The Diamond Champs (6 page)

As they started walking down the six hundred block of Beaver, Eric said, “Suppose we meet the coach and he wants to know what
we're doing here? What're we going to tell him?”

Kim shrugged. “We'll be honest with him.”

Eric stared. “
Honest
with him?”

Kim looked directly at his perplexed friend. “We'll—okay,
I'll
ask him
why
he's so anxious to win the championship, and
why
he's picked
us
to play on his team. Look, he must be some kind of nut. Can you think of one single reason why he picked up a team composed
of kids whose fathers all played on the same baseball team over twenty years ago? Can you?”

Eric shook his head. “No, I can't,” he admitted. “Okay, come on. Let's get this over with before I change my mind.”

They continued on their way, and presently stopped in front of 617, a tall, three-story, gray stone building with green, peeling
shutters. A sign that seemed to be as old as the building read
ROCKVILLE APTS
.

“It's an apartment house,” observed Kim.

“Looks like an old castle,” said Eric.

Kim headed for the steps and the double
doors. Eric waited till he reached the steps, then followed him.

Gently Kim turned the knob, pushed the door in, and stepped inside, Eric at his heels. They found themselves inside a foyer
leading to a long hallway and a staircase. On the wall near the staircase was a directory with mail slots. Kim read the names,
finding only one that he recognized:
Bernard Reese—Apt. 12
.

“Eric!” he whispered. “Coach Stag's name isn't here!”

The boys looked at each other silently. “Well, what do we do now?” Eric asked finally.

“Let's see if Mr. Reese is in,” Kim suggested. “He should be able to tell us something about Coach Stag, if he will.”

Apartment 12 was on the second floor. Kim knocked on the door. No one answered. He knocked again, harder. Still no answer.

Disappointed, the boys started back
down the stairs, and saw a woman in a white print dress peering up at them.

“You boys looking for someone?” she asked.

“Mr. Reese,” replied Kim. “I guess he's not in, though.”

She smiled pleasantly. “Professor Reese, you mean. I think he's at the theater, directing a new play. Do you want to give
me your names so that I can tell him you called on him? I'm Mrs. Pierce, the landlady.”

The boys stopped halfway down the stairs, staring at her.

“
Professor
Reese?” Kim echoed.

“Yes.”

Kim hesitated. “Well, we were really looking for Mr. Gorman Stag, our baseball coach, Mrs. Pierce,” he confessed. “Professor
Reese told us that he lived here.”

The landlady paused and frowned. “Gorman Stag? I don't know of any Gorman—” She paused. Suddenly her eyes brightened. “Wait
a minute! Of course! He used to live here, but he moved! I really don't know where he moved to; he didn't tell me. A little
man with thick glasses, right?”

Kim looked at her. “We've only seen him with dark sunglasses,” he said.

“Oh, come to think of it, he did wear those sunglasses more than the plain ones,” she said. “Well, look, I must be going.
I was in the middle of doing my dishes when I heard you knocking on the door upstairs. Will you excuse me?”

“Of course,” said Kim. “Thanks, ma' am.”

She headed down the hall, and the boys headed out of the door.

“So Mr. Reese is really a professor,” mused Kim, as he and Eric hurried down the steps to the sidewalk.

“And he's directing a new play,” added Eric. “Know what? This whole thing is getting more mysterious every day.”

They reached the bus stop on the corner and waited for their bus.

Kim said, “Did you notice the change on Mrs. Pierce's face when I told her that we were really looking for Coach Stag? I think
she lied to us. I don't think that Coach Stag has ever lived in that apartment house.”

Eric gazed confusedly at him. “Why would she lie to us? She's the landlady.”

“I don't know,” said Kim. “Maybe she and Professor Reese have cooked up something about Coach Stag.”

“Why? Look, if you still think that Coach Stag is a crook—which I think is crazy—why would Professor Reese protect him?” exclaimed
Eric doubtfully. “Have you thought about that?”

Kim, looked at him, his face rigid. “Maybe Mrs. Pierce is the only other person who knows, and they're all involved in something
together,” he answered. “Eric, this sounds crazy, hut I've made up my
mind. The next time I see Professor Reese I'm going to ask him just who, or what, Coach Stag is. I don't see any reason why
we shouldn't know who he is, and why he's so darned anxious to win the championship with a team whose kids are sons and daughters
of fathers who played on the same team twenty years ago!”

It wasn't until the game against the Blue Jays that Kim saw Professor Reese again. He shored up enough courage to ask the
professor about the coach, but couldn't find the opportunity. There was always someone too close by. And Kim felt that the
question he wanted to ask the professor was of such a nature that he had to be sure no one else heard it.

The game was another close one. Going into the fifth inning, the Blue Jays were ahead, 8 - 7, and again Kim saw how the coach
was reacting. Coach Stag was visibly
worried, pacing in the small area at the side of the dugout like a caged animal.

Nick Forson's double in left center field, followed by an error by the Blue Jays' left fielder, evened up the score. Kim noticed
that the coach had stopped his pacing now, and that a look of renewed hope had returned to his face.

Eric pounded the hit that brought in the tie-breaking run. The sixth inning went scoreless, and the game went to the Steelheads,
9 - 8.

“Nice game, gang,” praised the coach, wiping the sweat beads off his lips with a handkerchief. “Winning is the key. Only two
more games to go. All we've got to do is win one of them, and the championship is ours. Isn't that great, huh? Isn't that
just great?”

Kim looked at him, and again felt that the coach was pressing the team too hard.

Why is it so important to you to win the
championship, Coach
? Kim wanted to ask him.
Who are you really, anyway
?

But he reasoned that he'd have to wait until the next game—or the game after that—to really find out.

A
WEEK LATER THE STEELHEADS
played the Blue Jays again. After having beaten them twice, the Steelheads went onto the field with the confidence that they
could repeat their win.

Kim watched the game from the bench, and after a while couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the Blue Jays come up with the
greatest game he had ever seen them play.

Two homers and three triples were included in the rampage, yet Coach Stag
let Russ Coletti pitch the entire game. And, as inning after inning went by, and the Blue Jays piled up one run after another
to the Steelheads' scattered few, Kim saw the coach sitting at the end of the bench, his arms crossed over his chest, his
face like a plastic statue's.

Coach Stag had yelled a lot to his charges during the early innings, but when he seemed to realize that his yelling was doing
no good he stopped and let the game take its course. It was as if he knew that every bit of his coaching knowledge wasn't
enough to stop the powerful—or was it lucky?—Blue Jays.

Kim saw that the professor, Bernie Reese, was sitting quietly next to the coach.
I wish he were alone
, Kim thought.
I'd ask him about Coach Stag. I'm not afraid to anymore
.

In the sixth inning the Blue Jays were leading, 13 - 4. There were two outs and Russ was up.

“Strike!” barked the ump as the Blue Jays pitcher slipped one by him.

Kim saw Coach Stag get up and leave the dugout. He saw Don gazing at the coach, the gaze lingering for a while before he glanced
back at the batter. His face looked as sad as the coach's.

Kim saw his opportunity now to speak to Professor Reese alone, and quickly went over to him.

“Professor Reese,” he said softly.

“Hi, Kim,” said the professor. “I was wondering when you'd start calling me that. Mrs. Pierce told me that you and Eric came
to see me a few days ago.”

Kim nodded. “Yes. It's about Coach Stag.” He paused, his heart pounding. “We've been wondering about him, sir.”

“I expected you would eventually,” said the professor calmly. “Especially you, since you're the only member on the team who
had played so little baseball before.”

Kim looked at him. His nerves tightened
up. He glanced briefly at the plate as a second strike was called on Russ.

“Well, those dark sunglasses that he always wears, and his kind of mysterious ways, make some of the kids think he's a crook,”
said Kim, feeling foolish the moment he said it.

Professor Reese laughed. “No, he's not a crook, Kim! He's a really fine human being! Surprisingly, he has his own reason for
doing what he's been doing during this baseball season. When he told me of his idea I wanted to talk him out of it. I thought
it was kind of silly, until he gave me his reason why he wanted to do it.”

Kim's eyes widened, and he stared at the professor.

Just then he heard a
crack
! and glanced around to see Russ's fly ball sailing out to center field. But even before he saw the fielder catch it, ending
the ball game, Kim heard Professor Reese saying, “Well, he was never allowed to play when he was a
kid because of his poor eyesight. That's why he wanted to coach a team this year, to prove to certain people that in spite
of his not ever playing baseball, he could put a special team together and win the championship.”

“Did it have something to do with our fathers' team of twenty years ago?” Kim asked.

“It did, but that's all I'll tell you now, Kim. Anyway,” the professor rose, “the game's over. There's only one more to go.
We've got to win it, or all of Coach Stag's hard work and ambition will be wasted, and he'll be heartbroken. So don't you
see, Kim? You and the rest of the team must do your best next week against the Red Arrows. You'll learn the whole story about
Coach Stag then.”

All the professor's words did was increase Kim's anxiety. Bubbling with excitement, Kim couldn't wait to get home to have
another talk with his father.

In less than two minutes he found out what he wanted to know. His heart pounding like a hammer, he gathered up a pencil and
paper and began to figure out Coach Stag's true identity.

Finally the day of the Red Arrows - Steelheads game arrived. Knowing now why Coach Stag wanted so desperately to win the championship,
Kim was glad that he was playing. And he'd play his heart out, too, he promised himself.

The Red Arrows had first bats.

“Get 'em outa there, Doug!” Kim yelled in right field.

“Breeze it by him, ol' boy!” cried A. J.

Right off, the Arrows' Mick Davis connected with a single, then advanced to second as Hank Stone drove a blistering grounder
through third-baseman Eric Marsh's legs. After that Doug seemed to try pitching more cautiously, throwing to the outside corner
to Jim Kramer. The
pitches were balls, and Jim didn't bite. Then Doug laid one directly over the heart of the plate, and—
Crack
! Jim smashed it to right center for a double, scoring two runs.

“Bear down in there, Doug!” yelled Kim as catcher Ken Dooley stepped into the batter's box.

Ken, the Red Arrows' long-distance hitter, looked menacing as he waved his bat over his shoulder, his eyes centered on Doug.

Doug blazed a strike by him. Ken swung at the next and missed it for strike two. Then he blasted a high fly to center field,
which Cathy got under and caught easily.

Fred Tuttle, up next, singled to continue the Red Arrows' relentless drive, scoring Jim. Joe Fedderson belted a streaking
grounder to short that Brad fumbled, leaving Joe safe at first and Fred on second. Then Duke lambasted a long drive to right
center field that he tried to stretch into a triple. But Eric, catching Jo Franklin's throw after she had caught Kim's peg
from deep right, tagged out Duke as the Red Arrow runner tried to slide past him. Two outs.

Eddie Noles continued the batting spree with a sharp single over second. But that was it as Jack Moon, the Red Arrows' left-handed
pitcher, went down swinging.

“Five to nothing!” Larry exclaimed as he and Kim came trotting in to the dugout. “Man! That's some start!”

“You should've taken me out, Coach,” said Doug dismally as he flung his glove against the dugout wall. “Everything I threw
they hit.”

“Okay. Now it's our turn,” said the coach. “And remember, it's our last game. It's the big one. Win this, and we'll have a
party that's a
party
!”

Kim smiled at him.
Coach
, he wanted to
say,
I don't know how you got away with it all this time. But you certainly did. And I'm sorry I doubted your motives before. After
finding out what they are, I'm with you all the way
!