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AND THEN THERE WAS ONE GAME…
EXTRA! EXTRA!
EPIBLOGUE
Harry:
It was quite a year, my friend. I’m so glad we were able to pal around, make something good of the season after our slow start, and I can’t thank you enough for being there for me while I was going through this “Markie” saga.
Lilah Edelstein is having a glass of wine across from me now in my room at the Leland, after a long bath and putting on some new clothes I got for her. She looks even more fetching than I imagined she might after the big rescue last night. Her journey matches the one “Markie” wrote me about episode by episode, except for the part she left out about that Nazi officer Krupp making advances at her back in August.
Her younger brother was literally bullied to death by Jew-hating schoolmates last year—he “fell off” the roof of a building—and the best way she found to remember him was by following the sport he loved and liked to play with her. Poor Uncle Zeb’s trip to Michigan brought back Tigers souvenirs for her too, but girls just didn’t play baseball or any sports in their village, and she grew a crush on me and was afraid I would never write her back if I thought her too “boyish”.
So here we are. And there we were this afternoon at the last game of the season against the Indians. The news about me and Lilah and Rolf Grund was all over the papers, and the Babe showing up on Eagle Avenue to wield his bat gave it an even bigger splash. You couldn’t get another fan into League Park with an oiled-up crowbar.
You probably noticed Ruth sitting with Lilah behind our dugout. Well, he spent most of the game either signing autographs or fending off reporters, photographers, and busybodies. Her purring German accent and sweet eyes were doing a number on me, even from the stands. When I was out playing first base, I was staring at her between nearly every pitch! Me break the Babe’s home run record? I was barely even myself.
And neither was the team, right? I mean, Auker couldn’t even get out of the 1st inning and the Tribe was up 15-0 by the 5th! I was useless, whiffing, lining out, whiffing again and grounding into a double play with the bases loaded in the 7th. In the top of the 9th, down 17-2, I had one more chance to break the record if one person in our lineup reached base.
Then that miracle happened, as Birdie Tebbets pinch-hit with two outs and was safe on the error by Johnny Allen. I walked up to huge applause and dug into the box. Everyone in the park was standing. I could even hear people sitting behind Lilah in the grandstand serenading her with “Here Comes the Bride.” Allen was angry about flubbing that grounder, and stared in at me like a killer. He fell behind 2-0. I rubbed more dirt on my hands. He tried his fastball, I gave it a rip—
—and popped it high in the infield. Odell Hale nabbed it behind second and the game, the season, and my race to pass the Bambino were over.
Ruth took Lilah and me out later for dinner and drinks. He has German heritage so naturally he was trying to get chummy with her, and I had to beat him back before long. We’ve been invited to attend the World Series and I may even write a guest column for the Baseball Gazette and Dope Sheet! The Giants backed into the National league pennant on Friday, and they should have a good battle with the Red Sox. Wish I could bring you along, Harry, but I’m sure you’re eager to start your relaxing off-season and anyway, as the Babe has been proving, three’s a crowd.
I’m not sure how things with Lilah will turn out. I’m only 27 so she isn’t that much younger than me, but there’s all kinds of complications other than language. First thing I have to do is help her get legally situated in America, which will be kind of a chore with all the attention we’re getting. I already heard a rumor someone might write a play or motion picture about us.
Spring training 1939 already can’t come soon enough…
Hank
10.2.38
A LEAGUE OF MY OWN
October 1, 1938
Dear Mom,
By now you’ve probably heard or read all about it, but I thought I’d put down on paper the details of how crazy these last few days have been.
After I got Rolf Grund’s ransom letter on Tuesday, I met with Harry after the game to figure out how we’d save young Markie. Contacting the law was definitely out of the question for the time being, and I was sure capable of scraping up fifty thousand in cash. On the other hand, there was no way we wanted to give in to this monster.
So we went about our business in our last two home games with the Browns before leaving for Cleveland, and boy did I mean business. Even though they shellacked us 8-1 on Wednesday, I smashed homer no. 59 off Russ Van Atta.
The Babe himself was sitting behind our dugout on Thursday, looking great in a big overcoat and plaid cloth cap, and he shouted encouragement to me the entire game. We fell behind Lefty Mills 5-3 through six but scored one in the 7th and one in the 8th to tie. I was 3-for-3 with two doubles when I led off the last of the 10th with Mills still on the mound. “PICK YOURSELF A NICE PLUM, KID!” I could hear Babe yell through the wild crowd noise. Lefty wound and threw and I put a crack on it. The ball flew high and deep toward the stands in left. Mazzera gave it a good leap but it was well over his glove and I had TIED THE BAMBINO’S RECORD and won the game all at once and everyone was mobbing me and Harry who had taken over for Bridges in the 10th even got the win!
Reporters wouldn’t leave me alone on the train to Ohio later, which was tough because all I wanted to do was get with Harry to figure out our Markie rescue game plan. I still hadn’t heard from Grund with any instructions.
And I didn’t hear any the next morning. It wasn’t until Rudy York had clubbed his 50th homer at League Park on Friday and we’d beaten the Indians excitingly with two in the top of the 10th, I found a pack of German cigarettes inside my locker. Inside was a slip of paper:
6:00 SAT NIGHT AT BENCH BEFORE E. 9TH ST PIER OR DEAD SYNAGOGUE. BRING ALL MONEY AND NO POLICE. I HAVE WHITE HAT AGAIN.
I had no idea what “dead synagogue” meant but it sure sounded like another threat to Markie if I didn’t come through. Anyway, the new plan was to have Tony Piet and Don Ross, two of our benchwarmers who probably weren’t going to play, duck out of League Park around the 6th inning, stake out the pier for us and report back if they saw Grund there.
Our meaningless game with the Tribe was suddenly very tense, and not because I had a chance to break the Babe’s record. The Yanks had lost the pennant two days ago, so every New York writer was stuffed into the League Park press box, Ruth was posing for pictures with me almost up to the first pitch, and the grandstand and bleachers in left were packed with bodies and noise.
Anyway, we were down 1-0 and scored three times in the 3rd. Cleveland went ahead 4-3 but we leapfrogged them with a huge seven-run 5th. I had a double and a walk in three tries off Earl Whitehill and no homer, but the good news was that we had a 10-4 lead and the game would probably be over quick, giving me a chance to get down to the pier ahead of time.
So naturally George Gill fell apart in the 7th, and the Indians sent nine men to the plate in an endless inning that saw them score five times and cut it to a one-run game. Harry took a phone call from Tony and Don in the middle of the 8th and said they saw a “suspicious guy walking around in a white hat who looked a little German.” Great, and now our game wouldn’t end.
Harry actually took the mound for the bottom of the 9th and Keltner led off with a single. I stood out there at first totally helpless. The sun was already starting to go down. I walked over to Harry, gave him some spirited talk. Rollie Hemsley stepped in and lined out to Gehringer. Odell Hale was next, and he hit a screamer just to my right. I backhanded the ball on the fly, dove at Keltner and tagged him on the ankle before he could get back. Game over!
I still had a chance to hit no. 61 on Sunday, so naturally the Bambino wanted to go drinking with me afterwards, but I said I was meeting someone down by the water so maybe later. I loaded up a Tigers athletic bag until it looked stuffed, left Harry behind and jumped in a taxi.
* * *
During the Great Lakes Exposition the last two years, the East 9th Street Pier served as one of the centennial celebration’s entrances, but now it was nearly shut down, and a new road called the Lakefront Highway was about to take its place. A few citizens were still strolling around, but Tony and Don walked up with grim expressions when I arrived.
“We lost him, but I don’t think it was him anyway,” said Tony. “Don asked him for a match and he sounded more like an Okie than a kraut.” I wasn’t due to meet Grund for another half hour, but shooed my teammates away. As far as they knew I was just meeting a German sports bookie, but if Grund was watching and thought they were cops it could’ve been a disaster.
The minutes crawled by. A gloomy haze settled over Lake Erie. There were two kids nearby whipping rocks into the water. Each of them took turns looking over at me. I was getting nervous, and felt very out of my league. As six p.m. rolled around they suddenly walked over, with one of the kids quickly taking out a piece of paper.
“Not a great time for an autograph, boys—” I said, and then stopped when I saw the same scrawl I’d seen earlier on a similar scrap of paper.
“A man told us to give you this,” said one of the boys, and they ran off. I carefully opened the note:
EAGLE AVE DEAD SYNAGOGUE
I hurried up to a busier road and flagged down another cab. Showed him the note.
“Do you know what this means?”
He frowned for what seemed forever. “Maybe the freight yard. They’ve started tearing down buildings over on Eagle and one of them’s a Jew church.”
“Get me over there.”
* * *
It was a 19th century synagogue, in total pre-demolition disrepair. Several abandoned freights and a few passenger cars filled the adjoining alley. The area was being used as a city transportation graveyard.
Then I heard a muffled cough inside the temple. I braced myself, slowly walked up to the half open wooden doors…
And Rolf Grund stepped outside.
“Guten abend again, Hank. The cash money please.”
“First you hand over Markie.”
He sneered. “Nein. First I see the money.”
I zipped open the bag, gave him a flash of a view. It was getting dark, and there was no way he could make out the rosin bags, chewing tobacco and stirrups from where he was standing.
“Happy? Now give me Markie please.”
“Bring me the bag. I did not see it good enough.”
I hesitated. He took out a revolver and pointed it at me. “We will try this again, oaf-man. The bag.”
I tightened my grip on it. Took a big step toward him, swung the thing and knocked the gun out of his hand. It fell behind a crate. We struggled but he scrambled to his feet and put a shoe in my face. He grabbed the gun again, held it on me as he kneeled and zipped open the bag again. His face reddened.
“Ha ha yes. Nice big joke. You think I am a stupid one, Hank? Adolf Hitler and my people will soon be taking over weak countries that get in our way and then we will check on the laughing. That is smart, not stupid. You insult me with your—”
WHACK! The bat whipped out of the shadows behind him. Caught Grund just above the right ear and turned half of his head into hairy, bloody jelly. It was a 40-ouncer, but in the Babe’s hand looked like a big match stick.
“Helluva way to celebrate a win, kid” he said, as Harry appeared behind him with a big grin, half elated and half guilty for spilling the beans to Ruth. “Ready for those ice cold beers now?”
“Maybe. Stay right here.”
I darted inside the synagogue. Like most of the outside, it was in shambles, but a spot of rising moonlight was coming through the windows. I thought I could hear labored breathing.
“Markie?”
Then the same muffled cough I thought was Grund’s. It was coming from behind the altar. I quickly made my way up the dusty steps. Saw a figure curled up there, gagged, hands and feet bound with twine and looped around a small rail.
“Markie? Is it you?”
The figure managed to roll over and face me. She had long, dirty brown hair, a thin pale face, and gorgeous green eyes that added to the moonlight. I ripped off the gag and saw she was in her early 20s and despite a hungry, desperate appearance, was astonishingly beautiful.
“Hello Hank,” she said weakly, “I am Lilah.”
The name rang an instant bell. “You’re Markie’s sister!” I started undoing her bound wrists. “Where is—”
“He isn’t. I am him now. Since he died a year ago I have been him…” She embraced me. “I am your writing friend, Hank.”
UNDER A LELAND DOOR
9.27.38
Harry:
I don’t know what to do. Been waiting a day or two here for a letter or a phone call or a telegram from Markie and just plain nothing. I even went to the train station after our Browns game yesterday and cooled my heels for a few hours waiting for the next express from Chicago. I was even wondering if he got off in Gary or somewhere else by accident.
Then I just found this under my door at the Leland:
NOW THAT WE ARE CLOSE TO YOU, LISTEN GOOD HANK. MEET ME THIS SATURDAY IN CLEVELAND WITH FIFTY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS AND “MARKIE” WILL BE HANDED TO YOU. IF YOU DON’T COME THROUGH OR YOU CONTACT THE POLICE YOUR YOUNG FREUND WILL BE FOUND DEAD IN THE LAKE ERIE. I AM NOT THE KIDDING ONE THIS TIME. I WILL GET YOU MORE INSTRUCTIONS THEN.
ROLF “STEIN” GRUND
Hank—
Isn’t this the same guy you met in New York two months ago? That stinkin animal! You HAVE to go the cops, right? How will he even know if you do?
—Harry
Harry:
I don’t know, but can I even take that chance? I think I have to come through with the cash! It’s a kid’s life at stake here. Maybe if I can break Ruth’s record before then the reporters will lay off and I can get away to meet this creep.
You’re nuts. If anything there’s gonna be MORE reporters on you. Let me think about this for a day or two while you concentrate on those Brownie meatballs.
HOT OFF THE WEEK TWENTY-THREE PRESS
RIGHT ON TRACK
Dear Hank,
I am in Louisville in Kentucky! The train we are on stopped here for half of an hour so I got off it to quickly mail this.
Mr. Stein found me in that Georgia jail the day after he was left off that bus and paid money to get me out. I was sure glad he had some! He has been very nice and says he will put me on a Detroit train from Chicago as soon as we get there. It was too bad we went the wrong way on the bus but that is what happens when you don’t know directions in a new country.
A newspaper here said you hit two more home runs today and are up to 57 now! That is great news and I look forward to shaking your hand about it soon.
When I know when the train to Detroit happens I will write you again. Maybe even try a telephone call!
Your friend,
Markie
21 September 1938
Dear Hank,
I received your letter about helping you out, but unfortunately I am very busy with new classes and teachers and schoolwork here at Wayne so that would make it impossible at the moment. I wish you luck getting together with your little friend.
Also, I think I mentioned last time I am dating someone special, so having dinner out with you probably wouldn’t be the best idea either.
Best of luck catching the Babe and take care,
—Marjorie Nash
Sept. 22
SPRUNG FROM THE COOP
SEPT. 19, 1938
TO: H. GREENBERG, ℅ DETROIT TIGERS
FROM: S. GLASSMAN, ATTORNEY AT LAW, ATLANTA, GA
VISITED JAIL IN MARIETTA. “MARKIE” EDELSTEIN GONE. HAD ALREADY BEEN LET OUT IN CUSTODY OF A MR. STEIN. PUBLIC DISTURBANCE FINE PAID FOR IN FULL. RUMOR THEY WERE HEADED TO TRAIN STATION BUT CAN NOT CONFIRM. GLAD TO BE OF ASSISTANCE. GIVE REGARDS TO RABBI FRANK.
Dear Marjorie,
I’m guessing you are back at Wayne State by now. If so, I have a small favor I could use your help with if you have the time.
Maybe you’ve heard about the ten-year-old boy from Austria who I’ve been writing letters with. Anyway, he has finally made it to the States and I think he’s traveling up this way by train but until I hear from him it’s hard to know exactly where he’s going. If there’s any way you can meet him when he gets here and “take him under your wing” for a short time, that would be great. We’re still deep in this very long home stand all week against the Athletics and Indians, and as I’m sure you’re aware I’m going after the Babe’s homer record and I have reporters all over me every day.
Hope you’re doing well. I haven’t received any “home run cartoons” from you in a while. Remember that a fine dinner out is coming your way if you can help me. Or even if you can’t.
Best,
Hank
9.20.38
Dear Hank 