Chapter 46 The Dreamers

Chapter 46

Gloria, Gus, Mary, and I had a wonderful dinner and went back to my condo. It had two big bedrooms with a sleep sofa in the living room. I slept there giving my guests the two bedrooms.

Saturdays' game was a two-o'clock start so we could have breakfast before I left for the park at 10AM. Gloria called her Mom and told her the news of our engagement.

Gloria and her Mom thought about a wedding date and both decided that, if I didn't mind, they saw no reason to wait very long, unless I wanted to wait until after the season was over. We would talk about it tomorrow. It might be difficult since there were not many days off the rest of the season. They even thought about a double wedding with Becky Lollar and Dave Bolton in October.

Back in Chicago the liberal press was all over the Metro Police about the execution of Motown Matthews and his thugs. The community, as a whole, was not upset at all, much to their surprise. It seemed that the press was less concerned about the real innocent victims than they were about the real hoodlums. There was a rash of talk shows and Sunday Morning community programs centered on this whole ordeal. It became clearer that the community had no sympathy for Motown or his men, period. They felt justice was served.

It certainly didn't bother Mookie or Marvin. They called Sergeant Jenkins and asked if he wanted them to do anything else. He told them not at the moment, but that he would appreciate seeing them about once a month, just to keep in touch with what was going down in the neighborhood. They appreciated that he cared enough to do that for them. All Mookie wanted was a safe place for Dwight to grow up in and be able to safely ride the bike Bob and Sergeant Jenkins had given his son.

They also liked the idea of the basketball league being cleaned up. They felt with Motown gone, so would the drug deals and the pimping. They just had to keep an eye out for someone else trying to take over.


The Monarchs continued to breeze through the league. My record moved to twelve and three and Jack's to 11 and two. Tavy continued his assault with eight more homers and twenty-three RBI's for the month. I also continued to hit over .300 and added another six homers myself. We went into the last week of the season tied with the Orioles for first place. The third place team was nine games out. It was to be between the Orioles and us for the A.L. East Crown.

The City was buzzing. Madison had clinched their pennant over the weekend. They had a twelve game lead, continuing to be the class of the league in spite of loosing three of their best players. Buck did a good job of keeping the team focused and helping the new players fit right in.

For the New York club the last three games were against the Orioles. It was going to come down to head to head play, for sure. We swept our three games with the Brewers while the Orioles took two out of three from the Indians. With a one game lead we would have to loose all of our games with the Orioles to not, at least, force a one game playoff. I was to start Friday night's contest, a 7PM start.

Jack was moved back to Sunday, in case that game proved to be critical. Red thought he could use an extra day off as he seemed to be getting tired having lost about five miles an hour off his fastball the last week or so. It had been a long and emotionally draining season for all of us. An extra day couldn't hurt.

I breezed through the Orioles for four innings not giving up a hit. In the top of the fifth Chris Hoiles, the Oriole catcher took me deep to left giving the Orioles a one to nothing lead. In the Yankee half of the fifth, I led off the inning with a sharp single into right center. Tavy took the count full, but fouled out to third.

Ruben Santos made up for it with a triple into left center with me scoring, tying up the game. The Monarch catcher took care of the rest with a towering homer into the monuments on the first pitch giving us a three to one lead and all the runs I would need for the night.



I pitched eight strong innings giving up four hits, striking out seven and walking only one. Hack Johnson closed out the ninth for his thirty-second save. The Monarch clubhouse was ecstatic with our two game lead. The Orioles had to win tomorrow, but it was not to be.

We came out bombing with four homers in the first four innings and climbed out to a six to nothing lead. All Scott Marsch had to do now was keep the ball in the ball park, which he did. The final score was: Monarchs 8, Orioles 2. It was over.

The Monarchs had come back from being eleven games out. Red Dodge and we new Madison players did it. We played not only like we belongs here, but like true champions. Our workman like attitude rubbed off on the older players. Red did a wonderful job with the older players and by not showing any favoritism to his own boys. The team respected that.

George offered Red a contract extension of two years, which he accepted with the condition that Gus Lollar could join him in some capacity, but only if Gus wanted. George agreed.

George offered Jack and Jon very nice bonuses with their two year contract offers. Jack and Jon signed immediately. I was already signed for 2 more years, which was part of my huge bonus package.

Gloria and I, after talking to Becky and Dave Bolton, decided to have a double ceremony back in Madison after the season was over.

We two couples had grown so close; it just seemed like the natural thing to do. It would even give us more time to plan a honeymoon which we would NOT take with Becky and Dave, no matter how much we liked them. Gloria and I wanted some real time alone. This had been some year for everybody.

We lost in the playoffs to the Oakland A's in a tough seven game series. Jack and I both win one to nothing games, and then I win five to one, and Jack gets a no decision.

It was still a great season and gave the Monarchs great hope for the future. The Monarch bullpen let us down in three of the losses. There would be changes made there in the off-season for sure.