12 Sports Aces, May 1943 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SPIKE THAT MAN OUT! id Madge says to give you the same as al- ways.” “Yeah, I been thinkin’ of you with her, Lou. Not too much, now. You got an ap- peal about you with that gray hair be- - ginning to sprout over your ears.” Lou Bracker’s grin faded. He was go- ing to tie into the pitcher when a couple of newspaper men came up. They wanted pictures of the Blues manager and the warden. “An’ me?” Lefty Boyle sneered and walked away. The game started after the National Anthem was played. Lou’ Bracker crouched near the visitors’ bench and watched Lefty Boyle open it by striking out Spider Thurneau. He watched him work on Lombard and force him to pop to the Zebra catcher. It was sweet to watch a real artisan work at his trade. It was heartbreaking to think he was penned up in the big house where his tal- ents were going to waste. ~ Stahl couldn’t do a thing with Lefty _and.the Blues went out on the field. A lot of boos came from the stands and the Zebra jockeys got to work. Guards were everywhere, eyes wandering, and Lou looked up at the gun towers and pressed his lips hard together. Yount worked for the Blues. Two Zeb- ras got on in their half, but died when the big league hurler bore down. The game went on into the seventh before a run was scored. Lefty Boyle had struck out seven Blues and had allowed three hits until Mexler poled a home run al- most out of the prison into the Hudson. “Let me go after that ball,” Lefty yelled. Lou couldn’t laugh with the others. The Zebra infield collapsed behind Letty. Three errors loaded them up and Kurst, the Blue catcher, scratched a hit past third to score two runs. In the eighth, the prison team got to Yount for enough to tie it up. : OU BRACKER, with the Blues up for the first half of the ninth, watched Lefty throw his fireball past Lombard and Stahl. The long portsider never leoked better. Mexler came up again and got his second hit. He went 11 Do Der Bs Ger Ore Dor See Orr Doe Por Pre Pook ee Der Ger Bor Goe Her Pre Borer DrrGerO Or BrrGr Grr G wOr Pr GorG>s o all the way to third when the Zebra short- stop threw high over first base. Lefty Boyle grinned at Lou when the Blue man- ager came up for his cut. “Nice support,” Lefty called down the line. “Like them lawyers give me, Lou.” Lou swung at one he couldn’t see and got a piece of the ball on the end of his bat. It was a grass cutter toward first and the Zebra first baseman did not come up with it. Mexler scored. The game end- ed that way. Lefty Boyle had struck out eleven big leaguers and had given up four hits. His pitching would have been a near-shutout with even half a ball club behind him. Lou Bracker had a talk with Lefty in the warden’s office after the game. He said, “You’ll be out in a couple of years, pal. You'll still be young. You can keep that arm limbered up here. Keep pitch- ing—” “Call me by number in here,” Lefty Boyle said bitterly. “Look, Lou, I want to get out like a little animal you see in a cage in any zoo. Not to pitch against a lot of jerks in monkey suits. Look up there—listen to it. A plane, Lou. There’s a war on and I’m cooped up here. It’ll be over when I get out. “Sure, I got a nasty break, but that don’t say I don’t want to be up there in a dive bomber or a P-40, I want to pitch against those Japs, Lou. Against the lousy Nazis. Nuts to wishing for base- ball again. “T never laid a hand on Charlie Kriger. I took the five C’s to him and paid him off. He was going to turn the paper stuff over to me the next morning. He had them locked up in his office. His word was good enough for me.” “Take it easy,” Lou said. “You get some screwy deals sometime, Lefty. You got to play them the way they fall.” Lefty Boyle turned away from the win- dow for the bomber was out of sight. The hunger in the young eonvict’s eyes tore at Lou Bracker’s leathery heart. Lefty suddenly grinned. “Tell Spider to send me that twenty bucks. I bet him I’d whiff ten of you babies.” ‘Lou Bracker said, “Sell gambling, comichbook (E(0) 5