Ring Lardner Tonight: Chapter II of "You Know Me Al" -- The Busher Comes Back!

I ain't had no fair deal Al and I ain't going to no Frisco. I will quit the game first and take that job Charley offered me at the billiard hall.

-- from Jack's April 29 letter, the last of Chapter I

by Ken

As we left "the busher," at the end of Chapter I of You Know Me Al, hard-throwing rookie pitcher Jack Keefe's first tour of duty with the Chicago White Sox had come to a sudden and inglorious end after less than a month, with this news imparted to his friend Al Blanchard back home in Bedford, Indiana:

Well Al it's all over. The club went to Detroit last night and I didn't go along. [Manager] Callahan told me to report to [team owner Charles] Comiskey this morning and I went up to the office at ten o'clock. He give me my pay to date and broke the news. I am sold to Frisco.

("Frisco" was at the time, c 1914, a minor-league team in the Pacific Coast League.) [UPDATE: I realize I've made the old San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League sound like ancient history. In fact, the Seals remained active in the PCL through 1957, when they were bumped by the relocation of the New York Giants to San Francisco for the 1958 season, playing their first two seasons in Seals Stadium, until the funhouse that was Candlestick Park was finished. As of the 1958 season the Seals moved to Arizona and, affiliating with the major-league team that sent them packing, became the Phoenix Giants -- until Phoenix got its major-league franchise in 1998. Come to think of it, I suppose 1957 sounds approximately as ancient to most folks today as 1914. Never mind.]


WAS THIS THE END FOR JACK?
TO FIND OUT, CLICK HERE

YOU KNOW ME AL I: A Busher's Letters Home

John Lardner's Introduction (1958): Part 1 and Part 2
Chapter I: A Busher's Letters Home --
Part 1, Preface and Jack's letters of Sept. 6 and Dec. 14 and 16
Part 2, The busher reaches the bigs -- March 2, 7, 9, and 16
Part 3: Countdown to Opening Day -- March 26 and April 1, 4, 7, and 10
Part 4: The busher makes his big-league debut -- April 11 and 15
Part 5: A major development for Jack -- April 19, 25, and 29

THURBER TONIGHT (including BENCHLEY, BOB AND RAY, WILL CUPPY, WOLCOTT GIBBS, RING LARDNER, PERELMAN, JEAN SHEPHERD, and E. B. WHITE TONIGHT): Check out the series to date

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