration card he mocks the questions as foolish and, on instruction, claims exemption as married with dependents.

He assumes his family and his fame will excuse him, cites his small bond purchase, and the coach punctures his hope that ballplayers will be kept home for morale.

At the medical exam he hints at poor digestion and a lame arm, is warned that lying is punishable, and is passed fit.

Keefe insists on appealing and hatches a plan: Florrie will sell her share of the business so that she really is dependent on him.

He asks the drill instructor to excuse him from exercises because he is already fit and tired, and is made to do them all; he frets that his barrack-mates will cut his throat at night.

Keefe tries to beg off, pleading that he has gone a little deaf; the sergeant says Phillips has good ears and Keefe is only going for company, and warns them to keep silent.

Jack backs away from the table claiming he chose not to fight, says he is off women, and brags about four good innings against his old minor-league club.

An umpire tells Jack that Schaefer was joking; Jack insists the stories have nothing to do with his change of mind, but worries about his insurance and his family.

He explains he decided at the last minute not to go home, citing illness, sore feet and his promotion chances, and sent a message for his family to visit instead; Shorty hints that he should watch out.

Keefe says he fears nothing for himself but could not bear his wife and son being hurt defending him.

He adds a bad breakfast and promotion hopes to his reasons, second-guesses his old club's game, and asks the sergeant to postpone his leave, who says he never saw anyone too sick to go home.

Home on leave, he says he almost wishes he were a private again and toys with coming back late and drunk to get busted, claiming it is out of loyalty to his men.

Sleepless, Keefe skips taking his wife out and wishes he could shed his rank; next, he reports being called up for returning late from leave.

Keefe says he does not want a safe staff job away from the fighting, but would gladly give the generals hints; next, he reports the paper has printed his article.

Keefe protests he wants to fight, but talks himself into accepting a staff post as a patriotic sacrifice of his own feelings.

His reply insists he is no shirker but will sacrifice himself if needed, and that strategy is the same in war and baseball.

He notes troops have taken over a sector, then boasts his marksmanship has improved so much he may be made a sniper and never have to go into the trenches.

After a poor day at the range, he decides to shoot badly on purpose so he will not be made a sniper, calling sniping unfair.

A patrol is called for to take prisoners and identify the new regiment opposite; Keefe did not volunteer, explaining that the errand was pointless, that he did not want to crowd anyone out, and that he nearly went but was too late.

Expecting to leave the trenches next day, Keefe has written to 'Marie' that he is coming; the sector stays silent, and he dismisses talk of another patrol to avenge the lost men as throwing good money after bad.

Keefe claims he held back from violence only to avoid a scene in front of an outsider; when the friend mocks him he makes a joke, then vows not to pitch unless Gleason apologises for meddling in his private affairs.

Keefe backs off, telling himself they wanted him thrown out of the game, and offers to settle it at their hotel that night; he calls this outsmarting them.

At breakfast Gleason and the others joke that everyone falls sick when facing Johnson; Jack insists he is not afraid and will win if they get him a couple of runs.

He claims he would volunteer if he had savings and fancies being an aviator; the coach says he is suited to it and was already up in the air in his last game.

Shorty embroiders it with tales of prisoners tortured toe by toe and starved; Keefe declares he would never talk.

Two days out, many men are seasick; Keefe claims only homesickness at leaving, complains of delays, and says he would gladly die for the cause.

The unit is ordered to the front; Keefe claims to be thrilled and says the others are secretly frightened, then mentions a joke about him in the company paper.

When Keefe complains of boredom, Sergeant Crane needles him about not going on the patrol; Keefe boasts he would not hide from a real job, and is promptly assigned to the listening post with Phillips.

The men start calling Keefe 'Sammy Boy', which he blames on the censor, and he vows to have the last laugh. Two days later he writes that it is all off, and that he has volunteered for the revenge patrol and welcomes death.

On watch, Keefe saw a figure crawling beyond the wire by flarelight; when Corporal Evans said one of them must go, Keefe volunteered, and only when Evans told him to take his rifle did he consider it might not be Simon.

Gleason lifts the fine after a win; watching from the stands with the young woman, Keefe sees a brawl between two players and boasts it would never have happened if he had been playing.

Jack writes that he is sailing after all, has written a tearful goodbye to Florrie, and imagines she will feel like a murderer if he drowns.

Jack asks Al to see that Florrie gets the insurance and the bank money, to help raise little Al, and to keep the boy from becoming left-handed; he says a tearful farewell.

Keefe prepares to settle his affairs and writes Al a grandiose farewell, casting himself as laying down his life for those at home.

He has been picked with about thirty men to fill a unit going overseas, treats it as an honour and a duty, and says a tragic goodbye to Al.

Keefe is now sure his hunch is right and he will die, and closes feeling faint, which he insists is not fear.

He writes again, expecting a torpedo at any moment, and declares he will go down with the ship after helping everyone off.

On second-hand gossip that the unit was rushed in to hold the line to the last man against an expected attack, Keefe dramatises this as perhaps his final letter, amid the mud and vermin.

Keefe insists no one can blame him though he might have intervened, calls himself the only one with a heart, and says the jokers are sick only from fear of court-martial; he is on watch tonight and expects he may die going out after Simon.

In Rome it rains constantly, there are no private baths, and Jack is bored to desperation in the hotel.

He says he is glad the reporter has not returned, claims he is ready for the front and bored with training, and sneers at the local women.

He jokes that the flooded camp could float battleships and says he would train recruits by soaking them, so the conditions would be no surprise.

He complains that the troops hear no news of the big enemy offensive to the north and cannot read the local papers.

He concludes they are unlikely to see battle, since the enemy would not be foolish enough to attack their sector.

The unit is only in the reserve trenches for ten days before a turn in the front line, and Keefe half-wishes the regiment ahead would be smashed up so his could move forward.

Keefe grumbles at the endless inspections and warnings about keeping his head down, eager for real action; in the next letter the unit has been moved into the front line two days early.

Keefe jokes about the endless French rain and darkness; nothing happens except the odd shell or flare, and the air fights always end out of sight.

The men go to bed hungry and so bored that one wishes the enemy would attack just to break the monotony; Keefe signs off.

Nothing happens except when their own artillery provokes the Germans into shelling back, which only means more repair work; Keefe thinks both sides would do better left alone.

Keefe reports that the captain and officers are furious the regiment has been left in a dead sector while others fight elsewhere, and are blaming the men for not showing more; Keefe resents being blamed.

The club arrives at a spa hotel in Texas to find it pouring with rain, with nothing to do but loaf in a crowded lobby.

Jack stayed with the players and spent a sleepless night on a Japanese train whose berths were too short for him; Evans says he should cut off his head.

They are issued blankets and assigned to barracks; the next letter describes the relentless schedule of calls that regulates every hour of the day.

He cannot sleep for the cramped bunk and the smoker's fumes, grumbles at drills and roll calls, and repeats a seasick man's joke about the ship sinking.

Now overseas and billeted in a freezing barn behind the lines, Keefe complains that a man used to the best hotels is housed like a horse.

He grumbles about travelling in cattle cars on shrieking trains, comparing it with the private sleeping cars of his old life.

Twenty men share the barn with livestock and rats; they watch troops and ambulances pass; the next letter is written in a crowded, warm hut.

In endless rain behind the lines, Keefe sneers that sailors on big warships have a soft life waiting for an enemy fleet that will never come out.

Writing after a long silence, Keefe complains that his unit was marched on foot all the way up to the trenches, and trades jokes with a comrade about being made to walk to their own execution.

Supper is an hour late because the carrying party is said to be afraid to come up under shelling; Keefe calls them cowards, and Brady jokes that the men are being starved like lions before a fight.

Keefe says the food hardly matters since it is only a thimble of soup and rock-hard bread, and wonders where all the provisions saved back home went.

Jack Keefe writes to his friend Al that his minor-league club has sold him to the Chicago White Sox; his old manager sends him off with encouragement, and Jack brags about his record while admitting he has never really been in a big city.

Jack credits himself for being scouted and promises the boys back home he is not swelled up; in December he arrives in Chicago to call on the owner, Comiskey, at the ballpark office.

Jack has spent twenty dollars on a new suit; in March he writes from spring training in California about the special train and the crowds he imagines were looking at him.

In batting practice Jack throws full speed at his own teammates, scaring them, and Callahan tells him half-laughing to save his strength and go easy on his own side.

Jack writes in his underwear before a hotel dance, then brags of shutting out the regulars for three innings in a practice game and reads Walsh's advice on hiding his spitball as jealousy.

Keefe writes from training camp, sore from vaccination and queasy, sneering at his rough, foreign-born barrack-mates and, out of habit, at left-handers.

Asked what he did in civil life, Keefe assumes the interviewer knows his fame, then answers with a long boast about his career.

The officer puts him down as a pitcher, skill-less otherwise; Keefe boasts he will be the best grenade thrower, then describes callisthenics, breakfast and making his bed.

He brags that drilling is easy for him and assumes the captain will pick him to replace the regular instructors, but chafes at having to salute and say sir.

He is jammed into a cabin with three others: a surly smoker, a silent man, and Lee, a large joker.

Amid rowdy singing he describes training in practice trenches under foreign instructors teaching what they learned in the first week at home.

Keefe describes a gullible newcomer, 'Simple Simon', whom the men stuff with tall tales; Simon, who arrived late after an illness, wishes he had been on the recent raid so he could have picked up souvenirs.

During practice on signals, Belden proposes giving them aloud in French so opponents cannot understand, and a veteran ridicules the idea.

The comedian Schaefer spins Jack tall tales of shipwrecks, sharks whose bite causes rabies, and how Jack's fat will keep him afloat.

Schaefer adds that the crossing takes months, that seasickness is cured by not eating, and that warships of Switzerland fire wildly at sea.

The umpire Steve Evans shows Jack the captain's log and convinces him that watertight-door drills and 'knots' mean they nearly sank.

Schaefer tells Jack that the only meat in China is chop suey made with rats, and Jack vows to starve rather than eat it.

Evans wakes Jack at five with a story that Schaefer caught rat rabies from chop suey and is squeaking and biting; Jack believes it, pins Evans to the bed, and feels vindicated for not eating.

Schaefer describes the 'Bite bug', an eagle-sized insect that bites a feature off one man per ship and can be stopped only by iron, such as catchers' masks.

The good hitters decline the job; Schaefer says the bug spares women and ugly men and that the catchers have locked away their masks, and Jack expects a sleepless night.

Schaefer explains that the Indian Ocean has 'Thomas Hawks', birds that peck soft heads and attack only people out on deck.

Jack is told that crossing the Equator northward is a hard bump upward, and the crew must haul on a rope to lift the ship over it.

Evans warns of polar bears and 'lepers' in Africa; Jack plans to avoid them, landing at Suez.

A joker, Shorty, tells Keefe that the surly man in the next bunk is a notorious knife-wielder with a prison record, and Keefe believes it.

A new man takes the bunk on his other side and whispers all night, asking whether he should kill, then says he is talking to God.

Shorty insists the other neighbour is waiting to catch Keefe outside camp; the next letter, days later, finds Keefe despondent and eager to be sent to the front.

Shorty tells him the knife man has faked a family emergency to get leave on the same train, and will come after him and his family at home.

He claims he has learned enough; Red spins a story that most of the ally's battle dead are corporals and sergeants, who lead every charge.

Rifles are coming; he boasts his squad will outshoot the others, and Red tells him that in the allied army corporals go unarmed ahead of the men as decoys and make up most of the dead.

Red passes on a rumour, heard at third hand from a guard, that their regiment has been picked to ship out within a week.

He praises his squad's cheerful spirit; Red slyly says they are not worried for themselves, only about what will happen to their corporal.

On the train Shorty tells him the real news is that only corporals and sergeants are being sent abroad, to replace the ally's dead.

He plans to try his phrases on the French officers; then he gets a hunch he will never arrive, and a sergeant says the ship's leaders must see every private into the boats first.

Lee relays a sailor's secret story of a sinking in which only the corporals and sergeants went down, having waited to the last.

Endless training continues; Alcock passes on a driver's claim that snipers make up most of the casualties; the next letter claims the pranksters were the fools.

Brady tells Simon about a legendary 'Souvenir Joe' who gathered his collection by crawling into no man's land between the one-legged flare man's rounds, and urges Simon to get a real collection before they are moved.

For the Thanksgiving banquet Schaefer puts Jack down to write and recite poetry, since he can think of nothing else Jack could do that needs no thinking.

Jack plans to give Callahan's children a used postcard, and hears the men are giving him a Christmas present for his poems; he imagines a diamond ring or watch and writes a poem in return.

Schaefer and Evans lament that the Federals are signing all the stars at home, and suggest the bosses may be intercepting telegrams for the touring players.

A bellboy brings Jack a cable, apparently from Tinker, offering $10,000 a year for three years.

Jack decides the cable is genuine because it is on real paper, credits the scarab, and grudgingly buys Evans two cigars and Schaefer one.

He ends with a joke about a green rookie; Alcock reads it, praises it extravagantly and suggests the generals may want him on their staff.

A letter arrives purportedly from the commander-in-chief himself; Keefe treasures it and copies it out for Al.

The hoax letter, signed with a nickname and a music-hall address, gravely asks for his baseball secrets and his plans for a campaign.

He shows it to a few friends; Alcock vouches that the signature proves it genuine and urges him to reply carefully, since he may be summoned to headquarters and spared the trenches.

The commander is really coming to inspect the camp; Keefe is sure it is to see him, and Alcock congratulates him on landing a soft job.

Alcock says exposing a spy will earn him an intelligence commission in the capital; Keefe says he would sacrifice fighting for it, and Alcock coaches him to interrogate the suspect.

He imagines the captain praising him; Alcock produces a second letter supposedly by Shaffer, addressed to the enemy's commander.

A joker, Brady, tells Keefe the leave towns are full of girls whose addresses the officers keep, and comes back with an invented name and address in 'Cologne'; Keefe, half-suspecting a joke, writes to her.

The reply, signed 'Marie Antoinette' in garbled French and German, promises eagerly to show him the sights and asks him not to disappoint her; it is plainly the jokers' work.

Another letter from 'Marie' urges her Sammy Boy to come quickly, says she is getting dressed up for him, and reminds him to bring plenty of money.

Jack claims he eased up to let an old acquaintance get a hit and praises his new, gentler manager; Violet has sent a postcard calling him a 'busher', so he says he is well rid of her.

Hazel writes that she has married a prizefighter, calls Jack a cheapskate and keeps his thirty dollars; Jack declares himself happy and immediately invites Violet to come and marry him.

The players claim the catchers tried to bat the bug; Doyle jokes that it recognised the players as bugs, and Jack thinks Doyle cannot be very smart.

Jack reports his head unhurt and learns there was never any danger from the hawks; Jim Thorpe says he didn't know why they stayed inside.

Out on deck with his cap under his hat, Jack hears that the hawks fled at the sight of Thorpe because he is an Indian, and laughs that 'they' were all suckers.

McGraw says they should all take it as a joke and keep it from their friends at home, but Jack tells Al anyway.

Jack consoles himself that he was too smart for a Federal 'skin game', faces paying Florrie's fares and debts, and still trusts the scarab.

Jack forgot presents for everyone, owes money all round and will be pitching for nothing for two months, but consoles himself that he has seen the world.

Keefe claims he always knew Shorty was stringing him about the knife man and only played along.

Told his pay scheme will not work, he drops it as unfair to others and tallies how little is left after insurance and bond deductions.

He regrets having nothing to leave Al and signs off as his pal to the last; the next letter announces he was nearly made a fool of but saw through it.

He insists he was never really fooled and was kidding them back, magnanimously considers asking leniency for them, and says he would still help others into the boats.

Near port, he claims he never worried about submarines; next, he reports arriving abroad and swears off learning languages.

He hears a tall tale that the convoy fought off nine submarines one night unnoticed, and claims he had a hunch about it at the time.

Keefe claims he saw through Alcock's forged spy letter because a real spy would never sign his own initials.

He claims the joke fell flat and that he never wanted the intelligence job anyway, preferring to fight fair.

Keefe realises 'Cologne' lies behind the German lines, the letters were a gag by Alcock and Brady, and the party 'going that way' is the raid; now on it, he saves face by sneering at the jokers who are staying behind.

The jokers tell Simon the trenches opposite are empty; Keefe is glad they have someone besides himself to pick on and claims, implausibly, that he only pretended to fall for their gags. Next letter: another joke on Simon.

They boycott the store whose manager rejected him, and Keefe claims he is glad he 'turned down' the job after seeing how women jostle the floorwalkers; he dreads what present his wife has bought him.

Keefe urges Al's friends to bet on him. Next letter: a note from the heiress asks him to call in her home city and says she will be at the opening game; he retells the Dallas episode as if he had asked Gleason to tell her he was married.

No car now; he decides the car was a poor buy anyway, is relieved his wife does not know, demands the $100 option back, and loses three hits to a rookie.

Stunned, they first vow he will refuse to go, but with no jobs and under $200, they talk themselves into liking Philadelphia and its seaside, and his wife hopes to find work there.

Keefe declares himself delighted, predicts the young team will win several pennants, and plans to ask to pitch against both his old club and Detroit to show them their mistake.

Jack's remark to an old lady on the train becomes a team joke; at breakfast Callahan tells him bluntly that he isn't improving and won't field his position.

After the children's presents, Schaefer brings out a big parcel for Jack but makes him read his poem first.

Jack reads a patriotic poem of thanks, then unwraps the dirty dress shirt he thought had been stolen, still unwashed.

Jack tells them off and shuts himself in his cabin; Evans, who was probably in on it, blames jealous pitchers, and Jack vows to leave at Australia.

Callahan says three visitors must pay respects, and Jack, Evans and Schaefer lie on the stone floor making swimming motions; Evans invents vicious 'musk rats'.

The feared neighbour turns out to be a former groundskeeper and admirer who was too shy to speak; Keefe vows to get back at Shorty, and the objector is reassigned to handing out shoes.

He looks forward to his family's visit; when they come, a soldier tells his wife he is off polishing the general's shoes, which infuriates him.

Amid applause a sergeant seats him, then announces he is also a poet and reads aloud the valentine he wrote to the volunteer.

The crowd roars with laughter; Keefe insists the poem was not serious, assumes it was stolen from the volunteer, and vows revenge on the thief.

Too ill to hide it, he reports sick and awaits punishment, vowing to get the men who now call him by a mocking nickname.

The company paper lists him as wounded in action and mock-decorated by Shaffer for exposing spies, with a black eye, a red nose and cauliflower ears.

Dorgan and Miss Mulvihill announce their engagement and thank Keefe; the ring was bought with Dorgan's winnings on the fight. Keefe says he is glad to be rid of her, and teammates start calling him 'Jess'.

Shorty mocks the objector in the recreation room, offering to hold his weapon while he goes over; the objector says he does not mind dying, only killing, and walks out.

Keefe boasts of an April Fool prank on Alcock, a comrade anxious because his sweetheart back home, courted by a man who dodged the draft, has stopped writing.

He put an April Fool note in an old envelope from the girl and handed it to Alcock as new mail; Alcock, crushed, wants to hit him, and Keefe mocks his size.

Alcock vows revenge and stops speaking to him; Keefe claims not to care, then jokes about local matches that never light.

Keefe sometimes feels sorry enough for Simon to tip him off but does not want to spoil the fun; he complains that his wife has written only once in a month, with a thin excuse.

Simon has lost his last money; Keefe predicts the men will sell him their shaved whiskers next, and declares that he himself would never join such a 'skin game'.

Keefe considers warning Simon that he could be killed out there, but decides that if he is that simple he is better off dead. Next letter: Keefe announces that his wife has had a daughter he did not know was coming.

It emerges that while Keefe was announcing his daughter, Alcock told Simon to forget shell fragments and bring back a 'Saxon' from the shell holes near the German wire, without telling him what one was.

Kelly insults Jack for quitting a winner and the two nearly fight; Jack blames his fielders for losing to Venice, and Callahan sarcastically warns him not to overwork.

Hill threatens to throw at Jack's head, and Jack retorts with a joke he thinks is clever and explains laboriously to Al.

Before entering the mosque, Schaefer mocks Jack's big feet and Jack threatens to knock him out.

Schaefer compares Jack to the groundhog, and Jack calls him a hog and thinks he has won the exchange.

He fantasises about being the indispensable interpreter between generals once he is an officer; a joker says he had better learn English too, and he snaps back.

A joker, Alcock, needles him about the medals he will win, saying he would run from the enemy so fast he'd earn their decoration; Keefe threatens him.

Reading the forgery, the captain says he has been pranked again and should keep quiet; back in quarters Keefe threatens Alcock to forestall the laughter.

Back from a bad road trip, Jack says the other pitchers don't deserve their pay and suspects a teammate of losing a game for him out of spite.

Crossing the Mediterranean, Jack writes that someone on the trip tried to steal his scarab, and vows to report the thieves to the bosses.

Keefe laughed when the man was shoved under the shower, and Shorty warns him the man never forgives being laughed at; Keefe lies awake in fear.

He reads the man's silence as plotting; a famous visitor speaks to the whole camp; days later Keefe is still alive and claims he was never really laughing.

Caught asleep at breakfast, he complains of the madman next to him; the instructor laughs that the man is a conscientious objector, set to shovelling coal while he consults God.

He hints darkly that he is on the trail of something big and will soon expose a certain man.

He suspects a large, silent comrade, Shaffer, of being an enemy spy because of his German-sounding name and his silence.

Shaffer drops a page of a letter full of rows of crosses; Keefe reads it and takes the marks for cipher.

Keefe thinks the mother-in-law proves a lie, since Shaffer said he was unmarried; Alcock backs him, and an officer arranges a meeting with the captain.

He took the letters to the captain anyway and announced there was a traitor in the company; the captain said he would think him crazy.

His speech, quoted, is a boastful account of his career and his enlistment for the greatest game of all.

He tells a self-glorifying anecdote of winning a crucial game at his manager's plea.

His article, quoted, claims pitchers do the real thinking in baseball and begins an example from a game.

At the league meeting Keefe tells a former teammate he is quitting for business and boasts he always made him look foolish; the man retorts that Keefe was always knocked out of the game before he came up to bat.

Keefe blusters that he would flatten anyone who searched his bag; when he tells war stories, teammates who served at home keep saying the papers told it differently, until he snaps that he was actually there.

When Keefe compares the local railway to France, a teammate groans that the returned men's war stories will be inflicted on everyone for life; Gleason, irritated by the rain, snubs a talkative waiter.

Walking to the park, Belden turns every remark into a comparison with France, and the veterans mock him for it, joking that every returned soldier claims to have fought in the same famous battles.

At a newsreel a veteran keeps asking Belden if he was at each place shown, and mocks him when he claims them all. Next letter: Keefe boasts of pitching brilliantly against Houston.

Keefe mocks a returning teammate who claims to have fought everywhere in France, without noticing he does the same, and looks forward to seeing his children. Next letter: he has beaten Detroit.

Keefe wins his fourth straight and boasts of a clever retort to Cobb after a double play, claiming Cobb has always feared him.

In cold Cleveland Gleason saves Keefe for the Sunday crowd; the opposing manager tells the team about a raw young catcher who took three strikes and bragged that he had 'crossed' the other side's double play.

Keefe boasts of handling Ruth in Boston. Next letter: in Detroit, he expects to face Cleveland at home.

McGraw won't let Jack pitch and the White Sox win big; Jack sneers at cricket as a baby's game and is challenged to try it.

Jack bets two pounds that he can score five runs, with McGraw lending the stake, and explains the rules of cricket to Al as he understands them.

Jack is sure the bet is money in his pocket; next day he writes that the locals are robbers and he wants out of Sydney.

At the cricket ground Jack refuses practice, is told the rules, and faces his first delivery, which bounces oddly.

Winding up his swing, Jack knocks down his own wicket and is out; the opponent offers another chance, but McGraw insists Jack lost, and Jack calls it robbery.

Writing away from his noisy barracks, Keefe announces he will join the free language class, reasoning that those who speak the language abroad will have the advantage.

After one language lesson he opens his letter in the new tongue and claims it will be easy to learn.

He tells the instructor his throwing is wrong and is told the proper motion saves the arm; he bristles, then goes to bed early to set an example; the next letter describes trench-taking drill.

He quits the language class, claiming his leadership duties need his full mind and that the teacher pronounces the words wrongly.

He lies that he has played football to try out for the camp team, sneering that college men are soft and a born athlete can play any game.

He quits the football team, claiming it is beneath a corporal to mix with privates and bad for his duties, and that the team is hopeless anyway.

In truth he claimed to have played at an elite college, was put in, got kicked in the head in the first scrimmage, and quit; the next letter opens on rifle practice.

Alcock advises him to learn the language to speak at the war council; Keefe claims he already speaks it passably.

He adds that business would keep him home with his family, and brushes aside his lack of experience by pointing to his quick success in baseball and his rapid promotion to corporal, which he claims he declined to build on.

Marie urges Jack and Florrie to rent the furnished flat across the hall at forty dollars a month; Jack flatly refuses, saying no sister-in-law will tell him where to live.

Jack has taken the flat after all at an even higher rent, and explains to Al why it is a bargain and was his own sensible decision.

The reporter suggests he send patriotic verses that might become a hit song; Keefe says he was only stalling, since soldiers have better things to do.

He garbles the history of a national heroine and vows to bayonet enemies who fake surrender; next, with nothing to do, he decides to write the verses after all.

He copies out his clumsy patriotic poem for Al.

The editor asks for an article on pitching; Keefe says he is only stalling, since writing is childish, and recalls a reporter who mocked him after a loss.

He says the paper will get nothing from him and sneers that most of his comrades cannot spell.

He wrote the article anyway, claiming the editor misheard his refusal, and boasts that he drank heavily after his talk and was never caught.

Home in Chicago and discharged by the doctor, Keefe says his wounded arm is sound but weak, and announces that he has given up the idea of returning to baseball.

He argues that after the war baseball seems a baby's game, and that he should quit while young and start a business where he can rise to $15,000 a year without depending on his arm.

In a rainout the townspeople demand speeches, and Jack believes he got the loudest applause; he has not heard from Florrie.

Unable to sleep, Jack describes the banquet: stories and songs, then Schaefer introduces him as the long fellow and he begins his poem.

Jack believes the cheers were for his poem and plans to recite it to Florrie; Schaefer asks for another, and Jack admits he lies awake missing his family.

At a banquet given by Americans in Yokohama, Jack recites a new poem blaming his sore arm for his loss.

Jack recites a boastful poem at the Savage Club, believes he was the hit of the evening, and looks forward to McGraw's next present.

Jack blames the bosses' low pay for his defection, is glad Florrie is not there spending on hats, and recites another poem at a champagne-maker's dinner.

When the crowd rises, Jack bows, thinking it is for him; Evans says it was for the King's arrival.

He vows to keep away and blames fate for women always pursuing him; he agrees, after pretended reluctance, to give a talk at a camp entertainment.

Furious, he describes the camp entertainment: he was cheered as he began the talk he had written and memorised.

Evans chides Jack for buying nothing in Cairo, then pretends to muse aloud about a man he wonders if he could find.

Evans describes a street seller with a rare scarab from an ancient tomb, a lucky charm worth fifty dollars, offered for ten.

Evans suddenly suggests Jack is the man who should have it, warns the seller may be gone, and leads him to the street corner, where the man is still waiting.

The seller shows the 'scarab', which has changed colour since Evans saw it, explained as age; Jack wants it but has no money on him.

They arrange to return at seven; Jack borrows ten dollars from Callahan, who jokes about porous plasters.

Jack haggles the price down to $7.50, is congratulated by Evans, buys Evans a cigar, and is told to keep the charm secret.

Schaefer produces a handful of nickel fake scarabs and offers to sell Jack one; Jack proudly shows his 'real' $7.50 one.

Mixed with the fakes, Jack cannot pick out his scarab; Evans picks it out and tells him a real one stays silent when bitten while fakes squeak, and Jack's stays silent.

Keefe passes on Simon's craze for souvenirs to the jokers, who sell him a bottle of cigarette smoke as tear gas and two laths tied together as a piece of a famous airman's plane.

Brady and Phillips stage a show around a cracked, dirty pocket mirror, pretending it is a rare German prize, until Simon offers his last four francs down and six more on credit for it.

The team is beaten badly in Detroit and Keefe blames bad breaks; he has found a car for sale at $1,200, twice his budget, and believes the seller has taken a liking to him and will come down.

The Detroit car seller says another buyer will pay cash, but out of fondness for Keefe he will hold the car a week for a $100 option.

Out drinking with a fight promoter and a crowd of flattering sporting men, Keefe is given what they present as inside information about the coming heavyweight fight.

The tip is that the fight is fixed for the big champion to win so there can be a lucrative rematch, and that Keefe should bet heavily on him.

One of them offers a friend who will take any bet and accept Keefe's check; Keefe declines for now, hoping for better odds, and urges Al to bet quietly too.

Back at the hotel, teammates scoff at the tip; goaded, Keefe bets them $600 even money on credit, planning to buy the car without his wife's money and keep it from her.

The champion lost; Keefe refuses to blame his tipsters, insists the winner double-crossed everyone, and says that without their advice he would have backed the younger man.

On the eve of the season opener Jack pinches pennies on meal money and asks to pitch the first game; Callahan says he hopes not, which Jack doesn't understand.

Violet cries on the phone and Jack, half believing her, tells her he is engaged and hangs up; he then misses supper and grumbles over the twenty cents the evening cost him.

In New York teammates run up a tab and leave the country boy to pay a dollar for one round, and he is baffled when the waiter and hat-check boy expect tips.

Newly married to Florrie, Jack itemises the thirty dollars the wedding cost him and haggles with himself over the priest's fee.

Jack wasted sixty cents on a telegram and had to pay another sixty for Florrie's collect reply, and grumbles at her lack of judgement.

Evans tells Jack he must tip the whole crew and names tiny sums; Jack grumbles at the 'graft' and plans to tip a total of $1.10.

Jack describes the quiet Japanese crowd sitting on mats, buys no kimonos for Florrie, and plans to send her a basket of flowers given to the party's ladies.

Told he should tip the crew again, Jack decides his foreign money would be useless to them and writes a poem for the captain instead.

Jack marvels at wireless telegrams and says he would never pay fifty dollars just to tell Florrie he is well.

In Colombo Jack refuses to spend on hawkers and snake charmers, and says he is no cheapskate but wants value.

Jack asks Al to get the landlord in Bedford to cancel the lease on the house he no longer wants, hinting at a small sweetener only if necessary.

Jack blames Al for failing to get him out of the lease, and grumbles that Florrie made him pay for a second Thanksgiving dinner for the Allens.

Jack asks Al to lend him a hundred dollars; Al sends it, and Jack decides to rejoin the team after all, take Florrie, and ask Comiskey for another advance.

Jack says he'll sue for his salary if not released, reminds Al that he always treated him as an equal, and plans to skip the flat's rent until he is evicted.

Jack plans a big steak and pie as soon as he is free of Gleason; on payday he tells Al he cannot yet repay the seventy-five dollars.

Jack asks Al to arrange a cheap hack from the station and hopes Bertha will cook spareribs and sauerkraut.

Lipton gives the party tea, not coffee; Jack has no use for it, and offers it to Al and Bertha as their present, possibly for a price.

He says his wife will not need money, given his insurance and her business, but asks Al to visit her and check she is caring for their son.

He chides Al for rarely writing and condescends that nothing ever happens in Al's small town, while he is always at the centre of big events.

Keefe invites Al to come to Cincinnati for a World Series game he expects to pitch, offering to sell him one of his tickets and go drinking afterwards.

Jack tallies meal costs, resents Florrie's desserts, and feels obliged to go along when his brother-in-law Allen treats them to dinner.

Florrie and Marie shop for a new dress Jack thinks she doesn't need, and Jack sulks because a newspaperman gave Allen, not him, a free pass.

Florrie rejects the flat's furniture as not good enough, and they buy imitation walnut, new chairs and a leather couch.

The furnishings cost about $110, and Jack gave Florrie $200 to send her sister for a divorce; of his $1,400 he has about $800 left and says he should not worry.

Christmas shopping, Allen keeps the party downtown and ends up buying Marie a hundred-dollar diamond ring she points out in a window.

Florrie nearly cries that she never got a ring, so Jack cashes a check and buys her a cheaper one; he keeps the wristwatch he had bought to give her later so as to outdo Allen.

Jack sends Al an expensive glass dish and gets pincushions back; at New Year's Eve Allen orders five-dollar wine the women prefer, and Jack says he wanted to go home.

Jack refuses Florrie's and Marie's demand to hire a nurse so the women can attend the series, saying he cannot afford one or trust a stranger with the baby.

Florrie's letter is resentful: she says he abandoned them with $250 and asks for the other $250 because the bank is rumoured to be failing.

Jack takes Florrie's jibe about princesses as flattering jealousy, rereads the letter a dozen times, and sends a check for his last $250.

He finds his wife Florrie has run up big bills on clothes and hired a maid; she says she was tired of staying home or dragging the baby everywhere.

Christmas shopping, Keefe grumbles at his wife's lavish buying, which she says she pays for though the bills come to him; she proposes starting a pearl necklace for their baby daughter.

Keefe argues for buying pearls later and something breakable now, mocking the idea of a present that is hidden away; he loses the argument and the chain costs $47.50.

His wife suggests spending the raise on a car, citing the used car her new partners the Dumonts bought; Keefe stalls, scoffing at the cost and at the idea of her driving it.

Keefe pays the $100 option, assumes his wife will split the cost, and resolves she will never drive it; he declines a test drive, confident he can pick up driving like anything else.

Keefe asks his wife to pay half the $1,200; she agrees only if the car is jointly owned and she can drive it, and he refuses, saying he would not trust her with a lawnmower.

When he refuses to pay for her clothes and servant, Florrie says she will earn her own money and make more than he does; he scoffs at the idea.

He blames a sore arm for a bad game; Florrie cries until he hands her half his pay, and it turns out she has used it to open a beauty parlor with a partner.

He explains to Al what a beauty parlor does and Florrie's plan to catch neighbourhood women who have no time to go downtown.

Florrie secretly took lessons and her partner rates her highly; Keefe visits, sneers at the expenses and the lack of customers, and expects her to come back to him for money.

Florrie's business has already paid its expenses and some of its debts, and may need more staff; Keefe covers his surprise with jokes.

Florrie repays his loan and shows a handsome monthly profit; she is happier than before, and Keefe now boasts of her while he sits out games resting his arm.

His wife teases that she will hire him as the children's nurse if nothing else turns up; he jokes about the baby never sleeping and excuses himself from night duty on account of his arm.

His wife teases that if he goes back to earning a living she will have no dependent husband to keep her out of the next war; they joke, and Keefe vows to walk away if Gleason tries any 'monkey business'.

His wife goes home to run her beauty parlour; Gleason praises her business sense, notes she earns more than Keefe, and promises him a better contract only once he proves he will win games.

His wife's surprise is an offer to sell her own shop and buy a third of a downtown beauty parlour with a salary; Keefe advises against it but knows she will do as she likes, and grumbles that the children rarely see her.

Another story tells of a young pitcher who cursed himself after tripling because he could have walked. A letter from Keefe's wife says she has sold her shop and bought into the downtown parlour with her $2,000 savings.

Keefe predicts her new partners are sharpers who will take her money and squeeze her out, but says there is no use telling her. Next letter, late at night, he has had a run-in with her.

Keefe urges Al to leave his wife at home, saying wives are a nuisance on trips; he reports that his own wife, at odds with her partners, will sell out of the beauty parlour, which he welcomes as a woman's place is home.

Keefe complains his teammates never score for him; his wife has quit the partnership, recovering only about $250 and some salary, and they plan a party to celebrate her retirement.

The move home is postponed again while Jack pays rent on an empty house; he teases Florrie by mentioning Violet and Hazel and refuses to explain, and she threatens to leave for her sister's.

Jack is sure Florrie is bluffing about leaving and goes out for a beer; then he accepts the Allens' invitation to stay with them, fretting that he will end up paying for outings.

Florrie did stay the night at her sister's; Jack went after her and told her everything, yet writes as though she came back because he ordered her to and he is master of the house.

Jack tells Florrie about his failures; she cries that he is no good and wishes she had never married him, and he goes out to get drunk but cannot afford to.

Florrie phoned from the Allens', cried, apologised and told Jack a 'secret' that reconciled them, and Jack says let bygones be bygones.

Jack plans to take the baby and leave Florrie; days later he writes that they have made up, left the Allens for a hotel, and will winter in Bedford.

Jack says he'll take the baby; Florrie threatens to have him arrested and says she only wanted to watch her husband be cheered, and he relents.

A lawyer charges Jack ten dollars to tell him he cannot take the baby; he 'gives Florrie another chance', and they accept Al's invitation to stay with him.

The appeal is refused; he blames Florrie's beauty parlor, but when she cries he stays home with her and the boy in silence.

He scolds Florrie for gadding about, relents when she cries, then has his last hours eaten up by her friends and customers, whom he insults with sly jibes about their exempt husbands.

His wife explains the caller was the husband of a woman she dined with, and says she let him stay jealous because she liked it; Keefe claims he was only pretending, to make her give in, and plans a surprise celebration.

Jack expects Comiskey to raise him to three thousand and hints Al can wait for his money; two days later he writes that the club and Florrie have gone to California without him and he is broke.

Jack comes home to find Florrie gone, leaving a note that he cannot support her and Allen paid her fare to Texas; he asks Al for twenty-five dollars to come home and refuses Milwaukee.

From Chicago Jack announces he is staying with the White Sox after all, and that Florrie and the baby have gone ahead to California with the Allens.

Jack arrives at the flat to find no one home and the mailbox full of bills; a neighbour gives him Florrie's note.

Jack weeps on the steps; Florrie wrote that Allen lent her the fare, which Jack must repay, jabbed at him over foreign princesses, and said the baby needed his daddy.

The flat is filthy and a light has been left burning; Jack has to get change to use the phone, and has a drink.

On leave he goes home unannounced to surprise his wife, but finds the flat empty and learns she has taken the afternoon off.

He spends hours finding the janitor to let him in, and a neighbour only says his wife and son went out.

He waits, drinks a dozen beers, sleeps, and learns in the morning that his wife and son stayed overnight with friends after a show.

Home early after a win, Keefe finds his wife already gone to her new job; when she phones she has not read about his fifth straight win and seems uninterested, and in the evening she stays downtown for dinner with 'business friends'.

Jack mocks Allen's beating in relief and plans to move out and give Florrie her way; then he writes that he is through with her because he has been deceived.

Allen comes home drunk after a night out; they quarrel, and Allen hints that Florrie did not stay home with the baby.

Florrie breaks down: the club paid her fifty dollars to stay home, but she hired a nurse, went to every game with Marie, and faked the phone messages; Jack gets drunk overnight.

He fears Florrie will quickly remarry a man who would mistreat or coddle his son, and asks Al to urge her to live for his memory.

Keefe cannot eat alone, walks out of a stale picture show, keeps his promise to skip hard liquor, and comes home; a man phones asking whether Mrs Keefe got home, and hangs up when Keefe asks who he is.

Keefe coldly confronts his wife about the caller; she refuses to explain, points out that women call for him, says men can want to know her too, and shuts herself in her room calling him a baby.

Keefe slips away from warming up, summons her, and learns the man is her new partner, who owns two-thirds of the business and dresses women's hair; he threatens to punch him and is called back.

On the road, Jack frets because Florrie hasn't written about the baby, refuses to go out with the others, and complains he was started on short rest.

Allen says Marie reports the baby cries all night, which worries Jack more; he vows to go home without permission if the child is sick, then Florrie's letter arrives saying the baby is fine.

Jack misses the joke about the umpire; next day he says he may quit the trip if there is no letter at Yokohama, fearing Florrie or the baby is ill.

Evans jokes about the food stains on Jack's vest; on the eve of landing Jack is sure his wife and child are ill since others have had telegrams.

Jack has had no word from home since Yokohama and fears his family may be dead; he reports the farewell banquet and copies out his poem to the captain.

Still without mail, Jack plans to send Florrie cheap postcards only if she is alive; Evans says the Equator is usually below zero and hot only because of all the stars.

Jack beat the White Sox two to one, but the real joy was McGraw handing out mail at the hotel and calling his name for a letter from Florrie.

Jack looks forward to mail from Florrie at Naples; then in Naples he writes that he is exhausted from sightseeing.

There is no mail from Florrie again; Jack grumbles about a wife too busy to write, and is dragged by the others to Pompeii and Vesuvius.

The feared man also stays, which Keefe takes as proof of the plot; he spends all Sunday watching thousands of visiting families for his wife and son, who never come.

Florrie writes that she and the boy cried themselves to sleep thinking he no longer cared, then went to the ballgame; they will come next Sunday.

He jeers at enemy prisoners; a brief letter from Florrie says little about their son, much about her business, and includes a glamorous photo of herself.

The White Sox exercise an option and recall Jack; Hazel wants to come along and marry him at once, but he puts her off for lack of money and promises to send for her.

Jack asks Callahan to take him out because his baby may be alone; Callahan calls him a yellow dog and threatens to take his share of the money if he quits.

Jack writes that he has not come home as promised, says it will only be a few days, and fusses over whether he owes the hack driver anything for the ride he cancelled.

Jack has refused the world tour on grounds of family and cost, but agreed to stay for one exhibition game because Callahan says the fans want him; he hopes Bertha hasn't gone to trouble, while hinting he expects a good meal.

Jack is hammered in the exhibition and blames a sore arm and his fielders; McGraw needles him, and Callahan coaxes him into coming as far as the coast, which Florrie allows, leaving her in a hotel.

Jack writes that he will be going on the whole world trip after all and will not see Al this winter.

The next day Jack says he has changed his mind and will go back to surprise Florrie and look after the baby himself.

He looks forward to seeing his family and cancels their planned visit; a long run leaves him exhausted and crippled by badly fitting shoes.

Brushing it off, he says he will take his leave this time no matter what, since they may ship out soon and he has a feeling he will not come back.

In the quiet port Keefe still flinches at imagined guns; besides his wounds, he is being sent home to help promote the Liberty Loan as a popular hero, and agrees so he can be with his family.

Drunk, Jack threatens to hit Marie; Allen slaps him, they fight, and all are thrown out; Jack is sick for days and claims he gave Allen a beating.

Florrie paid the whole restaurant bill with Jack's money; soon Allen and Marie move into the Keefes' spare room, and Jack hires a maid so they can all go out every night.

Allen is taking Marie on the spring trip; Jack refuses to take Florrie, calls the Allens grafters, and wonders where to leave her while he is away.

Jack asks Allen for a hundred-dollar loan; Allen refuses because he is saving to take his wife on the trip, and Jack rages that Allen has lived on him all winter.

In the clubhouse Allen offers his hand and urges Jack to write to Florrie; Jack says he will get a lawyer and sue her for divorce.

Jack repays Al's seventy-five dollars and boasts of his eastern trip; Florrie is back, and they live rent-free in the Allens' spare room.

Allen, kept awake, insults the baby; next morning he demands that Jack pay for a summer of free room and board, saying he never meant the invitation as a life sentence.

Jack accuses Allen of grafting first and plans to move out after the series; Florrie won't go to Bedford, and says she will use Bertha's handmade dress as a dishrag.

At breakfast Florrie and Marie quarrel over the baby's crying and Allen's snoring and who is grafting; Marie orders them out, and Florrie proposes they pack and leave together.

Callahan presses Jack to make the whole trip for the sake of the foreign crowds and asks where Allen is; Jack hides Allen's whereabouts out of spite and half wishes he were not married.

Florrie has made up with the Allens and wants them to share a flat again; Jack insists on Bedford and falsely tells Allen, who asked to join the tour, that there is no room.

Jack won't come home for the holidays and invites Al instead, while awkwardly signalling that Florrie would rather Al's wife Bertha stayed away.

Bertha has declined the invitation, feeling they are too grand for her; Jack protests that she has taken offence at nothing and admits Florrie wanted the holidays over.

He proposes his wife travel home with a fellow soldier's working-class wife; Florrie snobbishly refuses and takes a different train to avoid her.

He condescends to his neighbour about his plain wife, then finds she sent a feast of home baking while Florrie brought a cheap box of melted candy.

He admits his wife always snubbed Al and his wife as beneath her, but reports she once called Al an honest, dependable sort, and asks Al to carry out his last wishes.

Florrie has had a baby boy, named Allen, whom Jack secretly considers named for Al; he is overjoyed at having a real family despite the bills.

The doctor says the baby seems left-handed, and Jack storms out, vowing to find another doctor to fix it.

Jack is sure the month-old baby smiled at him; Florrie says it was wind, and they bicker until she walks out.

When the baby cries at Allen, Jack takes it as proof the child knows its father; Florrie refuses to come and soothe it and tells him to stop fussing and eat.

Jack skips breakfast to sit with the crying baby, faults Florrie for not knowing babies, and plans to win quickly so he can hurry home to the child.

Alone with the baby, Jack piles on blankets, and when the baby cries he adds more, sure it has colic.

The doctor says the baby is simply too hot, charges two dollars and leaves; when the crying resumes Jack fetches a second doctor, who finds nothing wrong.

Jack plans to show up the Giants on the trip and is determined to wake the baby to say goodbye.

Jack cannot sleep for excitement about seeing Florrie and the baby, now nearly nine months old.

Florrie packs his things for camp; his small son asks to go with daddy, and Keefe imagines the boy will someday brag about his father.

The news came from his sister-in-law, whom he dislikes and hopes the cook will outlast; he is thrilled, forbids his wife to name the baby without him, and urges Al and Bertha to adopt an orphan.

At a rooftop ball a girl says she took him for the shortstop from his dancing, which Jack takes as praise; he still thinks of Violet, then tours a prison and leaves Manila.

Jack has the Governor feel his muscles, lectures him on physique, and says women pester him, so Lady Dennis laughs and walks away before he can explain.

Scott claims a croupier asked if Jack carried a charm; Jack rides in the carnival parade in uniform and says pretty girls ogled him, though he is a married man.

He persuades himself the note was meant for him personally by an admirer, decides it would be wrong to answer as a married man, and asks Al to keep it secret.

He racks his memory of women he met on tour and cannot place her; he wavers between confessing and silence, and gloats that the college team lost.

Carson claims the pretty volunteer, but Keefe is sure she only has eyes for him and mocks Carson's French; Carson retaliates by asking loudly about Keefe's wife.

The volunteer chats with them; when told who Keefe is, she says she wonders if she ever saw him play, and he boasts of the teams he humiliated.

He tells himself she is taken with him, that they would make a good pair, and resolves nobly to stay away to spare her.

He complains of monotony and no mail; next, he runs into the volunteer again, and her teasing questions make him think she is getting personal.

He frets that the café girl is falling for him, claims he only meant to cheer her, and decides the lessons must stop.

Keefe takes the letter as proof of his charm, plans to tell her he is married but can be her pal, and decides he is as much a lady-killer as the chicken hawk.

Keefe believes fate has arranged the meeting, hopes the girl will not fall too hard for him, and again begs Al to keep it from the women back home.

Leaving the hospital, Keefe imagines the pretty nurse heartbroken over him and reminds himself he is a married father; he says his wound is a better souvenir than Simon's fakes. Next letter: he is home in Chicago.

Keefe says he has resolved to tend to business, but describes at length a pretty heiress staying with her invalid mother who gave him a look, and whom he pointedly ignored.

Keefe fumes that Belden stole a ride meant for him and imagines the girl mortified, threatening anyone who teases her.

Dorgan envies Keefe his money, wife, children and home; Keefe jokes that he will pass on the next girl who makes eyes at him, and pities the lonely bachelor.

At the roadhouse Keefe entertains the table while Dorgan sits tongue-tied; Keefe pays the bill and makes a gallant remark, which he takes as winning the young woman's heart.

Miss Mulvihill rides home on Keefe's lap with his wife's leave; when he asks her opinion of Dorgan, she says 'Why don't you speak for yourself, John?', which he takes as a declaration. His wife gives him the silent treatment.

At supper Dorgan keeps dancing with Miss Mulvihill, which Keefe believes she only endures; she asks where the team will stay on the trip, and Keefe says it is best for her that he is going away.

Dorgan talks of nothing but Miss Mulvihill and asks Keefe's help winning her; Keefe pities them both, sure she loves him, and decides his family must come before helping his friend by bowing out.

Keefe predicts a win in New York. Next letter: he calls himself a matchmaker, and repeats that the young woman has fallen for him without any encouragement.

Miss Mulvihill replies only 'Tell Mr. Dorgan the same thing I told you once, why don't he speak for himself'; Dorgan's face falls, and Keefe, still misreading it, hopes she will get over him.

Hazel asks Jack for a hundred dollars; he sends thirty, accepting her excuse that a friend borrowed her money, while a tear-blotted letter from Violet protests her innocence.

Jack wins in Boston, blames teammates for the hits, and sends Violet his next address; in New York he reads a paper saying he was lucky and threatens to punch the reporter.

Jack's single drives in the only run and he escapes a bases-loaded ninth; Callahan calls him a real pitcher, and Jack sends a pitying postcard to Violet while wondering why Hazel hasn't written.

In a pair of donated knitted socks he finds a note from a lonely woman in a distant state asking a soldier to write to her.

He writes the woman after all, saying the socks fit, not mentioning his wife, and asking for her photograph, telling himself it is kindness.

The woman writes back ardently but refuses to send a photograph or say where she saw him; Keefe says he must now tell her he is married.

Her letter, copied out: she is proud he is an officer, coyly will not say where they met, will not send a photo, and asks whether he could be posted near her.

He wishes for a plain, attentive wife; he writes the woman again, still not mentioning his marriage, and hints he is too busy to write.

He says a woman belongs at home and he will never surprise anyone again; the next letter reports the stranger still writes, and he fears she may harm herself over him.

He decides not to reply to her, then complains bitterly of a nineteen-mile march on the coldest day of the year.

He writes the woman his new address, pretending it is so the photo is not misdirected, and jokingly suggests they might meet in town.

He agrees to meet her, telling himself he will break the news of his marriage face to face and that it would be a shame to waste the sweater she knitted.

He flirts with her, claims he went to an elite college, and lets his poem fall from his pocket so she asks to see it.

She calls him a poet and asks to keep the verses; he tells her to pretend he wrote them for her and promises her a real valentine.

He gives the volunteer a sentimental valentine poem, reproduced in full, telling himself it would disappoint her if it were comic.

He has an artist friend decorate it with hearts, hands it over, and tells himself it is really a gentle farewell between the lines.

He strikes a bargain with a girl at a café to trade language lessons, and worries she is already falling for him.

He broods over what his neglectful wife may be doing, and tells himself that if he kisses the café girl, it will be his wife's fault.

Keefe copies out his letter asking 'Miss Antoinette' to show him around, boasting of his tall athletic build; he tells Al it is only a way to kill time and nothing will come of it.

Keefe decides there are other girls besides his neglectful wife, resolves to enjoy himself if sent to 'Cologne', and writes the girl a friendly letter with French words in it.

His letter, signed 'Your Sammy Boy', asks her to save her loving for him; he admits that writing keeps his mind off the lost patrol he so nearly joined.

Keefe begs Al not to tell his own wife what follows, justifying himself because Florrie has written only three letters in four months; Brady reports that a lieutenant says their leave will be in 'Cologne'.

The heiress teases him in banter he enjoys; he takes her to a picture show and plans a drive, telling himself a rest will do him good and that he will get serious when the team returns.

Keefe resents Gleason ruling his private life but keeps quiet; he describes a whole Sunday driving with the heiress, and justifies beating the single Belden to her because she finds Belden tiresome.

As the team prepares to move on, Gleason teases Keefe about starting his goodbyes early; Keefe gloats privately that the heiress and her mother will be in Dallas while the team is there.

Keefe resolves to hide the heiress's coming visit from Gleason, calling the warnings nonsense. Next letter: he says he cannot work under Gleason any longer after what happened in Dallas.

He got leave and went to the hotel; the only woman alone was about thirty-five, and when she asked if he was the man she expected, he denied it.

An old acquaintance hails him loudly by name, exposing him; then his wife and son appear, having come down to surprise him for the holiday.

Leaving with his family, he sees the woman staring after him; he lectures that she should have known better, and asks his wife for a sweater as a present.

Excused from rifle practice for sore feet, he visited the café girl and kissed her, was caught by her furious father, and bought him off with a banknote.

He meets his baby daughter; told the sister-in-law has left, and that his wife calls the baby Marie, he proposes the name Charlotte, and his wife instantly guesses it belongs to one of his nurses.

Caught out, Keefe says the name he really wanted was his wife's own, and the baby is named Florrie; he notes the Germans are now retreating since his old regiment went into battle, and says he cannot leave home anyway.

Gleason overhears Keefe being paged for the heiress's call, catches him in a string of lies about his evening plans, and ends up coming along to the picture show himself.

Over sodas Gleason praises Keefe's sweet wife and asks for pictures of his wife and children, exposing him to the girl; walking home he says only that Keefe pitches tomorrow, and Keefe claims he was about to tell her himself.

Keefe squeezes Miss Mulvihill's hand when she seems frightened, boasting he would sort out the brawlers, and stops only when he catches his wife watching.

Jack plans to look up the blonde, Violet, in Detroit; in his first poker game with the team he wins a pot with four sevens against Kelly and immediately quits.

Jack's first real appearance is one inning in a hopeless game; he walks the first man, then retires three batters and brags about it.

A big beer-loving fan named Hazel picks Jack up, steers the talk to marriage, and after several beers he proposes; she immediately asks what he earns and says it is not enough.

Back in Chicago Jack wants revenge on Detroit and on Violet; Gleason asks what he learned, and when Jack sneers at the great Walter Johnson, Gleason concludes he learned nothing.

Jack asks Al to rent him the yellow house next door for married life with Hazel, and boasts the White Sox would have won the pennant if he had been there all season.

Jack rhapsodises about marrying Violet in the little yellow house; a day later he writes that he has lost all interest in the game because his heart is broken.

Violet is engaged to Detroit's left-hander Joe Hill, whom Jack sneers at; he asks Al to get him out of the lease and talks of leaving the country in despair.

The landlord won't cancel the lease; Jack is to pitch the deciding game, grudgingly goes to Allen's to play cards where the wife's sister is visiting, and admits drinking before breakfast over Violet.

Jack goes to a show with Allen, his wife and her sister Florence, and the next day announces he and Florence will marry tomorrow; he wants the house after all.

Florrie delays the move home to stay near her sister, and complains that Jack wouldn't pay extra for a hotel room with a bath.

The landlord won't release Jack from the lease; he threatens to punch the old man, then agrees with Florrie that a star should not quarrel over small sums.

Al invites Florrie to stay with him and Bertha; Jack gushes with gratitude, then writes that Florrie has declined.

Jack is down to fifty dollars, behind on rent and the maid's wages; Florrie suggests he ask Comiskey to take her along as the club's guest, and he gets an advance that is already owed.

No one will lend Jack money and Gleason is away; Florrie and Marie cry, and Jack goes drinking for hours to avoid the Allens.

The league president confirms that Comiskey sold Jack to Milwaukee improperly, since Detroit had put in a late claim; Jack gloats, though he learns Comiskey still owns him.

Jack gloats about how Violet will regret marrying Joe Hill once she sees Jack starring for her husband's club, and plans to punch Hill if he speaks.

Jack wants Florrie to sue him for divorce so that it costs him nothing, and would pay her at most a hundred dollars.

Jack dodges the rent collector, abandons the flat and its furniture, and arrives at the training camp, where Gleason greets him with a punch in the stomach.

In a San Francisco cafe Hazel and her prizefighter husband invite Jack over; she mocks his stinginess, he brings up the thirty dollars she kept, and the husband threatens him.

Jack blames poor support and illness for being hit, and grumbles that Callahan did not bring him home a day early to rest for the opener.

Warned that Florrie could sue him for non-support, Jack sends her ten dollars; he refuses to talk to Marie, and notes that the newly married Benz pitched a shutout.

Warming up in Detroit, Jack sees Violet in the stands and exchanges smiles, notices Joe Hill will oppose him, and trades a quip with the Detroit manager.

Jack presses Gleason to come and see the baby; Gleason jokes that the child is out of luck, then agrees to come if Florrie is kept away.

Gleason picks the baby up, which Jack has never dared do, and keeps joking; Jack fusses about the soft spot on the baby's head.

Gleason approves of the baby not being named after the left-hander, jokes about the boy's future, and flees when he sees the wives coming.

With the pennant lost, Jack is left home to rest for the city series he will open; he mentions that Allen, losing, has been nasty to everyone.

The baby cries through the night and Jack and Florrie bicker over whether milk is upsetting his stomach.

Jack stays home with the baby while the others go to a show, sure no one else can look after the child; Florrie warns him not to go to the baby every time it cries.

Jack doses the baby with Allen's stomach medicine; the second doctor calls him a fool, the baby falls asleep, and Jack credits himself.

Florrie scolds Jack for nearly killing the baby, Allen jeers, and Jack mocks Allen's pitching; he tells Al there is no room for him to visit during the series.

Reassured by phone messages that the baby is fine, Jack pitches a shutout and claims credit for the whole club's winnings.

The series is won; Jack credits the phone messages for his form and praises Florrie for sacrificing her pleasure to stay with the baby.

Only the dateline of a new letter: Chicago, October 18, the day Jack had promised to arrive home in Bedford.

Jack boasts that the Giants will wish he had gone home before the exhibition, because his arm feels great.

Hurriedly, Jack writes that he is going west with the touring teams as far as the coast, and blames the Giants' luck for the exhibition result.

On the tour train, Jack notes that stars from other clubs have joined and says that with them behind him he would never lose.

A short sign-off: Jack may pitch in Kansas City tomorrow because it is a big town, and must write to Florrie.

After Jack beats the Giants twice, McGraw asks him to pitch for the Giants on the whole tour; Jack thinks McGraw has stopped kidding and now respects him.

Back in San Francisco, Jack contrasts his return as a star with his time there as a busher, and expects a huge crowd.

A short note before the San Francisco game: Jack wishes Al could hear the fans roar when his name is announced.

Callahan and McGraw spin a tale that President Wilson says Japan will declare war unless Jack comes; they wire Florrie, who agrees on condition she can live with the Allens and have half his savings, and Jack gives in.

Jack says a fond goodbye to Al and promises letters and postcards, and apologises to Bertha that they will not come this winter.

Rain cancels the games; Jack believes Comiskey called them off to protect him, and regrets the forty-five dollars he borrowed for an evening suit he will never wear.

When Jack backs out, Callahan and McGraw say the tour will be cancelled and war may follow, and the others take their side; Jack gives in so as not to spoil everyone's plans.

In a postscript Jack says that if they survive the crossing he will ask to pitch the first game in Japan and make his rivals wish the boat had sunk.

On board ship, Jack begins a running letter to Al; he recalls Florrie saying she prefers postcards since his letters never contain a check, and resolves to send her picture postcards.

Jack has been bedridden for two days; the ship's doctor says everyone is seasick, but Jack insists something he ate in Seattle poisoned him.

Still queasy, Jack cannot keep down the lavish food in the dining room, which he compares to going up to bat without a bat.

Jack mocks the others for their weak stomachs; Schaefer mocks his poison story back; Jack grumbles at having to dress for dinner every night.

Jack marvels at the empty ocean, recalls his hit off Walter Johnson, and admits he would like to see Florrie and the baby even if they were cross.

Jack beats others at shuffleboard on his first try and says it proves he is a natural athlete at everything.

Jack admires himself in his ill-fitting evening suit, which won't button over his stomach and is held shut with laundry tacks; Callahan makes him change out of yellow shoes.

Seasick again, Jack wants to sue for his 'poisoning'; Schaefer says a sarcastic namer would call Jack a ball player, and Jack takes it as a compliment.

Evans explains the date line and tells Jack to change his dates; Jack refuses, fearing confusion with Florrie over dates and the baby's birthday, and laughs along at Evans's jokes.

Jack's clumsy poem about the voyage toasts the bosses and promises his best to Callahan next season.

Jack says they nearly died in the last few days, his 'poisoning' has returned, and he has only now learned they were attacked.

After a storm, Jack is told that Evans saved the ship from a school of sharks by ringing a bell, because they thought recess was over; Jack believes it and wants to chip in for a present.

Schaefer says everyone else has had telegrams, alarms Jack, quotes an absurd price for one, and invents an overland railway route home through Russia, Jerusalem and Cuba.

Schaefer jokes about Jack's dirty dress shirt; Jack says he will go home from Yokohama if there is no mail, and is thrilled to be in the moving pictures of the party.

Tossing a ball on deck, Schaefer bets a dollar that Jack's fastest throw won't hurt his hand, ducks it, and claims the win; Jack refuses to pay.

Evans claims to have sailed to the North Pole and teaches Jack fake Japanese phrases, including an insulting one, which Jack passes on to Al.

In Yokohama Jack tips the captain a dime and takes his thanks at face value; Callahan has checked on his family, so Jack stays on the trip.

Jack skips the evening out because his arm hurts and thinks he should see a doctor.

Jack must write another poem for a banquet and mocks the idea of telegrams at sea; Callahan reports that Florrie and the baby are well and she says not to hurry home.

Jack believes his poem brought down the house; he oversleeps, sneers at the college team and the other pitchers, and mocks others for making excuses.

At Nagasaki Jack watches whole families passing coal onto the ship and is struck that men make their wives and children work.

Jack refuses to buy souvenirs and teases Schaefer; Schaefer wraps the flowers with a note in three languages asking the mail carriers to water them.

Schaefer and Evans teach Jack insulting pidgin 'Chinese' phrases, which he proudly passes on, and he resolves to stuff himself before arriving.

After one day in Shanghai, Jack is glad to be leaving China and refuses to eat any local food.

Rain cancels the Shanghai game just as Jack is to pitch, and he decides Callahan called it off because he feared Jack.

Jack insists Callahan will run out of excuses, and says he is glad the opposing side is mostly borrowed players, not his own club.

Schaefer tells Jack the sandwiches are poison ivy and the cake icing is laundry soap, so Jack goes hungry; Jack's 'goodbye' in pidgin alarms Callahan, and Jack thinks Callahan is the fool.

Jack's clumsy farewell poem thanks the captain and crew and forgives any mistakes they made.

Jack thinks the captain was choked up and the women wept at his poem; in Hong Kong everyone is vaccinated against smallpox, and he frets over catching it.

Jack's dress shirt has vanished and he borrows Callahan's; Evans jokes that whoever took it must feel worse.

Evans tells Jack his Japanese yen are worth four times as much in Manila, and Jack refuses to sell them to Evans; he is excited to pitch and hopes for a letter.

Only a sign-off and dateline: Jack, on board, December 19.

The White Sox win again the next day in the rain, and Jack says Callahan would have cancelled it if Jack could have pitched.

Evans's tours of Manila are all nonsense, and he tells Jack to buy winter gear for crossing the Equator; Jack learns in the shop that his yen are not worth more after all.

Jack sees volcanoes and says he would never live near one; Evans says it is no worse than playing right field in St. Louis.

At the Equator Jack bundles up in sweater, overcoat and blanket on Evans's advice and nearly roasts, while Schaefer tells a tale of a stomach driven into a man's throat by the jolt.

Only a sign-off and dateline: Jack, on board, December 24.

On Christmas Day Jack denounces his companions as cheap and smart alecks, and wants to quit the trip at Australia.

Evans suggests Jack become a newspaper writer and publish his poems, so he could get back at his tormentors in print.

Evans's jokes about Jack's brains fly past him; Jack considers opening a billiard hall and resolves to go home to his family.

At Thursday Island Jack spends time only with Evans, who tells him pearls are shrimp-like fish that bite only in May and August.

Jack rails that no one thanks him, he gets no mail, and his companions are no good, and vows to take the first train home from Australia.

Evans brings McGraw to Jack, and McGraw says he had nothing to do with the shirt and that quitting would hurt him unfairly.

McGraw says he needs Jack to win before English lords at Brisbane and promises him a present for every win.

Jack decides McGraw is square, wishes he could work for him permanently, and will stay on if McGraw keeps his promise.

Jack sees fruit growing on trees at Cairns and muses over wasted money on bruised bananas; next letter, he is in high spirits after Brisbane.

Reassured, Jack says he would not have minded losing; McGraw's promised present turns out to be a soft wrinkled shirt, which Jack admires.

Jack wishes all managers were like McGraw; before the game McGraw tells him to finish fast so the party can eat, and to stop talking and show him something.

Jack pitches a quick, strong game, allowing one run he blames on a fielder, and looks forward to his next present.

Jack insults the Australian, who insults him back; McGraw claims he winked a warning Jack missed, and Jack now owes McGraw ten dollars.

In Melbourne Jack beats the White Sox again, and thinks his real value to the tour is in entertaining the dignitaries.

Schaefer asks for a poem for a club dinner, then explains away the shirt prank with a tale that a ship's officer stole the new shirt they had bought him.

Jack believes the story, shakes hands with Schaefer, and agrees to write the poem; the party lunches with the mayor and goes to tea with the Governor.

Leaving Adelaide, Jack is terrified; Schaefer pretended to faint when a crewman mentioned tomorrow's Great Australian Bight.

Schaefer hints darkly that the Bight is a million times worse than a flea bite.

Jack tries to borrow a catcher's mask, but the catchers refuse, being in on the joke; Callahan needles him, and Jack vows to carry a mask on future trips.

Jack dreads losing his nose and not daring to face Florrie; Evans proposes that a good hitter swat the bug with a bat.

McGraw's latest present is a razor, which Jack says he may use on his throat if bitten; at Fremantle he reports he is exhausted but the bug bit nobody.

Jack hid in his cabin the whole time; others claim to have seen the bug, and they joke about who is lucky, and Speaker says Jack is lucky the dogcatcher missed him.

A new danger looms for the nine days in the Indian Ocean, and Jack would go home if Australia were not an island.

Evans says Jack's hard head is safe, which Jack takes as praise of his courage; Jack decides the bosses hid these dangers to get him on the trip.

Jack totals nearly a hundred dollars spent and owed on a trip that pays him nothing, and curses the bosses and the tour.

Jack has stayed in his stifling cabin for three days rather than risk the birds on deck.

Evans teaches Jack a crude minstrel-dialect 'African language' to use if lost, and they practise it together.

Jack imagines impressing Florrie with all his languages and says travel teaches more than college.

Evans advises being on deck for the bump, so Jack decides to risk the hawks to protect his arm; Schaefer suggests he could learn to throw left-handed.

Jack and others haul on a rope to 'lift' the ship over the Equator; the rope gives way, he falls, everyone laughs, and he credits himself with the smooth crossing.

Schaefer asks Jack for a poem for lunch with Sir Thomas Lipton in Colombo and suggests he tease him about losing boat races and hint for free tea and coffee.

Schaefer 'forgets' to call on Jack at the Lipton dinner, so Jack hands Lipton a written copy of his poem, which begs for free coffee.

Schaefer tells Jack that the Red Sea is the one Moses crossed; Jack thinks this is a trick and threatens to punch him.

Schaefer flatters Jack's shrewdness and puns on red and read; Jack brushes him off and wishes they had stopped for free coffee instead.

Jack sends postcards addressed to his infant son to make Florrie laugh, then describes the grand hotel at Heliopolis and the Pyramids and Sphinx.

McGraw tells Jack his luck will come; Jack wishes he could pitch for McGraw always, and says he pitched only because the Khedive was watching.

Jack tries his minstrel 'African' on an Egyptian notable, who answers in plain English, and Jack takes this as proof his accent is good; he still wants McGraw's present for pitching on bad grounds.

Jack watches a game from the stands, blames the Giants' failure to score for his tie, and tries his 'language' on locals, who ask if he is from the American South.

The party is filmed crossing the desert and at a mosque; Jack rides a mule, disapproves of women riding camels, and repeats Evans's garbled explanations of Islam.

Speaker gives Jack a fez and says he would never buy one himself; Jack is doused in perfume and sneers at the men who primp for women.

Jack must write another poem for the consul's party and expects to be home in a month; then he dashes off a letter saying his bad luck is over.

Evans says he passed on the scarab because he needs no luck and the charm cannot be resold, adding a detail that makes it seem more authentic.

Jack promptly tells Doyle and Donlin, dismisses horseshoes and clovers as superstition, and argues the scarab must be genuine because it is expensive.

Jack hides the scarab and awaits his next game; at the consul's party he recited a poem blaming the sand for his tie.

Jack's poem thanks the consul; Schaefer calls it his best yet; Jack looks forward to trying the scarab and showing up Allen and the lucky left-handers.

Someone rattles Jack's cabin door at night; Evans says it was a thief after the scarab, and Jack puts it in the purser's safe, taking the attempt as proof it is real.

The teams are given bronze statues of nude athletes, and Jack jokes about them and about crowds.

The mayor at first forbade baseball as too rough until Callahan and McGraw explained it, and then it rained.

Jack skipped the ruins and an audience with the Pope to spare his evening suit, and Evans says he had to lie to the Pope that Jack was sick.

Schaefer says Rome's rains are named, like the 'rain of Nero', and Jack jokes about playing in a flooded Rome.

In Nice McGraw saves Jack for Paris; at Monte Carlo, with the scarab in his pocket, Jack bets a dollar on red at roulette.

Jack wins on red twice, pocketing half each time despite Evans urging him to let it ride.

Jack wins four dollars, quits just before black comes up, reckons the scarab has half paid for itself, and hears the proprietor was relieved to see him go.

Jack pays $3.72 to cable Tinker his acceptance, cutting out the request to hire Evans and Schaefer.

The poem ends with praise for home; then from London Jack writes bitterly about lucky players.

Donlin tells Jack the English cheer an ordinary catch because cricket fielders rarely make one, and Jack believes it.

Jack decides the man Evans pointed out was not the King because he looked ordinary, and sneers at crowd figures for cricket and football.

On Evans's tip, Jack hid the scarab in a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth to dodge customs, nearly choking, while others paid duty.

In New York the party is welcomed with a parade; Speaker re-signs with Boston, which Jack thinks is foolish, and Jack recites a patriotic poem.

McGraw gives Jack cigars and says he wishes he could have him always; Jack pities him, still believing the defection stories, and wires Florrie that he is coming home.

On the eve of the season Keefe tells Al he has never felt better and will carry the club to the pennant, if the manager stops playing favourites.

The country has declared war; Keefe airs belligerent opinions about the enemy and folds his grudge against umpires into them.

The draft law passes; Keefe assumes married men are safe and swallows the coach's joke that left-handers are exempt, sneering at them as lucky cowards.

Keefe jokes to the coach that he stole the money; then he and the coach are both ordered off the field for heckling the umpire, and Keefe mocks the coach's age afterwards.

He begrudges a teammate the praise for a shutout; then he registers for the draft, imagining that the crowd there is thrilled to see him.

He tries to get his sore arm recorded as a disability but the clerk ignores it; he grumbles the whole thing wastes his time and jokes about the maid's accent on the phone.

In a tied inning he walks a batter and uses the coach's line on the umpire, who says he must have read it in a book.

He dreams of the series money; then, the day after losing a game, his draft number comes up fifth in the national drawing.

He tells Al he ought to be glad to go if drawn, then reports his own summons to the exemption board.

He claims exemption for his wife and child and loyalty to his employer, and is told to bring his wife's sworn statement; the next letter opens complaining of back-biters.

A sympathetic board member warns him that an anonymous letter reports his wife's income, and that a false affidavit could send them both to prison.

He tells Florrie a married woman's place is at home and she must sell; she proposes keeping the business until they see how the appeal goes, and they both choke up.

At the appeal hearing he admits his wife's income and says she spends it all on clothes; he tells Al he is secretly glad he was refused.

The coach praises him sincerely, the owner cancels the sale, and Keefe pitches a shutout, feeling he has had the last laugh on everyone.

He consoles himself for missing his old club's big payday with fantasies of future glory, and describes a tearful farewell at the station where his son did not cry.

The first days are spent cleaning up the grounds; at the medical exam Keefe covers for the camp-wide hangover by blaming the sandwich again.

He is issued an ill-fitting uniform and interviewed about his civilian work; others angle for soft jobs by claiming useful skills, which he says he disdains.

Shorty tells him the whisperer is a mad gunman; on inspection day Keefe is proud that he looks perfect and escapes the officers' scolding.

He announces that he has learned neither of his feared neighbours is dangerous after all.

The man he trusted to phone his wife admits he forgot, because his own baby was born that day; Keefe barely restrains himself from hitting him.

The general praises the unit, they dig practice trenches, and a soldier, Red, passes on a tall tale from his brother on the commander's staff that they will be first to ship out.

Red spins outlandish rumours about their route; Shorty mocks him, and Red turns the joke back on Shorty.

After a lecture on gas, he boasts of sacrificing his series share for his country and hints he has a secret scheme to double his pay.

His scheme: allot his whole pay to Florrie so the government matches it, then have her send it back; he justifies it as his due for his sacrifice.

He dismisses a training film as fake; Red tells him of a reformed troublemaker who was made a corporal as a reward.

The reformed man came back drunk and late from leave and was reduced to private; Red suggests some men want to be busted to escape responsibility, and flatters Keefe as a born leader.

Keefe concludes the man was unfit to lead and resolves to set a good example to his own squad.

A famous actress visits the camp and the men crowd round her; Keefe sniffs that she is old and says he would not trade his wife for a dozen like her.

Ordered to learn group singing, thousands of men refuse to sing for the instructor, then roar songs all the way back to quarters.

A troop train of transferred men, including the joker Shorty, was nearly wrecked; Keefe scoffs that no spy would bother with such riffraff.

His unit is being transferred to a camp in a warmer state; he is glad to escape the cold and hopes his wife can visit.

He realises the new camp is in the woman's state and resolves not to tell her, though he has just asked for her picture; he hopes to rise quickly at the new post.

Her letter, copied out: she will come to the city and meet him at a hotel for dinner, and threatens to make him sorry if he disappoints her.

Aboard a troopship, Keefe begins a series of letters to mail on landing, boasting that Al will get the real story from an eyewitness instead of cowardly reporters.

He explains he may not say where they sailed from, lest spies alert the enemy, and implies the ship's cargo of men is precious.

He describes the convoy and its escort ships, and decides the secrecy rules are only needed because some fools would blab.

His wife did not come east to see him off, citing the cost; he jokes sourly about her dressing up for his funeral, then explains a slang word for food.

Lee warns him that a censor will read his letters and tells him the censor rides on the lead ship, the censor ship; Keefe believes it.

He complains the slow lead ship holds up the convoy; next, Lee dubs him Jack Tar after he boasts that his world tour makes him immune to seasickness.

He is proud of the nickname and laughs at the seasick; Lee needles him that the navy kept its need for men secret until the draft took the good ones.

The silent roommate, Smith, is said to be a former restaurant waiter and will teach him and Lee French phrases; Keefe feels ill again.

He falls sick, is teased as the old salt by the smoker, and tells him to shut up; a sailor tells him they are entering waters full of submarines.

The sailor says submarines have targeted this very ship before; Keefe praises his new teacher over the camp instructor.

The phrases he proudly learns are actually German, which he takes for French and plans to use in restaurants.

In the danger zone he stays on deck, he says out of curiosity not fear; he jokes that they have a hell of a censor ship and is warned to watch his tongue; Lee claims a French officer understood his French.

The townspeople cheer the arriving troops; Keefe says he nobly declines to flirt back with the local girls, and says he will die fighting if it comes to that.

He mocks the identical little villages they march through and the local way of measuring distance.

The front is quiet; he dismisses talk of an enemy spring offensive as bluster, comparing it to a boastful hitter he once retired.

He complains Florrie ignores his requests for newspapers; next, a war correspondent from his hometown recognises him and interviews him.

The reporter says names cannot be printed unless a man is killed, and jokes about a soldier who is not writing a book; Keefe mentions that he writes poems.

He expects the poem to be recognised as his and asks Al to see his wife gets the royalties if he dies, since she would mock it.

Still hungry after a poor meal, he and his friend Carson go to a cheap charity canteen for a proper feed.

He returns to find his barrack-mates roaring drunk on champagne, debating whether to get the rats drunk.

The billet is nicknamed the Ark for its animals and bugs; next, he explains that allied officers pin medals on men for brave deeds or for dying.

He says only favouritism could deny him a medal, claims the locals love him, and argues they should learn his language instead of him learning theirs.

He mocks the allies' motley uniforms; the regiment is starting a weekly newspaper of news and jokes.

He says he half wishes he had never written the article, but jokes about a pair of jacks; next, he copies out his reply to the commander.

He claims he has ideas too secret to put in writing and asks for a letter ordering his captain to send him to the capital.

He closes with a poker joke about two jacks bluffing; then tells Al he hopes to stay with the regiment but will go if summoned.

He jokes about wearing a mask to escape female attention; next, he sets out his numbered notes for the commander.

He suggests moving troops at night for surprise, illustrated by a pitch that fooled a great hitter, who then hit it for two runs.

He imagines the commander listening spellbound and dreams of the officer's pay a staff job would bring.

He writes in despair that he would welcome a gas attack, so bad is his luck.

The commander turned up at the rifle practice he skipped; Keefe believes he missed his great chance, and then gets two affectionate letters from his wife that arrived a day too late.

Alcock has heard from his girl and made up with Keefe, who says nobody can stay sore at him; the next letter announces he has turned detective.

He hides the page when Shaffer searches for it; Alcock advises him to gather more evidence before reporting, to get the credit.

He copies the suspicious lines: plain love-letter abbreviations and a remark about drinking only a little wine.

He repeats Alcock's absurd claim about the number of infiltrating spies and relishes the prospect of Shaffer being shot; next, he says his case is nearly complete.

He clumsily interrogates Shaffer, who gets annoyed and says the enemy offensive may not be finished.

Shaffer jokes the enemy stops to bring up its commander; Keefe demands who told him their plans, and Shaffer says his mother-in-law and walks off.

The forged letter is a scrap of a German folk song signed with Shaffer's initials; Alcock translates it as a report of troop numbers and an attack signal.

Keefe imagines his comrades' gratitude and, on Alcock's advice, pictures himself in disguise among spies in the capital.

He fears he would have to seduce enemy agents' mistresses and break their hearts, but says he would do it if ordered.

The captain explains the crosses are kisses and the initials a lover's shorthand to a girl back home.

He has a black eye and swollen face which he blames on a fall; Shaffer, told his letter was stolen and shown about, confronted him while he read a vain letter from his wife.

Life in reserve is dull, all inspections and lice; Keefe describes a comrade nicknamed the chicken hawk who writes endless flowery letters to women, and on whom the men lay bets.

The ladies' man shows off a photograph of a Frenchwoman he hopes to see on leave; Keefe envies him and wishes he had a girl to pal around with, though he reminds himself he is married.

Told by the captain to rest while he can, Keefe declares he will stay awake because he does not trust the sentries to wake anyone in time.

There is little firing and the men joke about their silent artillery; Keefe says that if he is killed he wants to be awake for it. In a new letter Brady hands him a reply from the girl in 'Cologne'.

The patrol never came back; Keefe blames the colonel for a pointless loss, thinks of the missing men's wives, and reflects sourly that his own wife writes so seldom she would not recognise his name.

Out at the post the silence terrifies Keefe; he imagines the enemy creeping up on him, and fears his bad ears will miss an attack and he will be court-martialled.

Phillips suddenly announces out loud that this is a hell of a war and will not be hushed, insisting he has talked freely out there before.

Phillips proposes whooping like Indians to draw fire, then mooing like a cow to lure out hungry Germans; Keefe threatens to punch him.

Back safely, Keefe calls Phillips mad; the sergeant says the silence affects everyone that way and Phillips is quite sane, perhaps hinting that Keefe was being ribbed; Keefe credits himself with saving the regiment.

Keefe asked Sergeant Crane when they would be relieved and learned there is no relief, possibly all summer; when he mentioned his 'date' in 'Cologne', the sergeant smiled and said some boys were starting in that direction and he could go along.

Simon notices flares going up every night from the 'empty' trenches and asks who throws them; Brady says a flare thrower was left behind, and Simon points out they come from different places.

Alcock invents a one-legged German who rides a motorcycle up and down the line throwing flares, and answers each of Simon's objections with a more absurd explanation.

The men now call Keefe 'Papa'. In the next letter he writes, shaken, that Simple Simon has vanished overnight, and that he has promised not to tell what the men put him up to; he recalls a happy dream of arriving home.

In his dream his baby daughter was suddenly three, ran to him calling daddy, and the whole family danced together; he woke in the trench still happy.

Corporal Evans asks Keefe about Simon; Keefe starts to blame Alcock and Brady, but Evans already knows about the teasing and tells him to wait two days before saying anything that would get everybody in trouble.

He thinks of his daughter growing up fatherless and of Simon out in the dark. Five weeks later, writing from hospital with one arm useless, he boasts of the pretty nurse who wrote to Al for him and of his own endurance.

Keefe says he nearly died and the doctor praised his toughness, then begins the story of the night of June 14, recalling the jokers' tale that no man's land was safe between the flare man's rounds.

Keefe crawled slowly and silently out in the dark, and when he reached the spot and put out his hand, the man he touched was not Simon.

Keefe fought the stranger bare-handed while the man bit his hand; the man's yell drew fire from both sides and Keefe was hit three times. Weeks later he learned his opponent was his comrade Alcock, whom he boasts he beat with one fist.

Alcock, guilt-stricken, had gone out searching for Simon himself; each took the other for a German. Simon turned up half an hour later dragging a long-dead Saxon he claimed to have caught alive.

Keefe and Alcock bear no grudge; his leg is mending but his left arm may never be right, and he brags that the little nurse is in no hurry to see him go. In the next letter, from a port, he has time on his hands before sailing home.

Keefe is feted in New York and arrives home unannounced to surprise his wife, who flings herself on him, then cries over his arm; he jokes that they have each been through something.

Over drinks, a fan who is assistant manager at a department store offers to recommend Keefe as a floorwalker, a job for a well-dressed man who can smile at lady customers.

He suspects his wife's gift of a phonograph is for when he is out, and gives her a shower attachment. Next letter: Kid Gleason has been named manager, which Keefe says changes everything just as he was about to accept a business offer.

He imagines the crowds cheering the returned hero. A month later Gleason is reported coming to Chicago, and Keefe decides the real purpose of the visit must be to sign him.

Keefe vows to work his head off to prove them right, and jokes that at least travelling will let him escape the crying baby and get some sleep.

Gleason warns Keefe that he has signed several promising young right-handers and Keefe will have to hustle to keep his place; Keefe dismisses the recruits and threatens anyone who denies him a square deal.

Keefe introduces Belden, a brash young right-hander just back from France who got his chance through a recommendation, a direct rival for Keefe's place whom he dismisses on sight.

Keefe's arm feels fine in a first light workout and Gleason tells him not to overdo it; a veteran mocks Belden's wildness. On the way back the heiress offers a ride, and while Keefe hangs back smiling, Belden jumps in with her.

His wife writes that the baby has a tooth and their son misses him. Next letter: the team returns in poor form, Gleason is harsh with everyone, notes Keefe looks slower, and callously leaves a young catcher lying where a foul ball knocked him out.

Keefe admits he worked harder with his wife watching, and Gleason treats them both to wine; still, he cannot help wondering whether the heiress was in the stands.

Keefe wins before a big crowd, blaming the lone run on a fielder, and the fans present him with a travelling bag, which he takes as proof of their affection.

When Cobb triples, Keefe says he eased up out of pity; Cobb retorts that he knew it and so only bunted, a dry put-down Keefe does not recognise.

A teammate wins the first Boston game 1-0 with a gritty escape and strikes Ruth out twice, which Keefe takes as proof that Ruth is easy if pitched properly.

After beating New York, Keefe gets his promised $3,000 contract and is told to keep it quiet so others will not demand raises; he tells only his roommate Tom Dorgan, a shy third-string catcher who rarely plays.

Keefe criticises the other manager and relieves in a win. After the game the Dumonts propose a drive out of town for drinks and bring along a pretty young woman, Miss Mulvihill.

Keefe fetches the bashful Dorgan to partner Miss Mulvihill; the 'like new' car is a cramped wreck, and in the squeeze Dorgan ends up on Keefe's lap with the two women pressed beside him.

A short note: the team has just lost to Cleveland and leaves on a long road trip.

Dorgan, too timid to risk rejection, asks Keefe to write her a friendly letter boosting him and sounding her out; Keefe agrees and begins his letter.

Keefe's 'boost' tells the young woman that Dorgan has not made good, may be traded, and has faults, being slow to throw and afraid of runners sliding in.

He adds that Dorgan earns little, that Keefe always pays for their beer, that the young man is like a kid brother, and that she could do worse than give him a date.

He closes by telling her it is too late between them but they can be friends, asks her to keep the letter private and reply; he thinks he has killed two birds with one stone.

Dorgan has a date with Miss Mulvihill, which Keefe assumes she made to let him down. Next letter: Keefe wires the Detroit seller that he will buy the car after all, with others paying for most of it.

Keefe wins his game, grumbles at playing in a dry town on the last wet night before Prohibition, and envies Dorgan at home. Next letter, after the fight: 'good night car and good night everything'.

Keefe speculates about a World Series against Cincinnati and insists that after one good relief outing Gleason must start him at least once.