by Lee Gutkind
Unbeknownst to Met management, National League umpires had been feeding and caring for two kittens in the umpires’ room. Responsibility for the kittens was passed on to each crew moving into New York through the final days of the year. The kittens were gray and fuzzy; caterpillar-like, they crawled and wriggled, clawing at tables, towels and clothes, and Harvey, Wendelstedt, Williams and Dale were watching them closely. They danced from Wendelstedt’s arms to Dale’s legs to Williams’s lap to Harvey’s shoulder, pausing briefly to be fondled by each new set of hands.
At first, the umps weren’t actually laughing, but their faces glowed with pleasure. Simultaneously, unconsciously, they moved closer together, each man lightly touching another so that the kittens had an unbroken chain of arms and laps and shoulders to travel. The four men giggled, grinned, then finally they started laughing, increasing the pace, bouncing the kittens back and forth from man to man.
Suddenly they stopped. Without looking at each other, they realized they were touching, and that real men, good, old-fashioned, down-home, American men, weren’t supposed to touch, that it was wrong to touch. And then, on the same abbreviated beat, they parted, sidling back to their own corners and cubbyholes, assuming their practiced impersonal detachment. But I felt it for a split second and I’m sure they felt it, too, a brief spiritual and physical intimacy.
I remember. I did not feel isolated or abandoned. From the start it was clear that I was not a part—could never be an integral part—of their world of balls, bats, tobacco juice and sun-baked dust. A stranger, I had been welcomed into their world, tolerated politely, permitted to observe and record, but never to share.
I was a horse blanket amoung four men in blue.
November 26, 1974
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
About the Author
Lee Gutkind has been recognized by Vanity Fair as “the godfather behind creative nonfiction.” A prolific writer, he has authored and edited over twenty-five books, and is the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary magazine to publish only narrative nonfiction. Gutkind has received grants, honors, and awards from numerous organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Science Foundation. A man of many talents, Gutkind has been a motorcyclist, medical insider, sports expert, sailor, and college professor. He is currently distinguished writer in residence in the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at Arizona State University and a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 1999 by Lee Gutkind
Cover design Tammy Seidick
978-1-4804-7146-7
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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