48.) Liberty City, 23.5.1894, Clarke, a better ballplayer than a humen being

We won the Wed game 10-5 over the Reds. We nailed them with 17 hits. Their 6th defeat in a row (after 13 wins in a row). Thursday we are to bat against the legendary Paul Clarke. Legendary and strange that's was best describes him. He's a knuckleballer and a strikeout pitcher, a short man, all-time leader in wins, four time winner of the Best Pitcher Award.
I know the man a little from my off-seasons that I spend in Liberty City. To stay in shape during the winter i always look for pick up games somewhere in the city, you meet fellow senior leaguers there, together with promising kids from the neighborhood.
Clarke sets up a couple of games a week, or rather his entourage sets them up for him. For he's surrounded by some 10 "friends" at all times. They run errands for him, ask girls to come to Clarke's table in the restaurant where he spends most of his day. And they invite players to join in practice games with Clarke. These are very sought after invitations, I felt lucky then, to get them occasionally (that later changed). Clark would pitch 3 innings, then play the outfield for another 3 or so and then head for the showers and his restaurant table (always reserved for him). Never would he socialize with the players on the field, but sometimes he would ask some to join him for dinner (or have them asked by his boys). The only words he said to me on the ballfield was "Nice job, kid", after I caught his three innings. The Clarke pick up games usually turned out to be rather somber affairs, players that for some reason displeased Clarke were send away on the spot, games abruptedly  terminated  during innings when it suited Clarke. In short he showed himself to be a rather bad sport. That was the reason I avoided him, if I ever could after the first few games.

They got a 3-0 lead after 5 innings and our hopes to score 3 runs against Clarke were.....none. But we got them!! 3-3 after 9 innings. Bottom of the 10th Monty Wallace pitched for us, but he already had pitched the 9th, so we wondered how long he could hold up.
it tuned out to be not for long, he gave up a HR to Gary Mier with one out and that was it. In spite of this we gained a lot of confidence from this game and head home now.