OCR Text |
Show Why We Cry Butch and Fenn Stories 104 But for all this, we don't resent Keith. There are a lot of kids who can't or don't play ball; he is just one of them. Unfortunately, he is the one with a coach for a father. Mr. Gurber has played Keith every inning of the fourteen game schedule and will certainly play him every inning of the last game. Three times during the season, Gurber has taken Fenn aside and told him not to come to the next evening's game. I guess Fenn's presence on the bench is some kind of little tiny guilt for the guy. However, Gurber does have half a point. Fenn can't see. But Keith can't play. It is all a toss up which Fenn has lost, at least this summer. Finally, Fenn puts his root beer mug down on the counter and prints three or four wet rings in front of him. "I go to the practices because they're practices. And I'm on the team." He phrases it carefully because he knows that all Butch is trying to do is get into it again, the old argument about how much he hates little league. I know that Butch hates it because it's something you have to join, and because parents are involved. But he always just mutters: "Organized sports." He says it the way others say "Devil Worship." "How can that be," he goes on, "Organized sports. It's a nonsense phrase! It's a contradiction. It's like organized religion, for chrissakes." |